Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (2021)

This game is awesome. Everything that makes Ratchet & Clank awesome, with a gorgeous presentation. It’s well-paced, with enough secrets and side content to leave you satisfied if you want to do everything. Which I didn’t think I was going to do at first, but it ended up being the first game I’ve ever platinum’d. And a very reasonable platinum it is—nothing too tedious, and only one trophy I needed to look up for help with.

Wonderful game.

Definitely did not have the same frustrating experience I had with the 2016 game, partly because all the weapons are at least sort of viable against bosses, partly because ammo drops in boss fights seem a little more generous, and partly because with the Arena fights I could just grind all the weapons up to level 5 while also getting all the raritanium I needed (don't fall for the lure of the Arena battles that specifically give raritanium as a reward—Francois will give you 3 or 4 raritanium and he's way faster to beat than even the undead grunthor (you can beat Francois in the time it takes Sue to enter the arena)). That being said, I don't know that any of the boss fights really stick out to me as being particularly memorable.

I also don't know that all the haptics really added anything to the experience for me, and honestly I kinda didn't like them. I like a good rumble as much as the next guy, but I've never seen the appeal of trying to make a controller feel less like a controller. Having to press harder to use one weapon than another doesn't really immerse me in the game or make me relate to the character, it just makes me not want to use that weapon.

My final nitpick is that, while I generally enjoyed the platforming, I occasionally got screwed over by camera positioning, particularly when trying to land a big jump on a small platform, as the camera would often angle itself in such a way that was really difficult to tell where I was actually going to land.

Other than that the game was pretty much an improvement on the 2016 release. Good story, great graphics, beautiful animation, and the pocket dimensions and Blizon crystal shifting really take advantage of the PS5's hardware.

p.s. Someone clearly watched "The Beast Below" and "Time-Heist" episodes of Doctor Who. Not that I'm complaining.