I love me some Ratchet & Clank.

It’s been 5 whole years since long fans of the series had an opportunity to play as their favorite Lombax and robot bud: Ratchet & Clank. I just finished up my play through about 2 weeks ago, and looking back at the release date of June 2021, I realize I am a little late in delivering my impressions. So we’re going to skip that for now. Needless to say, the game has been very well received by the community, which is pretty much a standard the team at Insomniac Games has set for almost 20 years now with the series.

This post is going to follow the same vein of the one I did for Ghost of Tsushima that was pleasantly well received by you guys; I’ll share some screenshots, talk about them and my experiences, and we’ll go from there. I have a lot to share (I think I captured like 33 shots) so I’m going to try a something different by using slideshows.

Let’s talk/look at Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart!

P.S. the first two photos were taken directly from the PlayStation site since I realized I didn’t have any actual photos of just the characters.

The game starts off pretty quick, with players starting off as Ratchet and Clank celebrating their previous adventures. Timeline wise, this game takes place after 2013’s Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus. If you’re like me and you never got a chance to play Into the Nexus, make sure you read up on it because their are a few key points you’ll miss. It felt so good taking control of Ratchet again after 5 years (5 WHOLE YEARS SINCE THE REBOOT), and it’s crazy to see how far we’ve come since the original game launched back in 2002. an event of epic magnitude thrusts you into control of our newest hero Rivet.

Not going to lie to you; new main characters make me nervous. Nero made me nervous when he got the reigns to the series in Devil May Cry 4, but it worked out pretty well. Rivet’s inclusion was actually really nice. She’s Ratchet’s fiery counterpart, with the only downside being there wasn’t that much of a difference gameplay wise between the two. Despite that bummer, she had some of the cooler parts in the game, she doesn’t feel like an afterthought or forced, so she gets an A+ from me.

Now you may realize this is a stock image of her and Clank. It is, but the funny part about it is, that’s what the game looks like all the time.

This game is incredibly stunning. It blows my mind how Insomniac Games have always managed to push the PlayStation consoles to get the most out of them without making them sound like a dying airplane. I believe I ran the “Performance Mode RT” setting (fact check I did run that mode), which gives you 60 frames per second and some of the benefits of Ray Tracing, and this thing was phenomenal. There is a Photo Mode to mess around with for all you artists, but sometimes the best photos are the ones you take without prepping. Photos 3, 5, and 8 are my favorite ones just because the detail is absurd. The combat is just as beautiful too!!

Combat follows the formula Insomniac has spent 20 years perfecting. You shoot, loot, and upgrade your ridiculous weapons to make them even more ridiculous. Maybe it’s been awhile, but Mrs. Zurkon’s shop was really freaking cool. A lot of the weapons are the same affair: a shotgun, a grenade launcher, a pistol but plenty of favorites return. However, some of the newest additions are fun and unique like the Topiary Sprinkler (Photo #7) a sprinkler grenade that temporarily turns enemies into a plant statue or the Ricochet a pinball based long range weapon. The game makes good use of the haptic feedback with holding the triggers providing different effects (longer grenade tosses, faster firing gun, bigger blasts). No spoilers, but make sure you grab all the collectibles to get that hidden gun that’s in every Ratchet and Clank game!

Combat holds up fantastically in the Performance RT mode with so many enemies and effects being thrown onto the screen yet flowing so seamlessly. Photo #10 was my absolute favorite because look at it (not me bragging more like me being proud of the fact I caught it).

Back when I wrote my Ghost of Tsushima post, I talked about how video games are debated endlessly on whether they should be considered art or not. If this game doesn’t help push the envelope forward, amongst the other millions of well done titles, then I don’t want them to be considered art.

I could honestly go on and on about this game, but that’s not fun. I had a blast playing a new entry in the series, and the fact that Insomniac Games manages to push the bar and innovate after so long is impressive. If you have a PS5 and din’t get this yet, please do. For those of you that don’t have one yet due to the scalping and low inventory, I hope you get one soon so you can experience this game.

My only wish is that with the consistency this series has, I hope it points Sony towards bringing back either Jak & Daxter or Sly Cooper. Those games probably would’ve done just as good if Sony kept up with them.

Also side side not, I’m going to be starting up a new “esports” section on the site soon. Can’t wait to bring more content!