Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
These heroes will rip you a new one
The game your PS5 is waiting for.
Dimensions in which you can even find a PlayStation 5 have been scarce, and while there are great games on the system, not many have really forced it to show us what it’s capable of. Thankfully, our two galactic heroes are here to make one noisy landing – because Rift Apart has all the bells and whistles. Beyond being a PS5 must-play, this is a game that hasn’t even been possible until now.
Ratchet & Clank have been unlikely saviours of the universe many times since their 2002 PS2 debut. Rift Apart starts with the pair attending a parade in their honour in Megapolis. It’s a cute introduction that sees the twosome jumping across floats that summarise their origins in a tongue-incheek fashion, explaining how a lombax mechanic on a backwater planet teamed up with a defective killer robot to thwart evil, and then did it again, and again, and again.
While you’ll still be leaping between platforms and blasting sweet heck out of enemies with over-the-top guns, the opening makes you realise this is a spacefaring adventure like no other. It almost feels like a cop-out to say that Rift Apart feels like an animated movie you can play, but there’s no other way to put it. When Dr Nefarious attempts to steal The Dimensionator that’s part of the parade, lively cutscenes integrate seamlessly into hands-on action, transitions lingering in the right ways to keep everything flowing.
ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
The SSD isn’t only used to make cutscenes smoother and more detailed, it’s also core to Rift Apart’s action. After Dr Nefarious’ scheme goes wrong (what’s new?), breaches between dimensions begin to open up all over the place, some of which Ratchet can use to move instantly from point to point. It might sound like a grapple,
Rift Apart feels like an animated movie you can play.
but it’s more than that. These cracks in the universe glow purple, and when targeted from a distance pull part of the level through the hole over to Ratchet, rather than him to it.
It’s so slick it almost feels unreal, and gives you a buzz that you’ll feel regularly as long as the game lasts. You’re still going from point to point like you might with a grapple, but it’s punchier and offers a different cadence (and actual grapple points you swing between are present too).
Rifts aren’t only used to progress. They can also lead you to out-of-the-way bonus areas and collectibles, and litter most big arenas where you have to tackle waves of enemies. Whether you’re facing Goons-4-Less mercenaries, evil robots, or giant T-Rex-like aliens, you can use rifts to outflank them, create breathing space, or just cover more ground as you rain down destruction with Ratchet’s latest arsenal of delights. Rifts become a common part of the shooting action.
Not all rifts are distant ones you hook toward. Some can be opened up to travel through directly, often in chase sequences or boss fights (only rarely hurling you into an intermediary void, despite what preview footage had us fearing). At other times you stumble upon cracks that you can open up to reveal pocket dimensions. Step through one, and you walk into a dreamlike challenge space, TARDISstyle. Complete the optional gauntlet (such as jumping between TNT crate platforms, or a sequence of tricky wall-runs) in one of these and you’re rewarded with a piece of armour. You can use these to dress up either lombax (more on the other one in a bit), and they offer passive buffs even if you don’t strap them on to complement your big weapons.
NOT IN KANSAS
So, who aside from Ratchet will be curling their paws around some high-grade firearms, you might ask. Just as Dr Nefarious’ plan seems foiled, he escapes to a dimension where he always wins. Following him, Ratchet and Clank are separated and the latter pairs off with Ratchet’s dimensional doppelgänger, Rivet, a leader in the resistance against her own Emperor Nefarious.
Throughout the story you frequently switch between the two lombaxes – each planet is essentially linked to one character – while they communicate along the way and sometimes trade their sidekicks. The story won’t win any Oscars (besides this one, of course), but it’s a space romp filled with fun characters, twists and turns, and humorous dialogue (which feels a bit more on point than 2016’s attempt).
Beside Ratchet and Rivet, other characters get plenty of time to shine. Some of these are completely new faces, while others are unique takes on old ones (the eye-roll-inducing Captain Quark has an equivalent in Captain Quantum, for example). Clank gets some playable time in the form of aetherial puzzle challenges that are sufficiently challenging to be engaging (and are completely skippable from the menu), or cute lil’ spiderrobo Glitch who can take on viruses shoot’em-up-style
to open some computer terminals for you.
TRIGGER HAPPINESS
Ratchet’s and Rivet’s levels and goals may differ, but the way they play feels mostly the same. Thanks to a mix up with sassy courgetteshaped robot Ms Zurkon, the two even end up accidentally sharing bank accounts and arsenals. The only tools they don’t share are their melee weapons: Ratchet’s classic omniwrench, and Rivet’s robotic hammer. The former can be thrown like a boomerang, while the latter bounces back in an upwards arc when tossed. It’s a minor difference.
The guns themselves are far from samey, with the DualSense allowing each weapon to pack a punch and have a utility that wouldn’t be possible on previous consoles. Almost every weapon has two functions mapped to
one when you press the trigger halfway, and the other when you push it all the way down, with resistance making the gap between the two very clear. The functions range from simple things like showing the arc of a Shatterbomb before you commit to hurling it to the Void Shield that deploys a projectilehalting barrier at half-press, then shoots back with a burst when clicked all the way down. Others include a lock-on, turning precision shots into burst fire, spinning up a minigun, firing both barrels of a shotgun at once, or the same with to initiate a timeslowing power while aiming down a sniper rifle’s sights.
As they’re all essentially variations on ‘readying up’ a weapon, they don’t require much thought, quickly becoming second nature. It’s not like Returnal where guns have alt-fires that operate quite differently and have a cooldown. Here, this is just how the weapons work, rather than feeling (ahem) bolted on.
Even with so many weapons, things never become confusing as the rules are consistent across different weapon types. Each one complements the action in a way that feels useful rather than gimmicky (like Tools Of Destruction’s Tornado Launcher).
Rules are consistent across weapon types. Each complements the action and feels useful.
UP YOUR ARSENAL
Every weapon is comical, whether that’s just by being honkingly massive compared to Ratchet’s relatively short body, or because you dropped a
Topiary Sprinkler turret that turns enemies into hedges, stopping them in their tracks.
There’s some crossover between weapons – multiple ones spawn little helpers, for example, such as Mr Fungi (a quipping floating toadstool who distracts enemies) or the returning fan favourite Agents Of Doom eggs (which hatch into explosive little bots). But each has its own personality and use, and you’ll often hot-swap between them all, either to suit different situations or to level them up. Weapon XP builds over time, expanding skill customisability (using collectible raritanium), and transforming into a powered-up version at level five – for instance a quick-firing blaster becomes one that spreads three at once (how very R-Type).
In true Ratchet fashion, a New Game+ challenge mode allows you to keep your guns and then pay to upgrade them into more powerful variants that can level up even further, until you’re
tearing the game apart quickly and with plenty of carnage. Challenge mode sees the return of the Bolt Multiplier, allowing you to gain huge sums of currency by avoiding taking hits.
POCKET PLANET
Just like the hefty arsenal, each planet you visit has something new to offer, and feels distinct. Some offer wide spaces, with plenty of collectibles (such as the humorously named Lorbs – lore orbs), while others are tighter affairs. A couple of planets feature Blazar crystals that shift you between alternate-dimension versions of the same planet to find a path, while others feature multiple paths with different rewards tucked away in each one.
The action rarely dwells in one place too long, the story ricocheting you from planet to planet, always serving up something new. Massive set-pieces are constantly thrown your way. They’re as good as the ones in Uncharted, and even surpass them in terms of planetary scale. Not only do you grind around skyscraper-sized drills, you find yourself dodging explosions caused by giant enemies by jumping through rifts at just the right moment. Even these are soaked in the series’ wry humour – in one instance a hapless bot insists the furious alien hunter after you just wants to be pals.
It’s hard to stop grinning throughout a first playthrough, constantly awed by the rollercoaster of PS5 technology artfully deployed. Each new planetary vista and quirky enemy (including many nods to previous games) is laden with vibrant, colourful detail. You can tell this is a universe Insomniac Games has been building for almost 20 years, embracing every strange and goofy idea to build a really unique setting.
Visually there’s heaps of depth to every little area, particle effects combining with striking lighting to really give a sense of depth to these otherworldly locations, whether that’s in the shiny glitz of the Megapolis-set opening or the sombre half-flooded tunnels where you’re stalked by an Alien-like terror (and then have to pretend to be interior
decorators). If it’s snaps you’re after, then there’s plenty to capture in the photo mode that’s as fully featured as Marvel’s Spider-Man’s.
LOMBAX-MAN
Speaking of the webhead, we last checked in with Ratchet & Clank back in 2016, before Insomniac Games marvelled us with its Spidey adventure. Ratchet veterans will find familiar activity in Rift Apart, but it feels like those tried-andtested components have been approached from a fresh direction. Lessons have been learned from web-swinging across New York.
Running and gunning as you control either lombax is slick, and moves like strafing and jumping sideways to dodge return, albeit with a greater fluidity and precision. You’ll be double flipping over multiple lasers in no time. Ratchet’s clearly been using his time off to run some laps of the track, as he can now sprint to change his
Each planet you visit has something new to offer, and feels distinct.
usual jogging pace, useful when picking over previously explored environments.
But with new dimensions come new moves. Quite quickly you unlock the ability to use the phantom dash, which allows you to boost with Not only can you use this to extend jumps, but also to dodge through attacks, turning some encounters into tense shoot’em-up-fests that are similar in feel to Returnal’s, albeit with more leeway on taking hits, and bigger guns to shoot back.
Combine that phantom dash with wall-runs, and sometimes a loping run-and-gunner transforms into a game capable of setting up some challenging gauntlets and offering a degree of expression in your movement. Run on the marked wall-run locations and you feel the tiny texture hexagons shimmering in your DualSense. Rift Apart is full of little touches that build a world around you, from clicks and clacks of a keyboard through your DualSense’s speaker to the way jumping into the spaceship to pick a destination transitions fluidly from action to menu.
All those little things add up to a lot, making Rift Apart a massive ball of loving detail and unforgettable moments. Any misses, like the odd bit of iffy enemy AI or one wave of enemies too many, are few and far between. It mesmerises its entire way, and leaves you hungry for more. But nothing else out there will match up until other PS5 games start better utilising what’s under the hood. As it is, Rift Apart is utterly unmissable.