Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart - Review
As someone who never owned a PlayStation 2 until the very end, I never got sucked into the Ratchet and Clank series like many others did, so my first real time experiencing the series was back in 2016 with the reimaging of the first game. Rift Apart came out of nowhere and stood out, thanks to its amazing presentation and promise of dimension hopping antics, but now that the game is out, did it deliver, or was the ambition to just far apart from the outcome?
The story of Rift Apart starts out very simple, in celebration of their heroics over the years, the duo are being honoured with a parade, that narrates their adventures, with the float leading the celebration, hosting a special gift for Ratchet, from Clank. But as heroic events go, something goes wrong as Dr Nefarious interrupts and steals the gift that Clank made for, a special tool that allows the user to move through dimensions. During the chase Ratchet shoots the Dimensionator, which causes it to malfunction and soon the lead duo and the bad Dr are pulled into an all-new dimension, where they are all separated when the Dimensionator explodes. This leaves Clank to be found by the new character Rivet and Ratchet on the trail of the pair, while Dr Nefarious discovers his dimensional counterpart is the ruler here and immediately takes advantage of that fact. Clank and his new travel companion Rivet start off their journey together, a little sceptical of each other, but quickly come to an understanding.
The characters each go on a journey of discovery here, from Ratchet being unsure about travelling to meet his own kind, to Rivet having to learn how to trust others. My issue with this is that all of characters having flaws is just too much, be it Kit’s insistence she is broken or Clank deciding he is not as important. Character growth is important in any good story, but here it feels like they have all been given some typical issues, that all get resolved by the end, without a clear context as to why they were needed. The other problem with the story is just how disjointed it feels, which is driven home by the fact that Insomniac Metal Gear Solid 2’d us, by making us play a bunch of the game as another character entirely. I have no issues with Rivet as a character, she is fun, but getting a Ratchet and Clank game, only to not get to play as them exclusively, is just dishonest. It wouldn’t be so bad, if the stories were split, like you could play the game entirely as Ratchet, doing his missions and then once beaten, you could then play Rivet’s, but bouncing back and forth, just doesn’t sit well with me.
Speaking of bouncing back and forth, the Dimensionator being destroyed has left the barriers between dimensions fractured, thus the reason the titular duo are pulled into another world. The rifts though rarely factor into the gameplay, the most common use of them is to pull yourself around the world, via the rift tether and that is a big disappointment. There are two locations where you bounce back and forth between dimensions, but outside of that and random bonus areas, you are always in the one dimension and given that fact that the developers made a big to do about the PlayStation 5’s ultra-fast SSD and how it would allow for instant travel between dimensions, you would think it would come up more often. Please don’t misunderstand, when the game needs to load another dimension, it does load in seconds and there are no load screens separating it, but given the hype around it, I wanted more.
On the gameplay that was delivered though, things get repetitive quite quickly, which made me delight when the small smatterings of other gameplay was offered up. For the most part, this is a 3rd person shooter, you can run in and blast enemies with your gun of choice, for the weaker enemies, you can also use the wrench or hammer, depending on your character at the time, to bash them as well. The fun with the guns, comes in the form the various chaotic effects each can offer, like the Ricochet, which basically launches pinballs into the air, then when you fire again, targets the same enemy multiple times. The more often you take enemies down with any weapon, the more they level up, which in turn unlocks more upgrade options when you visit Ms Zurkon, which requires the collection of Raritanium. You can obtain this when you take down some of the larger enemies and mini bosses, but otherwise you will have to hunt for it, the problem with an element called Raritanium is that it, by nature, should be rare, but the game offers so much of it up, it is easy to obtain 20 pieces, without even realising it.
The times when the game stops needing you to shoot everything or destroy every crate, are the times when I had more fun with it, the puzzles with Clank being a standout. But they were not the only times, being able to take control of Glitch and remove viruses was fun, a little shooty still, but the riding the Speedel and blasting across the worlds at breakneck speed is a delight. I know some folks will say that Ratchet & Clank is a series known for its shooting gameplay, but for me, the game shines brighter, when it lets things breath more, which happens rarely, because you are always in combat. Even the challenges offered by Zurkon Jr are almost all combat focused, which left me enjoy the ones without that, even more.
Sadly, the combat is also a problem in another form, that is enemy generation, there are a number of times when you will enter a room and in order to leave it, you have to take down the waves of enemies that come flooding in. Most of the time, this happens without issue, but there were a handful of times when I would clear out the enemies, only for the game to just let me hang around, doing thing for a few minutes, before it realised and spawned in a bigger boss. There was one time, where I spent more than 5 minutes running around, trying to find buttons, levers, or anything, thinking I was missing something, before I ran off a platform and when the game loaded me back in and then triggered the next encounter. If was once or twice, I could understand, but it was multiple times, even towards the very end, before the final encounter with Emperor Nefarious. Something else that caused me some aggravation, was the game would occasionally not register solid ground, letting me jump onto platforms, that I then fell right through. The second where you have to complete the trials to enter the archives being a prime example, whenever it happened, I started to doubt I was doing the right thing.
Something that is going to vary for everyone is the controls, you are either going to like the adaptive triggers of the DualSense controller requiring more effort to fire, or you are not. Me personally, I gave it the tutorial level and then got rid of it, I haven’t enjoyed that in any of the PlayStation 5 games yet and this is keeping the trend going.
Perhaps one area that everyone can agree with, is that the game looks beautiful, each location is bright and colourful, even when you are in the vacuum of space and walking amongst the shattered remains of a planet, the game looks incredible. It isn’t just the fact that the locations and characters look good, they looked just as good back on the PlayStation 4 game, but it is the addition of so much extra detail that sells this world and makes it look as incredible as it does. The characters themselves are real stand outs though, from the fur on Ratchet and Rivet, to the reflective nature of Clank and Kite, each look great, factor in how great they look on different planets and in different weather systems and you can get some wonderful visuals. There are a few times when things load funny, which can leave your character standing still for a moment when you exit a ship or just finish a cutscene, but these are rare enough to not be an issue and the only time I noticed any odd texture was towards the very end and it was only the one time, basically this game is stunning.
On the audio side, there is some good and there is some bad, but thankfully the bad is not all that bad, but let’s start with the good. The game features the same actors returning to voice the same characters from games past, which means James Arnold Taylor and David Kaye are back as Ratchet and Clank respectively. Joining the cast is an entire dimension worth of new characters, lead by Rivet voiced by FemShep herself, Jennifer Hale and Robin Atkin Downes as the villainous Emperor Nefarious. Every performance in the game is just wonderful, there is heart in the tender moments, anger when needed as well and humour throughout, as much as I don’t like the story, it is no reflection on the actors bringing it together. The bad comes from the default audio levels, the games soundtrack, which is equal parts sci-fi and modern, is just too overpowering and it took me a few attempts to get a decent level, enough that I could hear the dialogue.
Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart is a solid game, it offers plenty to see and do, with weapon upgrades to complete, hidden collectables and numerous side missions. My biggest gripes is that it is just too much shooting, never really giving you a moment to relax and while the rift idea is used a bit, it isn’t done anywhere near the extent that the developers hyped it up. A wonderful cast brings an ok story to life, but they have enough charm and heart to elevate it above that and of course, it doesn’t hurt that the game looks incredible as well. Some wonky issues with ground not being solid, or enemies not spawning are not enough to tear this game apart.
The Score
8.5
Review code provided by PlayStation
The Pros
+Incredible presentation from start to finish, characters to the planets
+The performances by the actors bringing the characters to life make you want to care
The Cons
-The rift mechanic, jumping between dimensions, is not used nearly as much as the hype indicated
-Enemies not spawning when the game needs them to and ground being intangible are a pain
