Ratchet and Clank return for a mainline full-size game in what seems forever, but my god the wait was worth it. Insomniac have given us one of the best, if not the best R&C games ever. They have shown us what Next-Gen is truly about and delivered a truly memorable experience.
Story
The story is beautifully written, the voice acting is solid throughout. It has a lot of references to older games for long-time fans, but the main story is told in a way anyone can follow and get enjoyment out of it. The way the story flows is really done quite well, the introduction to rivet and the dual Ratchet and Rivet dynamic which is a main part of the story is handled perfectly, and Rivet is fantastically written, along with her Clank equivalent.
Insomniac have balanced the two playable characters perfectly, they both get equal time to shine, and learn a lot about our beloved heroes. There are a lot of beautifully written emotional moments throughout. The cutscenes are sublime and in a lot of ways are CGI level, even surpassing some old CG movies in some ways. If you had concerns about the writing and overall quality of the plot due to the 2016 reimagining, you need not worry any further. This is back up to the quality you would expect from a mainline R&C Game.
Every single character in the stories roster is fantastic and have their own loveable unique identity. The ending also alludes to our band of heroes travelling to somewhere, which has monumentally huge impact to the Ratchet & Clank universe. I am also a Bif fan of Pierre “RUSTY? MON DIEU! Your friend has a saucy tongue. I AM PIERRE LE FERR!”
Sound
Next Gen has arrived, the sound quality is amazing and sublimely mixed throughout. The weapons are all unique and fitting to what is on the screen, they can have big weight to them, such as the shatter bomb and the number of little details within the explosion is fantastic. The voice acting is also potentially the best quality voice recordings I have heard, they are truly flawless. Everything that has impact has impact, but none of the little details are lost in those moments.
Insomniac have kicked this aspect out of the park yet again and truly took advantage of next gen to up their audio game. The soundtrack is also a return to form for the series. In terms of 3D audio, it has always sounded bad to me, there is always a tinny sound, too much treble and explosions lose a lot of impact. The same can be said for Ratchet and Clank, however, the impact to the overall sound quality is probably the least offensive of anything released so far.
I personally prefer to have the 3D Audio off and a good pair of cans, where you can get positional awareness naturally through their design. Sure, it is not like the 3D part of the 3D audio, but I cannot recommend the sound trade off. Mileage will vary based on the quality of your audio setup; I have noticed the higher quality your audio setup the more the quality loss with 3D audio is apparent.
Dualsense
The use of Dualsense in Rift Apart is potentially the best implementation so far, it is constantly being used but it does not feel too overbearing. There are the smart uses such as half trigger pulls and full trigger pulls. This works well for aiming grenades and weapons, or letting out single shots rather than automatic shots, explosions have impactful rumbles. This actually helps improve the combat, allowing you to have more control over your actions than ever before in Ratchet and Clank.
The really smart use for me however, is in cutscenes, when characters are doing things such as putting their feet up on a desk, you feel the impact of that, the rumble is being used to help simulate what is on the screen, while not perfect this does indeed elevate the cutscene experience in ways I did not think of. I hope this becomes the standard on PS5.
Visuals
This is where the game is undeniably next gen and is pure wizardry. The visuals are the best I have ever seen in a game in Fidelity mode, Performance RT is not bad either but Fidelity mode on my 24inch 4K monitor with all the details maxed out looks noticeably better and is absolutely mind blowing. The lighting may not be raytraced, but their non-RT lighting solutions are some of the best in the business, their AO solution is solid and the raytraced reflections are mind-blowingly good for so early in the generation. Everything is constantly being reflected in armour, in the eyes of characters, everywhere and it elevates the visual presentation to unbelievable heights.
Geometry is generally extremely detailed and a significant step up from last gen. I think this is what needs to be remembered here, sure on the surface you may think it is nothing special compared to last gen in terms of the items on screen, although the amount is higher. What you need to pay attention to is the geometric complexity on screen, it would at best be cutscene territory on PS4. The main thing to understand here is that insomniac have not just put extremely detailed props and environments on screen for the hell of it. I have explored every inch of the planets, which are all very unique and have strong identities. The placement of props, rock features and general details are all artistically placed and make the planets feel much more alive and believable. They could have easily just littered the screen with things with no thought and gone NEXT GEN. That, is not what Insomniac is about though, it’s beneath them. Every world has been meticulously thought out, everything that exists has a reason for existing where it is, this is one of the things that make Insomniac in the top echelon of developers.
The animations are also sublime, the over exaggerated nature goes with the visual style perfectly. It is the overall quality in the animations though that are astounding. I think some people are missing what next gen truly means, every animation in the game has far more frames and is far more detailed than borderline everything on last gen. Jumping in the air and landing is perfection. Slamming down a hammer from the air and going into photo mode, shows facial animation detail, effects that must be seen to be believed. Mixed in with very convincing rigging work that feels absolutely spot on for what the character is doing, there truly is nothing like the animation quality in Ratchet and Clank – Rift Apart.
The animations are the one part I feel comfortable saying are CGI level with no exaggeration. This should not really be surprising, Insomniac are known for many things including their amazing animation work, they have some of the best if not the best in the business.
All this culminates into cutscenes that are simply mindblowing, I will let the screenshots do the talking but the lighting, hair tech and RT reflections give the closest to CG cutscenes a game has ever got. They are breath taking.
The quality of the special effects and alphas are something of significant note too, these are the highest quality effects I have ever seen, the bullets from the guns in all their bombastic glory must be seen to be believed.
This does not mean there are no signs of concessions made though, while exploring the world and really paying attention to what is going on to try and unravel the wizardry on screen, I have noticed some things. The grass does not react to your character, which is quite disappointing, there are certain things that pop in while travelling, this can be shadows, or little bits of foliage, in some rare occasions there are also very noticeable moments of shadow pop in.
The pop in Is extremely minimal in comparison to what we are used to with last gen. Except for the final acts, where there is what I can only assume are bugs, as there were shadows on rocks being drawn right in front of me, which compared to the rest of the game makes 0 sense. The dimensional rifts can also show some signs of concessions, make no mistake the rifts are amazing, and they are indeed rendering two things at the same time in real time and can be walked in and out of at any time, the shards also have RT REFLECTIONS.
The downside to all this is that when you walk through to your dimensions, if there are cliffs etc in the distance as soon as you walk through the portal you will see shadows and other things pop in immediately. This is a very minor complaint and quite frankly with everything the game is doing, it is surprising that these are the only major noticeable concessions and are completely acceptable as nothing like this has been done before in a video game. Another thing that stuck out in a bad way is no inverse kinematics, which means when Ratchet or Rivet are standing on some objects they float above it, rather than have their feet on it. There is no real reason for this to be missing and feels a bit sloppy for Insomniac.
The visual package is not perfect, but it is the closest any game has ever got, and after E3 this weekend, there is nothing on the horizon that rivals it. What insomniac will be able to pull off later in this generation is going to be a true sight to behold. For a Gen 1 game though, this is the greatest gen 1 game to grace gaming since Mario 64 in my opinion. Mario 64 was revolutionary, but this far into video gaming, Ratchet gives us pretty much the best we could expect.
Gameplay
Now this is where I have seen criticism among others and quite frankly do not understand it, I think some people have come into next gen with some seriously unrealistic expectations. Yes, the gameplay is “safe” however, that is not a bad thing. The platforming in ratchet has always been subpar to average in my opinion, Rift Apart is a different beast entirely. The feeling of movement, the weight in ratchet, the traversal options and the animations are all spot on.
This is by far the best feeling R&C game ever. The level design has been improved, and the worlds are generally much larger, they are still somewhat small but significantly larger than almost all the levels in the 2016 game and a lot of the older games. What is in them, is far better than any previous games. The level design, enemy encounters, placement of collectibles are all very well thought out and feel surprisingly organic for what they are.
There is no more bloat to the worlds, they are all incredibly focused yet packed, the placement of platforms is perfect. This is one area the previous ratchets tended to really struggle. I also particularly like all the random rifts appearing everywhere, to emphasize the chaos that is going on, it is just one of the many details used for world building.
The signature Ratchet gameplay is here, the guns are over the top, incredibly exiting to wield and feel better than ever, thanks to the dualsense use, sounds, visuals and animations. The core gameplay is relatively unchained, you have a few new mechanics, like your dodge now being a phase dodge, giving you invincibility frames. This may sound overpowered, but here is the thing, the enemy counts at times get so absurdly high you simply need that phase dash.
Enemy variety is surprisingly varied, sure you will be fighting some similar enemies, but there are harder versions of them, plus some new enemies thrown in constantly which help things keep on feeling fresh. Despite what others have said, the rift mechanic is used to good use here in my opinion. The main rifts you use are simply to teleport you into a different position, which may feel underwhelming to some, but in my opinion what it does to the pacing of combat is a nice addition.
It can feel like a ballet, akin to something like DOOM. The set piece transitions are also incredibly organic and amazing and are just another thing that help elevate the game to dizzy heights. The main dimension shifting mechanic is primarily but not exclusively left to boss scenes and story moments for the most part, that does not take away from them, infact the opposite is true. They improve the boss fights and story moments and offer something never seen before in a game. There are pocket dimensions which are rendered simultaneously with the planet you are on and can be walked in and out of like it is nothing.
There are also a few planets with dimensional crystals, that completely swaps out one version of a planet with another in under 2 seconds. These are two completely different worlds effectively, and load in and out the entire ram almost in the blink of an eye. This is fundamentally new ground, sure people will quote soul reaver and the two-world swapping, yes, it is not new, but it is not exactly common either. The level of detail on show has never been done before. That is the key thing to remember, while exploring these worlds they feel brimming with life and little details you can miss, not simply a very lifeless world with incredibly basic geometry just so the mechanic can be achieved.
There is also a huge focus on narrative in these worlds that run in parallel, making the world shifting feel completely organic and grounded into the story and gameplay. This results in the dimensional shifts not feeling like just a gimmick, an addition to the gameplay that does not really add anything. Insomniac has used the mechanic to further build the lore and narrative in the game to excellent effect, in addition to offering some albeit brief gameplay moments that could not be done before in games period.
Insomniac did not change up the key ratchet formula for 2 key reasons, the first one is that they have finally found the perfect balance in gameplay for Ratchet after multiple games, and two that formula is not broken. They used the extra power to add to the universe they created rather than a new gimmick at the sacrifice of the worlds, the game would not be the same without it, in fact it would be significantly worse. What is also simply impossible on series X is pulling all this shifting off with this level of detail at the speed it does, without making transitions longer.
When you see how they are used in Rift Apart, especially on one planet, any longer and you would have to change the level design, as it would just ruin the flow of the gameplay, as you are manually swapping dimensions as quick as every 5 seconds.Without the speed that the PS5 SSD offers, this would fundamentally not work without some major cutbacks to the game. The Custom SSD in the long run is going to give the PS5 A significant advantage, the SSD fundamentally influenced the games levels and overall design here. That was why the PS5 custom SSD was designed, feedback from developers on what they needed, and it is shown off to serious effect here.
My mind is going wild with idea for other games, and when you factor in graphics are only going to get bigger, that means the amount of Data will end up being bigger by some percentage, something the PS5 can deal with and the SX cannot without major noticeable concessions. Below is an example of the game loading in an out an entire level in less than 2 seconds, the pure amount of highly detailed assets it is loading in is unbelievable.
The main story without any side quests and collectibles may take you 10-12 hour. I found the 2nd hardest difficulty to be the one to use, as anything below is far too easy, although for veterans even the highest difficult will still feel a tad easy potentially. Overall, it is a very conventional R&C title but incredibly solid and the best feeling Yet. The side quests that are there are fun and add to the world, and I will be collecting everything then going through NG+ which is called challenge mode and has omega weapons to crank up the chaos even further.
Bugs
This will sound worse than it is, but for me this is the buggiest insomniac game I have played, it only really started to fall apart in the final acts, there were a few occasions where enemies did not spawn so I could not progress and had to kill myself. This is a very quick remedy, but surprising to see, there was also a bug with the rift breaker where its bullets would not be rendered briefly. This is in addition to some of the visual bugs previously mentioned. This is nothing major and are merely minor annoyances, it is just not Insomniac’s usual standard from my experience.
Conclusion
Rift Apart, is an outstanding visual showpiece, a technical marvel, and an absolute return to form for Ratchet and Clank, a story that is very well written, with a fantastic cast of characters. The story goes places emotionally and adds some serious additions to it’s lore, which opens up so many opportunities for future games for the Lombax we love, and the new Lombax on the scene Rivet who is a surprisingly great addition. The gameplay has been perfected, the rift mechanic is great, the set pieces are memorable and the whole experience is truly awe inspiring and constantly wowed me throughout.
Not once did I feel fatigue, the story was about perfect length, I ended up want more more due to how great the game is, which is exactly how you want a game to end. Insomniac have not just made a showpiece; they have made a truly memorable game with fantastic gameplay and have shown talent here that is far above majority of developers in every single area. It is without a doubt a passion project. I came in wanting a top tier R&C Game, and that is exactly what I got. I can not wait to see what is in store for this universe and I hope Insomniac do not take too long to return to it. My passion for video games has been reignited, and I felt like that little boy with his N64 playing Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie for the first time all over again.
Thank you, Insomniac, for making me believe in gaming again, after years of it turning very stale and depressingly uncreative.