We've seen this before. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart review

Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart skillfully strikes the chords of a warm, pleasant sense of nostalgia, making veteran gamers shed a quiet tear and remember a time when AAA projects were made with soul rather than under the watchful eye of a marketing department

From the very beginning, Rift Apart starts flexing its muscles, showing off what many bought a PlayStation 5 for — stunning graphics. It sears the retinas with bright special effects; everything around is roaring, whistling, and exploding, scattering into hundreds of parts and bolts. Character models, as well as the environments, are crafted at the highest level, allowing you to see every fold in clothing, every strand of fur — Insomniac has truly reached the level of interactive animated films. Shadows, particle and smoke effects, physics — Rift Apart rightfully deserves to be ranked among the most technologically advanced games of recent years. And everything runs at 60 frames per second even with ray tracing enabled (depending on the chosen graphics mode).

We observed noticeable framerate drops in only a few episodes, all of which were related to traveling to an alternate dimension to solve trivial puzzles (more on them a bit later).

As expected, the story in Rift Apart is just there for show, serving only to justify the heroes’ tour across various planets. Clank built the so-called “Dimensionator” for Ratchet — a unique device capable of opening portals to other dimensions — to help him find the Lombax race. But everything is ruined by the sudden appearance of Dr. Nefarious, who accidentally breaks the ingenious contraption with his clawed hands, causing the trio to be sucked into a parallel dimension where Nefarious is not a pathetic loser, but a powerful and evil emperor under whose heel the common folk live in perpetual fear. However, besides the upgraded version of Nefarious, there is also a female Lombax named Rivet, who is waging a selfless struggle against the tyrant. Together, the heroes must defeat both villains and avert a catastrophe threatening all dimensions.

Structurally, the adventure is designed to be extremely straightforward and demands almost no intense focus from the player. Rift Apart tries to inject a bit of ambiguity and drama by introducing a constantly whining robot with a mysterious past named Kit, but does so clumsily, ruining all the intrigue almost immediately. But overall, it is quite difficult to find fault with the script — there are plenty of jokes, caricatured villains, and heroes determined to do good. 

The narrative constantly switches between the duos, sending them to different planets where they must find ways to retrieve the Dimensionator while helping the locals with their troubles.

Although all quests follow the same formula — fly to a planet, reach Point A to grab an item, then return to Point B — it is impossible to call Rift Apart boring. The game offers plenty of ways to tackle trivial tasks, setting a whole army of enemies between the heroes and their objectives, as well as occasionally forcing them to flex their brain cells to solve puzzles. In some spots you need to zoom across on hoverboots, while others can only be reached by riding a speed snail or speeding along a rail. In one mission, you have to fly atop a fire-breathing lizard and shoot down battle barges (all that was missing was Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries”), while in another you’ll wander through a semi-flooded underwater facility stalked by an invincible monster. On every level, you can also stumble upon portals to pocket dimensions hiding various secrets.

Even terminal hacking now requires taking control of a miniature spider-bot named Glitch, who literally has to torpedo malicious computer viruses into oblivion.

Most of the time, Rift Apart maintains a steady pace, alternating between enemy skirmishes and wall-running, energy-tether swinging sequences. The pacing falters only when you are put in control of Clank. His sections feel more like psychedelic trips where he has to solve sphere-based puzzles in the style of Lemmings. These Clank trips are not only dull, but they also noticeably drop the framerate for reasons unknown. 

As before, using a specific type of weapon frequently increases its effectiveness. Guns can also be upgraded at Ms. Zurkon’s shop — alternate dimension, gender roles reversed. In total, Rift Apart offers 20 weapons, most of which will become available in the shop automatically, though some guns can only be obtained in Challenge Mode or earned. For instance, the RYNO 8, which opens dimensional rifts that rain all kinds of junk and even Horizon Zero Dawn robots onto enemies’ heads, unlocks strictly after locating all the spybots.

As for the PlayStation 5’s advertised features, namely the ultra-fast SSD and DualSense, Insomniac made good use of them. Dimensional shifts happen in the blink of an eye: in one sequence, Rivet blazes through four completely different environments in 40 seconds flat, without slowing down for a moment. Meanwhile, the DualSense lets you feel every weapon through adaptive triggers and haptic feedback, or hear the clicks of an empty chamber when you run out of ammo.

For all its virtues, Rift Apart remains just another Ratchet & Clank game. Platform jumping, an extensive arsenal of quirky weapons, rail grinding, and a simple, comical storyline — we’ve seen it all before in one form or another. You can’t say it’s bad, but you can’t praise the game for staying in place either. Especially considering that five years have passed since the previous Ratchet & Clank launched on PS4.

The developers had a chance to inject at least some variety with the new protagonist, Rivet, but didn’t. She differs from Ratchet only by fur color, gender, and the fact that she swings a hammer instead of a wrench in melee combat. 

Diagnosis

If you own a PlayStation 5, Rift Apart simply belongs in your library. It is an almost perfect action platformer with striking visuals, great design, and fast-paced gameplay that will be appreciated by both Ratchet & Clank veterans and newcomers alike.

Pro

• Visual presentation
• Comedic storyline
• Music
• Dynamic gameplay
• Extensive arsenal
• Gun feel delivered by the DualSense

Contra

• Even on higher difficulty settings, Rift Apart is quite easy

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