A great adventure awaits us. And funny and sad, but at one point I felt how acutely Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (the Russian name Ratchet & Clank: Through the Worlds) echoes the current reality. In the new game from Insomniac Games studio, the brave Lombax and his robot friend saw an alternative reality, where the familiar way of life and familiar terrain suddenly turned into something different, previously unseen, alien and even dangerous.
Somewhere in the parallel universe, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart could be the perfect launch exclusive: dynamic, vibrant, suitable for any age audience. But in our world, the pandemic left its mark, and Sony had completely different plans. Therefore, we have just now got the perfect exclusive for the PS5 launch line.
Our dimension
The Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart story begins with a gift. Robot Klank has assembled a measuring device – an advanced technical device in the shape of a pistol. It will allow Ratchet to travel to alternate dimensions and find his Lombax kinsmen, who are believed to have disappeared without a trace many years ago. The touching moment was broken by Doctor Nefarius. The supervillain cleverly (not really) stole the device, opened up many alternative dimensions and separated the heroes. Chaos began.
From a chronological point of view, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart kicks off some time after the Ratchet & Clank: Nexus (2013) finale. Ratchet and Clank are already quite famous characters in the world where they live – this can be seen almost immediately from the way the crowd enthusiastically welcomes their heroes. In the first minutes, the game builds a large-scale event around them, the result of which was the invasion of Doctor Nefarius. All this is for a reason. The result of recent years for the Insomniac Games studio has been a greatly increased level of directing. Compared to 2016’s Ratchet & Clank, the new adventures of the heroes greatly benefit from the quality of the production. From the first minutes – a dynamic spectacle and a series of staged scenes: Ratchet throws himself into the abyss, flies insane distances and deftly lands on a magnetic rail.
The last game clearly lacked such moments and with an abundance of staged action Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart looks two heads taller. We saw all this in the trailers, but the main question, of course, still hangs in the air: what is there, on the other side? What is the alternative world like?
Alternate world
This is Rivet. The Lombax girl from the alternate universe Rift Apart is also the second central character in the game.
I don’t know how it is in your dimension, but nothing here never goes according to plan. You will learn to improvise very quickly.
And in this she is right. Her part of the adventure looks like a continuous improvisation, but the girl learned to live with it – all her life she was on her own and continues to search for her place. From the outside it will seem that she is damn similar to Ratchet and this is not accidental. Rivet. – an alternative version of Ratchet from a parallel universe. In the narrative, this nuance helps to look at the situation from different angles, to see the story from the point of view of two similar, but all so different from each other characters.
Writers and game designers have taken this idea further. In the course of their adventure, Ratchet and Rivet will come across alternative versions of familiar characters more than once, for example, Captain Quark (his cameo in a parallel world is my favorite), a pirate named Pierre and even Doctor Nefarius. In one of the worlds, he won and proclaimed himself Emperor. To look at the universe of victorious evil is a pure thrill. Where Marvel have been building their multiverse in cinema for years (and continue now), the video game format allowed Insomniac Games studio to meet in a couple of dozen hours.
Ratchet and Rivet travel from one planet to another, look into pocket universes and each time get stuck in some kind of small story, the resolution of which leads them to a common goal. Despite the fact that the heroes are separated in time and space for a long time, their story is harmoniously felt as a single whole. It seems that for the first time I saw a kind of spiritual synergy between characters who for the first half of the game don’t even really know anything about each other. Drama adds to this situation by the assumption that Lombucks have long since disappeared as a species. Yes, it was not so.
Synergy of many worlds
In Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Ratchet and Rivet not only share a common fate, but also a single progress bar. From the point of view of pumping, they act as one character: all weapons and upgrades purchased by Ratchet will be available to Rivet and vice versa. The game doesn’t directly explain this, but to be honest, it doesn’t matter. As soon as you land on a new planet, everything else fades into the background.
The gameplay of Rift Apart is arranged in exactly the same way as in the game of 2016, but with the caveat that the gameplay is now more dynamic and multi-layered. The story will throw the heroes on a dozen different planets and locations (nine, to be precise) and each of them will have their own characteristics.
In terms of atmosphere and plot, these locations, without false modesty, nod towards popular adventure films. For example, creatures similar to dinosaurs live on Sargasso, and the area itself resembles a Jurassic Park in mood and atmosphere. There you will have to fight not only with the minions of Nefarius, but also with nature itself – to overcome difficult swamps and jump over huge abysses.
Ardolis will meet the heroes with filibuster romance: dark bays, treasures, bloodthirsty pirates and one unfortunate sea wolf named Pierre, who must be rescued. Even its own Kraken is – this is a clear homage to the “Pirates of the Caribbean”, but, of course, without direct mention of them.
In addition, there will be an air prison and a space station. Each location has something memorable. Most of all I liked Blizar Prime – a planet with mines. To move through the territory, you need to switch between worlds in time: in one universe, the territory is captured by Nefarius, in the other, it remains a prosperous raw space colony. Insomniac Games has come up with an interesting mechanic for this location. Switching between worlds occurs after hitting a stone with a hammer – and literally, in an instant. This is, of course, a clear demonstration of the PS5’s power and the advantages of an SSD, but I loved it. The only pity is that there is only one so distinctive and original territory in the game. This is perhaps the only serious disadvantage of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart’s gameplay is largely centered around planetary exploration and battles. Moving deeper into the territory of Ratchet and Rivet, they collect the already familiar bolts, for which later you can buy weapons and cartridges from the merchant (Mrs. Zurkon is very charming, like a grandmother). The arsenal is more than solid: enemies can be burned, frozen, burned with a nuclear beam, split, shocked, thrown with poisonous balls, and God knows what else.
Two dozen types of guns work on pace and feel in conjunction with a DualSense gamepad. The trigger half pressed is the first firing option, the trigger fully recessed is the alternative fire. Feelings are really cool, I have not met any similar one. In addition, the sensations of running on different surfaces and interaction with elements of the environment differ. Insomniac Games seems to have leveraged Haptic’s adaptive triggers and feedback capabilities to all the money.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart makes you move. I tried different levels of difficulty, but starting with those that are slightly above average, the enemies hit hard. The only way to avoid damage is to move actively. And enemies are also sensitive to types of weapons, so you also have to quickly switch between guns. I’m not afraid of such a comparison, but in some moments Rift Apart strongly reminded me of Doom Eternal, only from the third person. In my worldview, this is a good compliment, especially considering how this whole process looks like – the PS5 renders some insane amount of detail on the screen. Shells are flying everywhere, everything explodes, and bolts are poured from the defeated enemies in handfuls. I can’t say for sure, but it seems that every single bolt collected by the characters is really drawn. Wow effect and nothing more.
Outside of battles, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart was also a pleasant surprise. It regularly contains riddles and puzzles. For example, Ratchet’s new mini-companion, Glitchka’s little robot, will help the hero unlock the infected computer. To do this, you have to crawl around the microcircuits in the form of a spider and shoot viruses. With the help of Clank, it will be possible to close the pocket dimension – for this you need to solve a simple task and lead a crowd of running robots from point A to point B. The mechanics are simple: remove an obstacle from the road, find an artifact, and use it to change the direction of the track. Repeat.
If desired, any of the puzzles can be skipped through the pause menu. The computer will do everything by itself. I did a couple of puzzles myself, and then skipped them – I can argue that for me they did not work as intended, but it was still a pleasant experience. I happily gave the saved minutes to explore the locations – there in the corner there are raritans (a crystal for pumping weapons), and inside the rift you can find a piece of equipment from the set of armor. They are divided into three parts: head, body and legs. For collecting three things in one set – a good bonus in the form of reduced damage, increased speed, or more bolts falling out of the enemy.
Firepower can be added to any weapon using a raritan. The already familiar scheme works here – experience is awarded for defeated enemies, the level of weapons is increased for experience. New pumping cells are opening – – chose a few nearby – received a superbone in the form of a strong multiplier for some of the characteristics of the gun. Fully pumped weapons transform and change their name – it feels like the power doubles. Perfectionists and those who like to shoot loudly will have a lot to turn around here.
I got my personal pleasure from additional modes. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart call them “Trials”. This is essentially a gladiatorial arena in Zurki’s pub, where you can play as Ratchet or Rivet and earn a few (in fact, a lot) bolts and other rewards. The arena offers three difficulty levels: bronze, silver and gold. Each next one is distinguished by the presence of more conditions for victory. On bronze, it will be enough to kill everyone who jumps into the arena from the portal to the alternate world. On silver, you only need to do this with a certain type of weapon. On gold I had to show all my skills, ingenuity and speed in order to survive. The reward is worth it.
Alternatively, you can find racing competitions on one of the planets. However, you can skip them – this is one of the story missions. The default race is pretty easy, but if you want, you can test yourself and take the silver or gold difficulty levels. I didn’t meet much resistance in either direction, but it was fun.
From a technical point of view, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is exactly the game that I dreamed of seeing at the start of the console sales. In 4K native resolution with ray tracing, it looks just comical – in every sense of the word: reflections, textures, shadows and light, particles. In addition to the visual, sound works. I played almost the entire game in my native Sony headphones and, despite the abundance of sound sources, I always understood which side I was being attacked from. In general, if we talk about innovations in general, then from the point of view of gameplay, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart does not offer something revolutionary. However, the game is technically flawless and the developers have used the new features of the PS5 wisely.
Well, to be completely honest, I was so caught up in the story and gameplay of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart that in looking for the cons of this game, I feel something unnatural. I don’t want to go against myself. Ratchet and Clank’s new adventure is exactly the next one I’ve been waiting for – stylish, beautiful, loud. Suddenly, the game suddenly turned into an expensive animated film from some big studio like Pixar. There is a zest in it, there is a spectacle, there are moments that can reach callous hearts.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is the best starter exclusive in the PS5 lineup, as if thousands of little shards came together perfectly.
