Ratchetrospective: Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart

It’s been a while since the last of the Ratchetrospective reviews, but then it’s been a while since the last Ratchet and Clank game too, The movie tie-in game came out in 2016 and this game in 2021, a full 5 years and a full console generation later. It’s not as if Insomniac Games was idle during that period, in 2018 they released fantastic Spider-man game: Marvel’s Spider-man, and in 2020, as the PS5 launched they launched a Spider-man Spinoff title featuring Miles Morales as the titular character. But the PS5 and its solid-state drive and the some of the features of its new controller opened opportunities for Ratchet and Clank to shine. Also, they set the seeds the multiverse years before Spider-man made it cool, This is Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart.

The events start a few years after the events of the last mainline Ratchet game: Into the Nexus. They’re fronting a parade on the planet or city, it’s never quite made clear which, of Megalopolis. Captain Qwark, voiced by Scott Whyte, as Jim Ward retired under less than ideal circumstances, Skidd McMarx (voiced by Jess Harnell from the movie tie in as opposed to Neil Flynn from the originals) and Rusty Pete (now voiced by… I have no idea who but it isn’t Wally Wingert, and it’s really noticeable)

At the end of the parade Qwark promises a surprise gift from Clank to Ratchet. We get a brief trip down memory lane although the Blarg invasion of Kerwan was more a thing in the film than it was in the original game. The parade soon comes under attack by the Goons-4-Less, Ratchet had flushed the reputation of the Thugs-4-Less so far down the toilet, they had to rebrand.

They’d been hired to kill Ratchet and Clank:

“Someone put a bounty on us?”

Really has been a while, I mean it was in Into the Nexus where you said

“I wish I could go one week without someone putting a price on my head”

Anyway, they manage to fight the goons off for a bit and make it to the front of the parade, where Clank reveals to Ratchet that he’s repaired the dimensionator so that they can travel through dimensions and find the other lombaxes. Something I thought Clank had realised was too dangerous to do like 3 or 4 games back but I digress.

This presentation is interrupted by the orchestrator of the Goon attack, Doctor Nefarious. I know a lot of people initially didn’t like that Nefarious took centre stage after stealing Drek’s spotlight in the film and tie-in game and I get what you mean. It’s worth bearing in mind that it’s been 5 years since that game. is about the same length of time between Nefarious’ appearances in Ratchet and Clank 3 and A Crack in Time. In this timeline, Nefarious’ last appearance was in 2011’s All-4-One, and I know this game rather ignores the character development he went through in that game but I made my position on that clear in that review.

After a brief chase Ratchet and Clank land near the train station and have to fight off more goons before Nefarious confronts them again, Ratchet shoots the dimensionator right in its crystal, destabilising it. Just so you know that the events of this game can be at least partially blamed on Ratchet and game never acknowledges this.

Cracks begin to form in reality, sending people through rifts and bringing attacking enemies through. Ratchet fights his way to Nefarious who’s still using the dimensionator, he wants to go to a dimension where he always wins. Ratchet goes after him but as they land, Clank notices the dimensionator is badly damaged. He tries to fix it but is too late, the dimensionator explodes, splitting the 3 of them up and causing cracks to form across this dimension.

Clank is in a bad shape, being so close to the dimensionator when it exploded left him with a missing arm and damaged legs. He’s picket up by a mysterious new Lombax we saw earlier help a civilian. Nefarious finds himself in the head-quarters of this Universe’s Emperor Nefarious. A title he happily claims for himself.

Ratchet awakens and quickly gets on the hunt for Clank. He stops by Ms. Zurkon, now operating a weapons shop for the Resistance, he then sees the Lombax, with Clank now on her back, run from some Nefarious troopers and get away on a Starship, only Royal Starships can leave without being shot down and Ratchet’s only hope of finding one is with a resistance member named Phantom.

Ratchet tracks down Phantom, this universes’ version of Skidd. After saving him from some troopers, Phantom upgrades his gear, I’ll get to those upgrades in a later section. Phantom agrees to help Ratchet sneak into Nefarious tower to snag a Starship. He gives Ratchet a digital hacking bot named Glitch, who discovers that the computers have been infiltrated with an organic virus known as a zeta-virus.

Ratchet gets into Nefarious tower and steals a ship right under Doctor Nefarious’ nose. I find it funny that not only does this Nefarious have his password written down, but the password is “whywouldineedapasswordimtheemperorhowaboutiobliterateyouinsteadhahahaha” not a valid password for most places, no numbers.

The other Lombax, who we find out is named Rivet, brings Clank to her home on Sargasso, rather sceptical about his story. On Sargasso, rather than Kerchu, it’s a group known as the Morts who run gelatonium production here. But the Morts are under attack by the Goons-4-Less, looking for Ratchet, and making matters worse a number of the Morts are trapped in a dimensional anomaly.

Rivet fights off the goons and gets a look at the anomaly. Clank gets a look too and is someone ends up in a space between spaces alongside a dimensional guardian named Gary, who is meditating himself there from his home of Savali. With Gary’s help, Clank is able to dissipate to anomaly, freeing the morts. Rivet takes Clank to her hideout and scans his memory banks, revealing that he’s exactly who he says he was. Before this can go any further, a Nefarious Seekerpede, seeking an info-bot that Rivet had stolen earlier, uses a magnet to abduct Clank.

Rivet is quick to his rescue, taking down the Seekerpede. She offers to help Clank get in touch with Ratchet by acquiring a new signal booster. Ratchet must have given Clank the ability to contact him after A Crack in Time. Unfortunately, the guy with part they need is Pierre Le Fer, this universe’s counterpart to Rusty Pete.

Pierre is as Zurkie’s Gastropub and Battleplex, in the Unique position where the inside is in a different dimension to the outside. Zurkie, this universe’s Zurkon has renounced violence and disarms all patrons of the pub before entering, remember this for later. The fight then has to happen in the battle-plex run by Zurkon Jr.

Rivet wins the battle, with Pierre heroically sending a mini-boss to fight in his stead and gets the part. Clank contacts Ratchet and it’s made clear that the only hope of sending Doctor Nefarious home, and stopping in imminent cataclysm is to rebuild the dimensionator. Gary on Savali might know how to do so, but they’re also going to need phase quartz, found in the mines of Blizar Prime.

Ratchet heads to Savali and meets up with Gary but because Doctor Nefarious had a spy in the gastropub, he’s sent his forces there too. The knowledge Ratchet seeks are in the dimensional archives, but it’s attached to a walking fortress that knows its in danger and begins moving around. As it does so, Gary’s apprentice KT-7461 falls from the archives in front of Ratchet. To get back to archives, they’re going to need the help of Gary’s acolytes, the monks, who are currently being held captive by Nefarious’ troops.

Ratchet and KT-7461 rescue them all and with their help they make it to the archives, acquiring the information Ratchet needs. As they leave, more ariel support arrives and to protect the archives, KT-7461 reveals that she can transform into a giant form where she is exceptionally powerful, like more powerful than any of the Emperor’s forces… why didn’t he build, like, an army of these?

Oh yeah, KT-7461 was a warbot built by the emperor, but was horrified enough by the violence she was causing that she ran away to Savali. She hates herself and in particular that form. The rubion forge needed to create the dimensionator is on Kedaro station, the most secure outpost in the galaxy where the emperor makes a lot of his troops. KT-7461, now agreeing to go by the nickname Kit decides to accompany Ratchet.

Back with Rivet, she and Clank arrive on Blizar Prime to find it destroyed. They explore the ruins, finding Blizon crystal, which has stored energy from the dimensional rifts and allows them to travel to an alternate Blizar-Prime, where the planet is in-tact and the mine still operational, though shut down due to various factors. To traverse, they travel between these 2 dimensions frequently and in their dimension, they find one of the miners survived and realising that the barriers between these dimensions must be thin, she tries to send a message to the other universe, Rivet and Clank are unaware of what the message is and only hear snippets of it on their travels.

The chief engineer in the other dimension is disturbed by hearing strange voices and has sent robots to scan the area. Rivet finds them and returns the data to her, and in return she agrees to activate the drill, once Clank get rid of the dimensional anomaly blocking an outflow pipe. They begin to drill but the message is cleaned up. It was turning on the drill that caused a cascading chain reaction that blew up Blizar-Prime in their dimension. Once the single chunk of Phase-Quartz is created, Rivet redirects the laser away from the surface, saving the planet, but their chunk of Phase-Quartz gets shattered in the process. Rivet heard of a story about a guy named The Fixer who should be able to fix it, he’s on the planet Torren IV.

They head there immediately but the outpost is under attack by Pierre and his space pirates, the Fixer is a giant robot who has gone inactive. Rivet fights her way onto Pierre’s ship and, in a last-ditch attempt to kill Rivet, gets his crew to blow it up. Rivet escapes and finds her way to and reactivates the Fixer, who forces the pirates to retreat. The Fixer had been distressed by the number of broken things found on Torren IV, I mean it is a junk planet, what did he expect? And it broke him. He doesn’t believe himself worthy of fixing things and that destruction is the natural state of things, he then attacks Rivet and Clank. It’s Clank who comes up with an idea.

He tells Fixer that though he may not be the same that he was, the Fixer has helped show him that he is still Clank. The Fixer calms down, relieved and finally able to see hope again. He’s not entirely better but he can work on it. As a thank you to Rivet and Clank he fixes the Phase Quartz.

Back with Ratchet, he and Kit land at Kedaro Station, but with heavy security, getting in isn’t easy, much like with Blizar, they find Blizon crystal and use it to travel into an alternate dimension where the station has mostly been abandoned outside of the quirky Junk-Bot, and an invincible electric-based monster he’s nicknamed Juice. After evading Juice they head back into the main dimension, where Kit tells the workforce that they’re interior decorators to not arouse suspicion. When they attempt to use the forge, however, Ratchet presses the wrong button an end up destroying the forge.

With troopers everywhere, they escape to the other dimension and decide to try and activate their forge. After glitch wipes out the zeta virus on their systems, noting that the virus exists in this dimension too. It’s worth noting that the zeta virus is getting more-clever with every encounter. The first time the virus pods were just reproducing viruses to swarm glitch, in the next encounter (which I glossed over on Savali) some are more capable of shooting back and have come drawn power from computer to shield themselves, in this encounter, some of the viruses are capable of shooting and flying as well, though Glitch gets an upgrade also. They engineer an ambush but Glitch manages to fight it off. 

Even with the computer active there’s insufficient power to activate the forge, they look around, evading Juice some more and find a log showing Juice out in the water being captured by other robots like Junkbot. They want to snag the power source from the main dimension and so head back there, finding that Juice is the power source. Ratchet and Kit free juice in this dimension and it helps them, fighting off more of Nefarious’ troops, and travelling with them to the alternate dimension, pacifying their Juice [and possibly more] and together they power the forge long enough to forge the dimensionator.

With that made, Ratchet contacts Rivet, from an alternate dimension, somehow. And they agree to meet at Zurkies. They do and Clank and Kit swap backs, but, as they enter Zurkies, Doctor Nefarious and his troopers, somehow still armed, have them surrounded and force them to hand over the dimensionator and the phase quartz. Rivet wants a shot at him and does so, defeating him in-front of the Battleplex audience but things quickly turn as Ratchet and Clank have their asses handed to them by this dimension’s Emperor Nefarious.

He's been busy eliminating other targets from the hitlist Rivet found on an infobot. I hadn’t mentioned it up until now because it was really not important. Doctor Nefarious offers to help Emperor Nefarious and they head off together, promising to make things interesting as a home game. Rivet quickly realises they’re heading to Sargasso and she and Kit head there to quell the invasion. Ratchet and Clank meanwhile need to find the last rebel on the list, Captain Quantum, Rivet suggesting he head to Ardolis and get help from Pierre.

On Sargasso Rivet finds the planet under a massive assault, with the Emperor capturing or killing not just the Morts but any indigenous life on the planet. The Morts have the Seekerpede fixed but it’s stuck in a dimensional anomaly. Rivet fights her way over as Kit dissipates the anomaly, freeing the Seekerpede. But the battle-cruisers begin activating destructo-beams that given time would destroy the planet. Rivet uses her flying friend Trudi and some gelatonium bombs to blow up the battle-cruisers, one of which crashes into the mothership and destroys that too. But Emperor just shows up in front of her and throws her into another dimension. Fortunately for Rivet it’s a pocket dimension she can easily get out of.

As they do so, Kit asks about Rivet’s robot arm, Kit responds that she was entering a Nefarious facility and came across one of his warbots, Kit realises that it was her but decides not to tell.

Ratchet lands on Ardolis and learns that Pierre is about to be executed for scuttling his own ship. Ratchet fights his way to Pierre and rescues him for being chow for their giant tentacle-based monster they’ve nicknamed ‘Bubbles.’ It responds to a bell, apparently. Pierre tells them that to see Quantum they need to pass the pirate trials, in a reality a theme park attraction with more murder.

They meet Quantum, who is this universe’s version of Qwark, living up to the pirate name but wearing a bucket on his head. Turns out he’s stayed ahead of the Emperor as he had him bugged. But when Ratchet wants the helmet and it gets knocked off, the Pirates see and claim Ratchet to be a murder. They must really have liked Quantum, I doubt Slag would’ve gotten a vow of revenge.

Anyway, they fight off a pirate ambush and Ratchet says that Qwark is a hero because of….  HehehehehhahahahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Anyway, then the Emperor shows up, Quantum shows his heroic side by throwing Ratchet and Clank, with the helmet so he won’t be captured like he is. Emperor Nefarious broadcasts his success to the galaxy but doesn’t feel fulfilled, he decides that his next operation is dimensional conquest and so he doesn’t need years to find them like the Doctor did, he’s going after the dimensional map in the archives on Savali.

Both parties head there to stop him, but arrive finding the dimensional archives destroyed by trooper fire. As they proceed to check whether the map has been taken, the barriers between dimensions are so thin that the dead begin rising. With that they find the map is missing from the Archives. Rivet and Kit board Emperor Nefarious’ flagship and find Gary, who tells them he hid the map inside a dimensional anomaly.

Ratchet and Clank look for it, finding their way down to the underground catacombs. With help from the monks, they seal the rifts causing the dead to rise and Clank takes a look at the Anomaly, recovering the dimensional map. Also, around this level Glitch encounters the Master Virus, who thanks her for forcing them to evolve. Nonetheless, the virus is defeated.

Unfortunately for Clank as he recovers the map, Emperor Nefarious has Ratchet by the neck, and they’re forced to hand it over, before being sent to Zordoom Prison. Kit and Rivet see this and Rivet turns into giant form to stop them, showing Rivet that she’s the warbot who took her arm. Rivets attacks fail thanks to Doctor Nefarious, but neither of them see Rivet who heads to Zordoom to stage a jailbreak.

Rivet first finds Clank and saves him and most of the named Resistance members. She’s still feeling a lot of conflicting feelings about Kit and eventually confesses so to Clank. Ratchet and Kit are in a VIP cell but despite multiple struggles they are able to save them, as well as free most of the prisoners including pirates and Goons-4-less thugs, who side with you against the Nefarious troops. Clank asks if Rivet could forgive Kit, and suggests that maybe she should. Kit seems to deeply regret her actions. But before we can get anywhere, Kit decides to return to her exile on Savali, something that does not make Rivet happy.

“I am broken, I will always be broken”

They head back to Zurkies as the Emperor broadcasts himself again, this time, much to Doctor Nefarious’ chagrin, he’s heading to conquer Ratchet’s dimension, starting with Megalopolis. Everyone at Zurkies is heading there to help. The Emperor really should’ve just closed the door behind him, would have saved him a lot of trouble.

Emperor Nefarious brings back a massive battle suit to fight them but thanks to the monks, Ratchet heads inside and blows up the mech. He’s flung to the other side of the city, leaving Rivet to fight the Emperor. He’s willing to collapse all of reality to accomplish his goals, thankfully Kit, in her giant form decides she can’t run away from this fight and joins in, able to annihilate most of Nefarious’ troops, leaving Rivet to deal with the Emperor. It’s a tough fight but ultimately one Rivet wins. Ratchet returns and is able to retrieve the dimensionator, opening a portal and summoning bubbles to drag Nefarious away, it’s Doctor Nefarious who delivers the final blow, before getting crushed under rubble after jumping for joy.

With the dimensionator in their hands, Clank is able to use the knowledge he acquired fixing dimensional anomalies to avert the dimensional cataclysm. With the day saved, Ratchet offers Rivet a chance to go with him to find the lost lombaxes.

That was easily the longest plot synopsis I’ve written for a Ratchet and Clank game. I’ve not even mentioned everything that happens. Something I think they kinda succeeded at is the idea of each world having a separate story. None of the planets here are just a gap-filler between one planet and the next. All serve an important role in the narrative and each planet has some story of its own.

But let’s talk about characters, Ratchet in this film is somewhat older and wiser than he has been previously, but there’s a level of anxiety around it. In the opening he’s worried that he’s lost his edge and become washed up after not doing heroics in a few years. He’s also more apprehensive than he’s ever been regarding looking for the Lombaxes, obviously past experience, including many from this very game, show that the dimensionator is a magnet for trouble but beyond that he has begun to develop a lot of self-doubt believing that maybe the Lombaxes either won’t be what he expected or that they could be disappointed in him. A lot of his confidence that permeated his earlier games has worn down with age.

Rivet is allegedly Ratchet’s dimensional counterpart; this is something people criticise as there’s no divergent point where the Ratchet could have gone in that dimension. My counter-argument is that with an infinite number of dimensions, why would there be? But the point that Rivet is very much her own character and not an extension of Ratchet is true, and that’s probably for the best. To be honest, the idea of them being dimensional counterparts is more a gameplay gimmick which I will explain later.

Rivet’s reality is that she’s grown up trying to fight an oppressive totalitarian regime. She’s not entirely against making allies but she's slow to trust people, especially robots as you see with Clank early on. You could argue that her semi-antagonistic relationship with Pierre is something she finds preferable because at least she knows where she stands with the pirates.

Through Clank she begins to open up and trust again, but that trust is shaken again once she learns the truth about Kit. And Clank never tries to force her to forgive (I would absolutely hate it if he did) he only says that maybe she should. The fact is though, that despite all of this, Rivet is ready to put her life on the line to rescue her. She is, without a doubt, a hero.

Clank probably gets the least development of the core 4, it’s implied he wants to be a little more confident and quicker to action, not caught up in the details, it’s not really given any thematic weight. Clank losing his arm and legs feel somewhat inconsequential which is disappointing, aside from being a part of how he deals with the Fixer. 

Kit is allegedly the dimensional counterpart of Clank, and certainly does share aspects of his origin but whilst Clank was defective from the outset, Kit’s antics tugged at her conscience ultimately leading to her defection from the regime. She lived in self-imposed exile on Savali until Ratchet came along. Ratchet is able to talk to her and convince her that she can be a partner, and a friend. She’s reluctant but Ratchet convinces her, and she can also be attributed to giving him help in kind about his feelings regarding the Lombaxes.

Still, words mean nothing when faced against the source of your own guilt as Kit is with Rivet. In her eyes, unable to reconcile her conscience with her actions she considers herself broken. And this is the link-back to the Fixer, seeing all the broken things that exist made him feel broken. The game touches on deep themes such as mental health and whilst it’s never elaborated on too deeply, the games messages are obvious. It’s never too late to change, being broken doesn’t mean you can never be fixed, confronting your problems is better than running from them but you aren’t anchored to your past and even in the darkest of times, hope still remains. These are all strong messages permeating the narrative

In contrast, this is easily the most successful the villains have ever been, well, villains named Nefarious are anyway. Weirdly it feels like a carryover from the spider-man games, the main villains of that game, including the DLC stay one step ahead of Peter through most of the narrative, and the same can be said for Nefarious here.

Whilst their on-screen physical fights usually end in the Lombaxes favour, Doctor and Emperor Nefarious are cunning, using the dimensionator to its fullest potential and pull off victories through most of the narrative, stealing the dimensionator, taking Ratchet and Clank to the right dimension, stealing the rebuilt dimensionator and then with the Emperor he defeats Rivet, manages to obtain the dimensional map and captures Ratchet, Clank and Kit.

The Emperor’s deal is that he’s so used to winning every fight he’s stopped finding any enjoyment in victory, hence his supposed final victory being somewhat hollow for him. Doctor Nefarious is the opposite, having been defeated enough times that he appreciates a victory, he does however fade into the background a bit once the Emperor comes along. There’s a dynamic there but it’s not played upon nearly enough.

Doctor Nefarious’ Lance and Janice running gag has gone and probably for the best as that gag had run its course and Lawrence is regrettably absent. Get this, Nefarious respects him enough to give him paid Paternity leave. Lawrence isn’t missed as much in this game, largely because the game doesn’t really involve a massive amount of story around him.

Gary’s father is the Plumber and they’re both interdimensional guardians. This both makes no sense and too much sense at the same time, I love it.

Pierre is my favourite character, talking in a faux french accent whilst saying all these pirate-ish lines should not work but the voice actor, Rafael Padarti, pulls it off. I don’t have much to say about Quantum or Phantom, their appearances are too brief to make any real judgement about their characters.

The split narrative between the two characters works reasonably well, each character gets a similar amount of screen-time and all have likeable enough personalities that it isn’t irritating. The best worlds narratively are the two that use the Blizon crystals, each utilising the multi-dimensional transport as a means of telling a unique narrative for each world.

The gameplay utilises the standard Ratchet move-set for both Ratchet and Rivet but adds a few tweaks to keep things interesting.

Wall Running

You get an upgrade early on in the game that allows you to traverse certain walls

Phantom Dash

Additionally with that upgrade comes the Phantom Dash. You can use it to gain more distance with your jumps, but primarily its used as a dodge mechanic, enemies can be quite aggressive and it’s a good evasive manoeuvre.

Rift Tether

The rift tether allows you to transport yourself to the location of rifts, this allows you to traverse otherwise impossible gaps and in wider combat scenarios, and there are a lot of them in this game you can use them to flank your enemies.

Hurlshot

An upgrade to the classic swingshot that allows you to attach to certain targets that hurl you across large gaps

Upgraded Hoverboots

Your current hoverboots are apparently damaged and can only be used to glide in the absence of Clank (Kit does not possess a heli-pack) once you get this upgrade you can pump the boots to full speed and travel across the levels very quickly, much faster than the old ones.

Pocket Dimensions

Opened with the rift tether, these areas offer some platforming challenges, usually with an armour piece at the end of them

Blizon Crystal

On Blizar Prime and at the Rubion forge, Ratchet and Rivet are able to travel to an alternate dimension by striking any shard of Blizon crystal in the level.

Custom armour

Rather than buying the armour at a vendor, in this game you find pieces of armour sets scattered throughout levels and in pocket dimensions, each piece of armour collected boosts certain defensive stats whether you wear it or not, meaning you lose nothing by wearing any particular completed set, keeping your armour as it is or using a combination from different sets.

Speedle

Traversing wider levels with otherwise deadly hazards can be made easier with the use of the Speedle.

Trudie

On Sargasso, and a segment in the finale, Rivet can control of a flying creature named Trudi. She can fire fireballs which are quite strong but the controls aren’t that great, as you control 3d motion with a single analogue stick.

Glitch

Gifted to Ratchet in an early level Glitch is played as a little spider-tank, capable initially of firing a standard blaster, capable of taking out virus and swarm rockets, capable of taking out the nests. In later levels she gets upgraded blasters and an electro-pulse attack, useful as the number of viruses swarming her increases.

Clank/Kit gameplay

In dimensional anomalies, Clank or Kit must guide versions of themselves called possibilities to a meta-terminal using spheres with various functions. There are 4 types in total, a lift sphere, that allows the possibilities to pass large gaps or over obstacles, and can be used to lift obstacles out of the way, the speed sphere which increases the speed of the possibilities, allowing them to break certain obstacles or, when combined with the lift sphere, fly even further. The heavy sphere which allows the possibilities to negate the effects of direction-changing fans or lower obstacles, and the Electric sphere which allows possibilities to pass through an electric cable. Sometimes the possibilities need to press buttons to allow you to access certain spheres and sometimes you need to press buttons to change the direction of the possibilities toward the meta-terminal. Clank can also experience the effects of each sphere so he can reach other spheres. Each anomaly has 3 of these puzzles to complete.

Also, Ratchet and Rivet can now double jump on a grind rail.

This weapon features an array of weapons, both old and new, there are 20 weapons in total in this game, including your classic rocket launcher, the Warmonger and returning weapons Buzz Blades, the Pixeliser (available on first playthrough if pre-ordered and in challenge mode otherwise) and the Bouncer (available in challenge mode only) there are a few other classics, but as they utilise the dual-sense’s haptic triggers, I’m gonna talk about them.

Burst Pistol

Your classic pistol weapon except this one has 2 firing modes a half push on the trigger fires single shots which are more accurate but a full press begins a rapid fire, getting more powerful as the weapon upgrades to be triple barrelled.

Shatterbomb

Your classic bomb-glove weapon except here a half-press on the trigger gives you an aiming arc, allowing you to aim without using the aim button. Not sure if this is useful or not, when upgraded the bomb leaves shards in its wake to further damage enemies

The Enforcer

Initially a double-barrelled shotgun, this weapon fires a single shot with a half-press on the trigger and a double shot with a full press. Upgrades to later have 4 barrels

Mr Fungi

Your classic companion weapon, this mushroom talks smack to your enemies, though in a less interesting way than Mr Zurkon did as it fires projectiles. Upgrades to have a second companion Mrs Fungi

Negatron Collider

A half press on the trigger allows you to charge the weapon and hold the charge, a full press will release the charge, a massive beam of energy that can do quite a bit of damage in the early game. When upgraded the end of the charge will result in a massive explosion, further damaging enemies.

Topiary Sprinkler

A classic combined turret and transformation weapon, though it does little damage, it transforms enemies into a shrubbery for a brief period of time, allowing you to control crowds and lay on more damage. Upgraded it does a little more damage

Ricochet

This pinball inspired weapon locks onto a nearby target and allows you to hit them multiple times with the same shot, timed correctly, it will do extra damage. This is a good weapon for getting behind shielded enemies as it tends to attack from the side.

Lightning Rod

This is a rapid-fire electric weapon that stuns enemies once they take a certain amount of hits. Upgraded you can fire more powerful charged shots with a half-press on the trigger.

Drillhound

A half-press on the trigger allows you to lock onto a target, a full press launches a drilling robot that launches itself at enemies and explodes. Can upgraded to lock onto multiple targets at once and each shot shooting multiple drills at each target. It is a tad slow to lock on in busier combat scenarios

Void Repulsor

Creates a shield that can absorb enemy attacks and redirect enemy projectiles, half-press to activate the shield and full press to launch a shockwave attack, great for crowd control of smaller swarmer enemies.

Glove of Doom

A return from the remake these are ludicrously powerful and able to get behind shielded enemies.  They don’t get the jet booster upgrade from the remake but do get massive explosions

Cold Snap

Speaking of ludicrously powerful weapons, the cold snap, an enemy that freezes its target in a block of ice, where it can be shattered and kill the enemy in a few hits. Upgraded this grenade is an area of effect weapon, and hyper-strikes can send out powerful ice shards to further damage and freeze enemies

Bombadier

A drone weapon that flies overhead and targets and fires missiles at enemies from above, it has its uses but since the drone only heads in one direction, the enemies it can target is limited. Upgraded it falls on the ground and explodes once the shot runs out of missiles.

Headhunter

I’d usually classify this as a classic sniper rifle but unlike previous iterations, as hinted at in the name, the head is the weak-spot. Upgraded it can create weak-spots anywhere you’ve already shot the enemy. It also is supposed to refund ammo for missed shots, it doesn’t always work though.

Blackhole Storm

The first non-RYNO mini-gun of the franchise, rapid fires bullets doing a decent amount of damage but with a short wind up and cooldown capacity meaning you can’t use it indefinitely. Upgraded killing an enemy creates a blackhole explosion that impacts nearby enemies.

RYNO 8

They’ve finally made a RYNO that actually feels new, plus it utilises the rift gimmick of the story, allowing you to open portals into alternate dimensions and drop various items on foes creating shockwaves, including references to a bunch of sony properties such as Jak and Daxter, Sly Cooper, Uncharted and Horizon. There are a few issues with this weapon, it’s difficult to judge the depth of fire correctly so shots can easily miss and the damage it does is rather small when coupled with the limited ammo. A single shot (the gun carries 7 shots) out of the RYNO does maybe 5% damage on a mini-boss enemy and that’s on easy mode.

The game is largely fun to play but there are still bugs and glitches, during my playthrough for this review. The game refused to move me to the next phase of the Nefarious boss in the early game and I clipped into some rocks and got stuck on Savali. They’re not major issues, especially combined with the generous checkpoint system but they’re noticeable none the less.

When it comes to weapons, there are a lot of weapons that serve basically the same function, The Burst Pistol, the Lightning Rod and the Buzz Blades are all rapid fire low-damage weapons, the Drillhound and the Warmonger are both high powered projectile launchers. The Agents of Doom, Mr Fungi and the Bombadier are all drone weapons that can distract as well as damage enemies. The Cold Snap and the Topiary Sprinkler both freeze your enemies in place leaving them vulnerable to other attacks and the Pixeliser and The Enforcer are both shotgun weapons. Some have additional added effects but the serve basically the same purpose and I feel maybe some of these were added as ideas at the last minute.

There are a number of wide-open levels that could do with some narrative side-content. Not just missions to collect things. See any of the side missions in their Spider-man game.

The game does make use of the SSD for rapid loading times. The game transitions you from one planet to another almost instantaneously. The Blizon crystal segments load another world instantaneously. Certain bosses use rifts to transport you to different boss whilst still within the fight. I wish this was carried forward more into the end-game.

In terms of enemy variety, there are 4 main enemy factions, each with their own mini-boss that you fight repeatedly. The Goons-4-Less and their goon dropship; the Indigenous Species and the Grunthor; the Robot Pirates and their Pirate Commanders and The Nefarious Troopers with the Nefarious Juggernaut. You face these mini-bosses a lot which is a shame as there aren’t that many distinct bosses in this game. You fight Nefarious, then a Seekerpede, then Nefarious again, then Emperor Nefarious’ mech and finally Emperor Nefarious himself. Even the arena doesn’t have unique bosses, recycling a Grunthor and a Seekerpede from earlier levels.

Don’t get me wrong the core Ratchet and Rivet gameplay is fun though there’s not much to distinguish them when it comes to gameplay. Most of Rivets levels could be played by Ratchet and vise-versa. The only differences would be the hammer that Rivet uses vs the wrench that Ratchet does. They use the dimensional counterpoint argument to justify them sharing progression paths.

Clank’s gameplay is fun but it’s also rather easy. It’s also skippable for those who don’t like puzzles. I don’t mind this but if that’s the case, why not make the puzzles themselves more challenging, the inventory allows for 8 of each orb type to be held, but you’ll only ever have 2 of them. Maybe hide a gold bolt or something behind a dimensional rift with a more challenging puzzle.

I haven’t mentioned Craigerbears as a collectable because as far as I know, they don’t do anything in game, just unlock a trophy.

A major push at game development studios has been accessibility, and this game has a plethora of accessibility options for those who need them. The game also comes with 5 difficulties, with the enemies being harder to hit and more aggressive as well as being tougher and dealing more damage on higher difficulty. I’ve played the hardest difficulty before and my only major issue was in the arena challenges that limit you to a single weapon. Even me with a fully upgraded enforcer and a good amount of health couldn’t combat the very aggressive and accurate goons.

The game looks absolutely gorgeous with the expressive animation and intricate detail they couldn’t afford with the remake. The new features including ray-tracing allow decently detailed reflections to show up and for those who want it, you can increase the frame rate to 60fps with the graphics being downgraded from 4K as the trade-off.

The game is a little on the short side, but the levels themselves are huge, so huge that a Spider-man style objective marker is used in case you get lost. Ardolis has its primary path remade almost entirely from Tools of Destruction, and only Zordoom Prison looks completely different to its Tools of Destruction counterpoint.

Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart is a fun and solid entry into the Ratchet series. It has a great story and impressive animation and graphics and new gameplay gimmicks that help make the game fun, taking full advantage of the PS5’s new hardware, whilst continuing the mostly shooter-based platforming the game franchise is known for. It’s not faultless, but it is a great game none-the-less

Rating 85/100