26 Jun
Blog

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart Review: Superhero Spectacle

Ratchet fires a huge gun in Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

"Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is a pure superhero spectacle that takes full advantage of the PS5 hardware."

  • Exciting set pieces

  • Lots of weapons

  • Fantastic look

  • Impressive technology

  • Disjointed story

  • Overzealous DualSense support

Insomniac know how to make a superhero game. In the past few years, the studio has released two excellent Spider-Man titles of death defying action and big budget set pieces that could make Kevin Feige jealous. So it's no wonder that Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is a full-blown Marvel video game film.

It's a natural evolution for one of Sony's most enduring first-party franchises. While it began as a standard 3D platformer in an era when Sony spawned animal mascots, it has only pumped up the galactic spectacle with each new console for the past two decades. With Sony's most impressive hardware yet in the PS5, Insomniac Games can finally play its Hollywood chops and transform the duo into compelling pint-sized Avengers.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is a technical powerhouse full of exciting platform set pieces and busy environments. Its weapons arsenal doesn't quite reach the creative heights of previous editions, but the visual high makes for a fun summer blockbuster.

Marvel's Ratchet & Clank

Like previous games in the series, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is an action-packed third-person platform game. The eponymous Lombax hero Ratchet combs planets for collectibles as he carves his way through waves of enemies while the robot Clank tackles puzzle interludes. It's always been a recipe for success for Insomniac, and not much has changed about the secret sauce here. Everything is a little bigger and more noticeable, but the core gameplay is still rock solid.

Playing through a world really feels like flashing through another Hollywood action set piece.

The main difference this time around is that the game plays with alternate realities. Ratchet finds himself in a dimension where his rival Dr. Nefarious has finally taken control of the galaxy. It wouldn't be a "Mirror World" story without a doppelganger, so the game includes a second Lombax called Rivet that players control almost every other level. Functionally, it's exactly the same as Ratchet, which feels like a missed opportunity. Equipment, weapons, and upgrades are shared between both Lombaxes, so it feels like playing the same character with a pallet swap from planet to planet.

Rivets with hover boots in Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart.

It's hard to complain about when Lombax up-to-the-minute gameplay is so much fun. Each level is a finely designed amusement park with exciting rides. When players aren't hunting for secrets or blowing up enemies, they'll race off ramps on the back of a beetle or drag on roller-coaster-like rails as explosions go off in all directions.

This is where the superhero DNA really becomes visible. Playing through a world really feels like flashing through another Hollywood action set piece. This can make the experience feel disjointed at times, as the game's strangely tangled story feels like a way to justify putting dozens of different ideas together. But as with any good blockbuster, it's best to sit back and take in the colorful sensory explosion.

No superhero movie is complete without a few sidekicks. The clank sections are sparse but a perfect change of pace. They revolve around simple ball puzzles where Clank must safely guide projections of themselves to an exit with balls that they can speed up, jump and do more. The more exciting side missions come from Glitch, a miniature mech that Ratchet uses to fend off microscopic viruses. It's little shooter sections that offer some mind-boggling movement, effective haptic feedback, and the game's most charming original character.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart isn't the most narrative-addicting adventure, but it offers the same thrill as Insomniac's Spider-Man games. The heroes are just a little furlier.

Lights, camera, action

The Ratchet & Clank series sets itself apart from other mascot platform games with its focus on action, and that is true here as well. Rift Apart offers players a buffet of weapons and grenades to experiment with. The game does an excellent job of encouraging players to use them all instead of picking one and quitting it. Each weapon can be leveled up, expanding your personal upgrade tree. I found myself back and forth between my guns in every battle, really driven to see what each one could do in its final form.

A close up of the ratchet in the Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart.

Compared to previous entries, the arsenal is a bit tame this time around. There are plenty of recurring favorites, but few of the new weapons feel as creative as tools like the Groovitron or Qwack-O-Matic that turned enemies into ducks in Up Your Arsenal. The most memorable tool is the topiary sprinkler, which temporarily turns enemies into shrubs. This is one of the few weapons that master the series' slapstick fight.

I found myself back and forth between my guns in every battle, really driven to see what each one could do in its final form.

It feels a bit like Insomniac played it more directly to make better use of the PS5 DualSense controller. Many weapons have alternate modes of fire or quirks that take advantage of the controller's adaptive triggers. The headhunter sniper zooms in depending on how hard the left trigger is pulled, for example. Not every gun makes use of this idea, but those that add a little extra depth to the shooting.

The technology is fun to use, but admittedly it can be a pain point. And I mean a literal one. The pull-off resistance becomes physically demanding. With a weapon like the ricochet, players must hammer the right trigger multiple times to destroy enemies. The trigger pull is so hard that I switched to my middle finger just to give my pointer a break. Returnal really got to the heart of how to develop gunplay around adaptive triggers with their Alt-Fire system, but I can imagine a lot of gamers will turn the feature off here entirely.

The gunplay may have been reworked a little to fit the PS5 itself, which is what we've seen in games like Destruction AllStars. Despite these quirks, the fight is still chaotic. When I electrify a creature with a weapon, I create a perfect "weird nonsense" moment in which my stunned enemy wobbles in place like a cartoon character after plugging a fork into an electrical outlet. Shooting down a creature is always rewarded with some sort of detailed animation that is a joy to see.

Big budget thrill

If Returnal is the best presentation of the PS5 controller, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is the game that best shows off the console itself. It's a visually stunning game that plays like a CGI movie. There were moments when I didn't even realize I had regained control of the character after smoothly coming out of a cutscene. The worlds are so rich in detail that they look like they belong in a pre-rendered film sequence.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is in many ways the best example of how powerful this current generation of consoles is.

Take a location like the game's opening world, a little slice of a busy city. It's not just a couple of major buildings that some NPCs are walking around in. The sky is filled with flying cars whizzing overhead and neon signs flashing far in the distance. For an even easier treat, clap the wall of a box and enjoy the explosion of particles that occurs when hundreds of wood splinters and bolts fly in all directions.

The real star of the show is the PS5's SSD, which Insomniac takes full advantage of. Ratchet and Rivet are given a tether with which they can cross portals and teleport them forward seamlessly using a technical magic trick.

Ratchet flies a kite in Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart.

This is particularly useful for the entire alternative dimension angle. There are “pocket dimensions” scattered over the levels, which take the player to a completely different level of challenge without loading time. Whenever games try to pull such tricks, there is always a secret seam that they use to hide the wait. Check out God of War, which uses a mystical zone to hide the loading between areas. When those moments happen behind the scenes at Rift Apart, they are completely invisible.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is in many ways the best example of how powerful this current generation of consoles is. It offers spectacle after spectacle and creates its own version of "film magic" for games. I just wanted to reach into a bag of popcorn for the whole adventure.

Our opinion

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is another great PS5 exclusivity that really shows what the hardware is capable of. It's a visually detailed platformer with three thrilling Iron Man films. Filming suffers a little from an overzealous DualSense integration that is literally painful, but Insomniac has created a colorful blockbuster that's crammed with good old-fashioned comic mischief.

Is there a better alternative?

If we think of this as a superhero game (which it is), it's about on par with Marvel's Spider-Man. Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury offers a little more value for platformer.

How long it will take?

The story lasts about 10-12 hours and I got 100% within 15. There are good reasons to play again, however, as weapons can level up the second time around.

Should you buy it?

Yes. It's another strong exclusivity for the PS5 range, and one that really gets the most out of the system.

Editor's recommendations



11 Nov
Blog

Godfall Review: Repetitive Gameplay Hurts Next-Gen Spectacle

Godfall

Godfall Review: Repetitive Gameplay Harms Next Generation Spectacle

"Godfall's dazzling graphics and promising combat are held back by repeated crawling in the dungeon."

  • Impactful struggle

  • Useful skills and upgrades

  • Impressive graphics

  • Sparse dungeon creeps

  • Repeated missions

  • Flat booty

  • Limited world design

If there's one thing Godfall gets right, it's a spectacle. The PlayStation 5 launch title is filled with the kind of visual dazzling you'd expect from a next-gen game. There are a number of hyper-focused graphics options that are designed to push the new hardware to its limits.

The early buzz around new consoles usually focuses on performance, putting games like Godfall in the spotlight on day one when they might otherwise go completely under the radar. Return to every console launch, and it's easy to find a long-forgotten title for launch day that maximized performance but otherwise didn't leave a lasting impression.

Godfall takes advantage of the next-generation leap in power with its dazzling graphics, but relocates its promising combat system into a repetitive loot game where rewards rarely feel rewarding.

Less Fate 2, more Diablo

When Godfall was first announced, comparisons with Destiny 2 were immediately drawn. Part of this was due to the game's marketing spurt that branded the game as the first “looter slasher” and focused on flashy armor that didn't look out of place in Bungie's space epic.

Perhaps the most surprising discovery about Godfall is that it is not a live service game at all. Instead, it's more like a dungeon crawler like Diablo. Most of the game is spent on missions from the game's small hub. Players knock down masses of enemies, collect new loot and discover resources hidden around the world.

Godfall

It's a repetitive flush experience that prompts players to complete a limited number of tasks (most of which involve hacking enemies) while circling the same areas over and over. For example, players often have to survive a wave of enemies for 60 seconds or kill 16 enemies slowly emerging from statues. Big boss fights remove the boredom, but they are only unlocked by earning seals that you get as you progress through more missions like this one.

Like any dungeon crawler, loot is the real catch. Missions are full of rewards, from weapons to equipment, each with their own perks. The constant flow of goodies makes it so that players can quickly start customizing a build. However, after a few missions, I was completely overwhelmed by the amount of treasure I collected. Even saving resources felt like a monotonous time commitment.

It's a repetitive flush experience that prompts players to complete a limited number of tasks while drawing circles around the same areas over and over.

Exciting loot is only half the battle for a game like this. There is constant in-game power accumulation, but few compelling reasons to demonstrate it outside of some high-level post-game activity. Godfall has a lot to play with, but not a lot to play with.

Great battles

The weak gameplay loop is a shame because the combat has real potential. As with many modern action games, the battle revolves around light and heavy attacks. The main difference is that players use oversized weapons like hammers and spears. Every weapon has real weight, so every hit feels slower and more powerful than a normal sword swing. The downside is that players need to think more strategically about each hit, as too much engagement can lead to disaster. Every push of a button is important, which is rare in a hack-and-slash game.

There is also a heavy defensive component with a shield that plays an important role in combat. This can be used to block attacks, fend off enemies, or perform ranged attacks. Like primary weapons, the tool feels devastating and adds a real sense of power to combat. Throwing the piece of metal like Captain America's shield, knocking an enemy off their feet and opening it up for a brutal takedown is very satisfying.

Every push of a button is important, which is rare in a hack-and-slash game.

This strong foundation will evolve as the game progresses thanks to a number of upgrade systems. There is a skill tree that adds more combinations and colors to the experience and equipment upgrades that give certain perks. In addition, the game offers 12 unlockable “Valorplates”, which are various sets of armor that the players can equip. Each has their own special perk, like shock damage or poison, which offers countless ways to create character builds.

Godfall

Everything is successful up to a point. I found myself using almost every single tool in combat, spending a lot of time enchanting equipment, and changing my valorplate at every opportunity. But I still loaded on missions that felt indistinguishable from each other and mowed down the same types of enemies ad nauseum. I was all dressed and had nothing to do.

All strategies and nuances go out the window as the enemies get more numerous and the bosses' health bars get bigger. It is becoming increasingly tempting to just equip a faster weapon class and light spam attacks to take advantage of it. The weighty battle could probably be a thrill in a focused, set-piece action game on a large budget, but it's a disproportionate for a humble dungeon crawler based on loops.

Hide them

The game's design decisions seem to take a back seat to technical skills. It's a visual spectacle that feels like the video game at a Great Gatsby party. Valorplates are intricately detailed, particles fly in all directions and golden light shines on every surface to bring the wow factor home.

Godfall

It's instantly impressive, even when it's on a flat plain. As someone who is not that easily impressed by the visual flair, I was still amazed by the tiny details like gentle motion blur, as if I were a seasoned tech geek.

That surface sheen never really goes away, but the excitement is short-lived due to the game's lackluster world design. Godfall mainly offers three cards, each with its own elemental flavor. Despite thematic differences and motifs, the areas are structurally so similar that they rarely feel like radically different environments. That doesn't negate the impressive eye candy, but it does limit its tricks at times.

The underlying design decisions undermine the spectacle and bring the game of next-gen Cloud 9 to a standstill.

Console launch games will always be in a tough spot because, at least on a technical level, they are the most heavily studied games of a generation. Godfall is doing everything in his power to cause a stir, but it's a short-term fix. The underlying design decisions undermine the spectacle and bring the game of next-gen Cloud 9 to a standstill. Once the color fades, players are left with a surprisingly easy looter that doesn't feel much more complex than Minecraft Dungeons.

Our opinion

Godfall holds great promise with its stunning graphics and combat, but those high points are lost in a sparse dungeon crawler that briefly sells its strengths. It's very different from what Destiny 2 clone fans expected, but this live-service style may better suit its dedication to grinding loot.

Is there a better alternative?

Warframe is more effective than "Scavenger Slasher" and Destiny 2 offers the same next-generation grind with greater rewards.

How long it will take?

The main campaign lasts up to 8-10 hours, but dedicated gamers can spend more time hunting for rewards and completing a small handful of post-game activities.

Should you buy it?

No. There are plenty of better next-gen games out there right now, even if you're just looking for a multiplayer game to try out on launch.

Editor's recommendations