Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart PS5 Review
| Game: | Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Sony Interactive Entertainment |
| Developer: |
The Ratchet & Clank games have always been beautiful games, and with each new PlayStation generation they get even more beautiful. It feels a little wrong to start a review about how a game looks, but this is testament to the wizards at Insomniac Games for presenting to the world yet another gorgeous Ratchet & Clank adventure, early in the life of the PS5. I should probably mention that it’s a lot of fun as well.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart sees the titular duo being praised for their previous heroics at the beginning of the game. There’s a festival atmosphere, with a parade being put on for the Lombax (Ratchet) and his little robot pal (Clank), although the cheer doesn’t last for long as Doctor Nefarious shows up. The evil doctor attempts to steal the Dimensionator in the process, which is a device that allows for travel to other dimensions. Events then see the fabric of space and time damaged, and Ratchet and Clank must again become the heroes of the story. As usual, there’s plenty of humor in what is a very lively tale, and the game also introduces the very likeable Rivet, a female Lombax with her very own story to tell and whom is almost bursting with positivity.
When it comes to all of this dimension malarkey, if you have followed the game at all then you will be aware that Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart has been promoted in regard to jumping between dimensions. This all happens with zero loading times, moving from one area to a completely different one, courtesy of the PS5’s superior SSD drives. In reality though, the dimensions feel like a smaller part of the game than I would have imagined them to be, which does mean that it feels that we have all been misled somewhat. True, this is disappointing, but I’m not taking away from the moments in the game that we do have, as it really is mightily impressive. I just wish it had been a larger part of the adventure.
With the rest of the game, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is business as usual. This latest installment in the long running series is still an action game with platforming as well as quirky weapons, some returning and others brand new, and you’ll also be collecting lots and lots of bolts, which are used to purchase new weapons. Things are mixed up a little with some Clank puzzle sections as well as sections where you control a virus zapping robot, although both can be skipped if you want to get back to what the game does best.
Weapons are a lot of fun to use, and imagination was running riot when they were dreamt up by the people at Insomniac. There’s everything from plasma pistols, plasma cannons, one that fires a huge beam of energy, another that has a mushroom buddy helping out, one that turns your enemies into garden sculptures for a brief period, and so on. They can definitely be described as weapons of mass destruction, particularly as they can be upgraded (using a similar upgrade system to the previous game) to make them even more powerful in a number of ways. With around 20 weapons in all to purchase and upgrade throughout the game, there’s definitely enough variation in the explosive action.
What’s a little more disappointing is that, while the game introduces a brand-new playable character in Rivet, she plays almost exactly the same as Ratchet does. This is definitely a missed opportunity, being that she has all the same weapons as Ratchet, and they also have the same dodge moves etc. Basically, Rivet is a Ratchet reskin, and she could have been so much more than this.
At least both characters get their own levels, and they’re a very good bunch as well. Levels are generally lengthy, and some of them are quite open when compared to other Ratchet & Clank games. Some areas even have optional objectives, which is welcome, and there’s also giant gold bolts and spybots to hunt down. Again, it is a shame that the different dimensions don’t play a bigger part though.
Another negative is that £70 price. As well made as the game is, it just isn’t worth that kind of money. The story takes around 11-12 hours to complete, and if you want to try and accomplish everything that the game has to offer, it will probably take you under 20 hours to do so.
Before I finish this review, I really must go into more detail about the game’s visuals. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is really amongst the most glorious looking games, and it’s quite a step-up when compared to the previous game, which was already a beautiful adventure in its own right. The game has a number of graphical options, which includes a 30fps fidelity mode, which gives you all the graphical flourishes at the cost of the frame-rate. There’s also a performance mode, which turns off ray tracing and ups the frame-rate up to 60, while the performance RT mode sacrifices some visual detail and decreases the resolution but gives you both ray tracing and 60fps. Insomniac didn’t stop here though, with a patch adding in an option for 40fps with all the bells and whistles, including ray tracing as well as the full visual goodness seen in the fidelity mode, although you will need an 120hz compatible screen to be able to use this option. This is definitely my preferred way to play, and it’s an excellent middle ground, with 40fps being so much better than 30fps, while offering everything else as well. All in all, it’s a gorgeous and charismatic game, and it makes you wonder what we are going to see later on in the PS5’s lifespan.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart isn’t all it could have been then, although it still ranks highly as one of Ratchet & Clank’s greatest adventure, albeit an overpriced one. It’s a beautiful game that offers a huge dose of fun, which is very Ratchet & Clank. It’s just disappointing that the game could have offered more dimension jumping as well as greater variation between the game’s characters, as both of these things could have taken Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart to the next level.
