Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
Going strong since the PS2 era, the Ratchet & Clank series is as synonymous with Sony as the Mario franchise is with Nintendo – and its PS5 debut is exclusive to the new console
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is, like its predecessors, an exceptionally polished kid-friendly adventure in which our titular intergalactic heroes dart between hostile planets armed with an ever-swelling arsenal of bonkers weaponry.
What sets Rift Apart, well, apart, is the PS5. The series has always been a technical showcase for the Playstation of the moment, and by taking advantage of that vastly powerful hardware (see panel), this latest romp might just be the most impressive next-gen game to date – even if in many ways it’s as old-school as they come.
Ratchet is a cat-like ‘lombax’ who, together with his robot pal Clank, travels through the galaxy thwarting the evil Dr Nefarious. But the not-so-good doctor steals the Dimensionator, a tool that opens other dimensions…
After tumbling through a few dimensional rifts, Ratchet and Clank become separated. You’ll spend much of your time playing as new character Rivet, a female lombax from another dimension committed to taking down her own reality’s Nefarious. The trio soon find themselves working together to fix the universe.
This breezy story has the energy of an old Dreamworks flick, with heart and humour in spades. Some voices are exaggerated, but you’re only ever a robot-wisecrack away from being won over again.
And there are OTT weapons, of course. The best are the Large Negatron Collider, a giant laser beam for wiping out swathes of baddies; Mr Funghi, a deployable army of talking mushrooms; and the new Topiary Sprinkler, which fires miniature water-cannons that turn lumbering mechs into bushes. You won’t be shooting all the time, though, and there’s plenty of platforming action.
This is the kind of game PS5 owners crave: an old-fashioned single-player adventure but technically a marvel, with a host of wonderfully daft weapons to wreak havoc with.
Matt Tate