ComicBook.com's Games of the Year: Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
PlayStation has released a number of excellent first-party titles since first launching the PlayStation 5 in late 2020. While games like Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Sackboy: A Big Adventure were able to find success alongside the release of the PS5, these titles in particular are ones that also came to the PlayStation 4 as well. As such, there have been few games on PS5 just yet that have actually shown us what the next-gen console is truly capable of when not being held back by the requirements of the PS4. Fortunately, the latest installment in the long-running Ratchet & Clank series opted to forgo a release on PS4 and was instead developed solely for PS5. The result, which is Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, didn't just give us our best glimpse of next-gen gaming so far, but it's also far and away one of the most impressive titles that launched in 2021.
In many ways, the Ratchet & Clank series is one that has always been formulaic. The action-platformer franchise which started back on the PlayStation 2 sees the titular characters Ratchet and Clank acquiring a number of weapons, gadgets, and other gear as they venture throughout the galaxy to thwart some sort of villainous plan. In a general sense, Rift Apart does very little to shake up that formula in a drastic way, but that's also not a bad thing. Instead, what the game does is use the newfound power of the PS5 to deliver an experience that we've never been able to have with Ratchet and Clank.
In its most basic form, the PS5 has been able to make Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart look like a playable Pixar game. That's a comparison that has surely been made about other games ad nauseum over the years, but it's something that has never been truer than with Rift Apart. The shine of Clank's armor, the fur on Ratchet's face, and all of the other fine details seen in every one of the game's colorful environments pop more than ever before.
Outside of a mere boost to the visuals, though, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is also able to use some new elements of the PS5, notably the SSD, to create environments and gameplay sequences that simply haven't been possible in the past. Rift Apart features some of the largest landscapes ever seen in a Ratchet & Clank title, and they can be explored without ever needing to visit a loading screen of any sort. In addition, the game uses many boss battles and other cinematic setpieces to seamlessly change the location that you find yourself residing within. In the grand scheme of things, this isn't a game-changing inclusion to Rift Apart, but it shows that developer Insomniac Games is capable of coming up with some outside of the box ideas for the PS5 hardware.
Even beyond the technical achievements of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, the best part of the game continues to be its gameplay. The weapons found in the Ratchet & Clank series have always been a blast to use and that remains truer than ever before in Rift Apart. Alongside the return of fan-favorite guns like the Buzz Blades, Insomniac has also added weapons like the Negatron Collider and The Enforcer to help you take apart baddies in all-new ways. The culmination of these weapons leads to a gameplay loop that is satisfying at all times and constantly promotes experimentation.
The cherry on top of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is that it still finds a way to add lovable new characters to this series nearly two decades after first debuting. New faces such as the female Lombax, Rivet, and the new robot companion known as Kit make Rift Apart inject new life into this world in ways that wouldn't initially be expected. Their inclusion in the story ends up leading to a deeper narrative than we have likely seen in a Ratchet & Clank title before, but it's also still full of the same hilarity and hijinks that we've come to expect.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, by all accounts, is one of the best games of 2021. Not only is it a game that excels in virtually every area, but it's also one of the few PS5 titles that puts the upgraded hardware through its paces. Not only is it the best Ratchet & Clank game that has likely ever been made, but it's also the best title that the PS5 has to offer right now. And if you aren't willing to take my word for it, allow our 2021 Golden Issue Award for Game of the Year here at ComicBook.com to convince you otherwise.