The first three Ratchet and Clank games developed by Insomniac Games are considered some of the best 3D platformers of the Playstation 2 era. They were nothing but chaotic madness, but the simplistic combat loop of these games is what made them so easily appealing. Accumulate an array of firearms, all of which were unique and fun to wield, and cut down waves of enemies. The platforming and movement was rather simplistic, but it was how Ratchet and Clank handled fights. It was one of the first few 3D platformers to do combat and handle it well. The first three games struck gold and Sony, seeing the potential of the property, instructed Insomniac to pump out a new game every one or two years. You’d think the big thumb of approval and fundings offered by Sony would be great, but it soon led to the series’ downfall. After the third game, the Ratchet and Clank series saw numerous ups and downs in quality. Occasionally they’d get one good game with tight focus and resemblance to the older games, and immediately afterwards they churn out a bunch of mediocre ones. Sony had to hire other studios to assist Insomniac with the mass production of Ratchet and Clank games each year, and it led to the studios’ burnout.
After the release of Into The Nexus in 2013, Insomniac took a long break from their acclaimed franchise. Going on to work on other projects and new ideas such as Sunset Overdrive and the Marvel’s Spider-Man series. These two were their most ambitious and colossal projects to date, but they did somewhat miss working on the series that boosted them to greatness. In 2016, they attempted to make a comeback with a Ratchet and Clank soft reboot. A game that retold the story of the original and utilized the technology of modern hardware. The 2016 reboot was in all honesty a beautiful failure. It wasn’t a terrible game, but there was a lot preventing it from being the grand commercial comeback it was aiming to be. There was the fact Sony made and heavily advertised a movie which told the same exact story as the game, which removes the purpose of having the game in the first place and vice versa. The movie itself was a tremendous failure and received middling reviews from critics. There were hardcore fans arguing what charm ended up being removed between the PS4 version and the original PS2 release. The 2016 reboot was a very troubling product, but the video game itself was pretty good. It was a nice return to form to the gameplay of the originals, and the next gen tech of the Playstation 4 allowed them to produce the worlds they imagined with the original. It was a leap forward and showed if they put in more time and effort they could truly make the comeback. That all changed with the next entry.
Insomniac gets bought out by Sony Studios after the successful release of Marvel’s Spider-Man, which is weird because it always felt like they were owned by Sony, and are given full support and funding yet again to create whatever they want. The main team at Insomniac worked on whatever future Marvel’s Spider-Man titles they dreamt of including Miles Morales and the soon to come out sequel, but then there was a secondary team. A team assembled to work on a secret title made to utilize the technology of Sony’s next big console, the Playstation 5. They pumped a lot of effort into their next big project, and when they finally revealed it during a live showcase the audience were surprised. They were making a new Ratchet and Clank game titled Rift Apart, and it was the true comeback they envisioned five years prior. The game goes gold in 2021 and releases the same year exclusive to the Playstation 5. Fans are speculating whether it would live up to the reveal the previous year, and thankfully it did. Rift Apart was exactly what fans hoped it would be. The iconic chaotic fun of the original three games made and utilizing the advanced tech of the PS5. It was a technical marvel and demonstration of what the console could process, which was a task other PS5 releases were struggling to do. Rift Apart received glowing reviews from outlets and even got nominated for Game of The Year. It’s one of the best mainline entries since the original three , and proof that the Ratchet and Clank still has its place.
Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart is nearly two years old now, and the dust has finally settled. I didn’t play the game during the year of its release because at the time I didn’t have a PS5, but now I do and have the opportunity to check it out. The only other Ratchet and Clank game I played before was the 2016 reboot, so my experience with these games isn’t the best. Almost two years later, does Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart hold up to the mass amounts of praise it had at launch? The answer is “yes.” It’s not one of my favorite Playstation games, but it certainly is an excellent game that achieves what it sets out to do. Offer a fun engaging experience from start to finish. Today we’ll be talking about why I really loved Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart and why it deserves your attention. Lock and load people. We’re about to travel to worlds beyond our own.
Story
The fantastic duo, Ratchet and Clank, have been on many daring adventures over the years. They have thwarted the plans of countless supervillains and saved the galaxy from ultimate destruction time and time again. They are galactic saviors, and to celebrate all of their achievements their closest friends have put together a festival which recollect all of their adventures. A trip down memory lane, and a surprise reward lying at the end. Clank gives Ratchet a gun he forged known as the Dimensionator, a tool that is able to open gateways to other dimensions. He tells Ratchet to use this tool to find other living Lombaxes, an ancient race of people Ratchet belongs to but have disappeared leaving only a few left. Ratchet thanks his best friend for giving him the chance and inventing such a device, but just before they can grab a hold of the Dimensionator a former enemy of theirs comes to steal it. The devious Dr. Nefarious is up to no good again and is sending his goons to take down the duo. He’s tired of losing against them countlessly, so when he heard Clank invented a gun that opens up dimensional travel he wanted to use it himself. He was gonna travel to a dimension where he always wins. Where the heroes he fought lost against him, and he was crowned emperor of the entire universe. Sounded like a dream come true.
Ratchet and Clank pursue the evil doctor once again as he crazily opens up gateways to alternate dimensions. They finally catch up and try to yank the Dimensionator out of his hands, but during the fight the Dimensionator grows unstable and explodes. Transporting the three of them to the universe Dr. Nefarious has imagined. Nefarious gets away as the robot guards who patrol the streets believe him to be the emperor they serve, and both Ratchet and Clank get separated as Ratchet falls to a love party of the city the emperor rules. Clank finds the Dimensionator broken and that without it, he and Ratchet won’t be able to get back to their own universe. Not only that, but the various gateways Nefarious opened during their fight are growing unstable. Meaning if they don’t close them soon the universe they know will collapse on itself. Clank lies injured on the ground, but suddenly another figure picks him up. He believes it to be Ratchet at first, but turns out it’s another Lombax by the name of Rivet. The Lombax of this universe who attempted to stop Emperor Nefarious. Clank explains what’s going on to her and at first she doesn’t believe him as every robot she has encountered wanted to kill her and the resistance she works for. However, she witnesses proof and decides to aid Clank of his mission as he’s the nicest person she’s encountered in awhile. Ratchet navigates his way through the city and encounters alternate versions of individuals he knows. He sees Clank being taken away by Rivet, but before he can catch up he is stopped by guard bots. Forcing him to find another ship and flee the planet.
Clank and Rivet set up a communication network to wherever Ratchet is, and Clank explains that there is a new ally willing to help Ratchet and him repair the Dimensionator. One of them will have to obtain a rare crystal the Dimensionator uses to open up its colored gateways, and the other will have to obtain the schematics for the gun and forge it. Ratchet and Rivet are excited to talk to one another, because they are the only Lombaxes they have encountered. The two set out to fulfill their goals, make unlikely allies, and stop Dr. Nefarious and whatever he is planning. Maybe they’ll even encounter that grand emperor they’ve been hearing about and stop him too.
Gameplay
Ratchet and Clank is a mixture between third person shooting and 3D platforming. You navigate your way across each environment, fight enemies, and pursue whatever objectives you have to complete the story. The platforming is rather simplistic and doesn’t need much explanation. Both Lombaxes can jump, double jump, hover down slowly, and swing across gaps if there’s a grapple point. You unlock quite a few navigation tools across your journey, and what’s nice is that when one Lombax unlocks a tool the other one instantly obtains it. No explanation, but it’s convenient. You get these hover skates that allow you to dash across long distances quickly, a dash similar to that of Doom Eternal to avoid close range attacks or distance yourself from enemies, and one of the biggest features of Rift Apart is the tether pull. A special grappling hook to zip between any dimensional tears in the world. You can either teleport yourself to one specific point of an arena or area at any time and at any position, or enter new sections of a level. This is the next gen stuff I mentioned, because the open space you were once in changes drastically within seconds. Transporting you to a whole new area.
Explore thoroughly and you may encounter optional secrets such as pocket dimensions, different armor sets, sidequests, and gold bolts. You will pick up a handful of bolts across your adventure, and let me say you are absolutely showered in them. They drop from smashed crates, defeated foes, and those two things are provided constantly. Bolts can be spent at a shop to unlock new weapons, and this brings me to combat. It’s third person shooting combat, and what makes these games unique is how it doesn’t follow the shooter trends of today. There’s no reloading and you can carry multiple guns at once. If one gun is starting to run low on ammo swap over to another one. You aren’t punished for using one specific gun, but it’s more fun to experiment with guns and alternate. Some guns are better in one scenario and some are better in others. You have the Executor which is basically your close range shotgun. The Negatron Collider which is this laser you charge up to deal massive amounts of damage from a long distance. The Lightning Rod, this automatic rifle which fires lightning projectiles which stun foes and can chain together between foes. The Shatter Blast which are grenades you lob, the Blackhole Storm which is a rapid fire minigun, and much more. You can pick up these special crystals across your journey to upgrade weapons and improve their stats such as damage, accuracy, range, and even give them secret perks. What makes Ratchet and Clank unique is the leveling system for weapons. The more you use one specific gun and kill enemies with it, the more experience points it gains. Earn enough and the gun levels up, becoming more powerful and causing more devastating destruction. That’s all I really have to say about the gameplay. No really, it’s that simplistic. There are occasional puzzles and minigames, but nothing to really pull you out of the core combat loop. Just mindless fun, which is all I probably want from this game. Hopefully you can save the galaxy once more!
Thoughts
Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart is a fantastic return for the series and a huge step up from the last game. I will admit though this game doesn’t really innovate or do anything new. The only aspect it really improves on are graphics. These are some of the most detailed and visually impressive graphics I’ve seen in a video game, and what the team has programmed here is truly stunning. I know this description fits every game published by Sony now and both God of War: Ragnarok and Horizon Forbidden West have beaten Rift Apart in visuals and scope, but it’s still impressive seeing how eac studio aimed to push what their games could handle. The game itself is simple, easy to pick up, and have mindless fun. It’s Ratchet and Clank, and these games aim for the younger audience. Run around, shoot some cartoonish enemies, and pick up unique guns unlike the genre weapons you see in a majority of first person shooters. It’s just fun, and I appreciate games that offer the most fun imaginable. The combat, while not complex, is well designed. Standing still is a death wish as enemy groups are always swarming to your position. You’re not punished for using the same game over and over, but rather encouraged to specialize in specific tools and max out their potential. Health and ammo pickups are always easy to spot since the crates containing them are designed differently and are colored. The combat justworks. It’s no Doom Eternal as you never have to use specific guns to weaken foes or adapt to enemies’ attack patterns as most of the enemies in this game aren’t hard, but it’s great nonetheless.
The platforming and movement is shallow, and that’s okay. It’s not trying to have any complex maneuvers and experimental mechanics like Super Mario Odyssey. Any platforming challenges are usually the rail grinding sections or scripted moments, but those aren’t really hard either. You are offered very forgiving checkpoints that don’t place you that far from wherever you were last. A button prompt always shows when you are allowed to use a grapple or tether point, so you never have to time the button press right. There’s even this one type of grapple point that swings you around until you have enough momentum to launch yourself across a gap, but you don’t have to do anything or time the button release at the right moment. You just wait for the light to flash and let go. Platforming is never challenging, but the game does this so you can get back to the combat sections quickly. That’s the true meat of Ratchet and Clank, similar to how the recent God of War games have climbing but it’s not too complex because the combat and puzzle solving is the main focus and they use climbing for exposition. There are occasional minigames and puzzles you have to do in Rift Apart and these are pretty fun. You have this one puzzle sim where Clank has to throw around balls to change the properties of objects and get these alternate reality versions of him to reach the goal. That offered some thinking amongst the mindless shooting. Then you have the spider hacking minigame which is more mindless shooting...
The story I quite liked, but not everyone is probably going to enjoy. It’s a fun entertaining story featuring goofy characters, wacky banters, somewhat funny moments, and the occasional scene where they take the main plot seriously and talk about what happens next. I think the writing for this game is well done and all the characters are memorable. It’s fun encountering the alternate versions of characters Ratchet and Clank knows and how they participate in the rise against the emperor version of Nefarious. I can also tell the voice actors for this game had a really fun time acting out these zany characters. There’s so much personality put into the way they talk to each other and gesture, and part of that is due to the animation. This game has top notch animation, and much like Psychonauts 2 this is a game I would say is a good animated movie. I was even able to recognize a couple voices throughout the game, including Richard Horvitz the guy who voices Raz and Invader Zim who played the crazy robot who gave demonstrations of weapons you could buy. Story, writing, characters, and humor are all great. Why won’t everyone love it though? Maybe because there’s points in the story that don’t make sense and aren’t needed. For example, they go to a plant to get a crystal but the crystal; shatters which forces them to go to someone who can fix it. I’m surprised they didn’t just get another crystal on the same planet. There’s a whole trust issue arch during the end of the game and it felt very crammed in. None of these really bothered me and made me declare that it was a terrible story overall.
I got a few more complaints. You’ll fight a lot of colorfully animated goons across your journey, but when it comes to miniboss variety there isn’t much. It’s either a huge tank, an airship, or dinos. They may change the skins for them, but mechanically they all function the same. Sometimes they place two of them together, but that’s not doing anything new and doesn’t make the fights harder by much. They don’t attempt to explain how Rivet and Ratchet get the same upgrades together. When one character unlocks a new gun or tool the other one just magically has it. If the blueprints for each tool are being transported between characters that would be a logical explanation, but so far there is none which is really odd. Finally this game is really loud. There’s always some sound going off, screaming, and nobody shuts up. It’s fine, again, I mean it’s just Ratchet and Clank being Ratchet and Clank, but I wish there was subtlety at times. In the end, I do highly recommend Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart. It’s a fun game and you can get quite the kick out of it. Seventy dollars is a high asking price, but if you wait for it to do down I say the money is well. I give Rift Apart a 9/10 for excellence at best.
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