Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is the game the PS5 was born to play

(Epitome credit: Sony)

Afterward a twelvemonth of waiting, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Autonomously is finally here. Better even so: it was worth the wait. Rift Apart is arguably the best PS5 game yet, combining tight gameplay and a moving story with top-notch production values.

Still, if you've followed the Ratchet & Clank series before, none of that should come up as a surprise; that's only the way these games are. What makes Rift Autonomously special is how it finally capitalizes on the promise of the PS5, more than six months afterward the console debuted.

Play the best PS5 games
PS5 has bang-up exclusives — but it's missing one big thing
PS5 vs. Xbox Serial 10 vs. Xbox Serial Due south: Adjacent-gen console sizes compared

First, let's lay downwardly a little context. While Sony appear the PS5 dorsum in April 2019, it wasn't until March 2020 that organization architect Marking Cerny gave an extensive breakdown of the console's hardware during a livestream. He highlighted 2 major features that would prepare the PS5 autonomously from the PS4: an SSD with rapid load times, and 3D sound settings for more immersive sound. A few months later, nosotros learned nigh the DualSense controller: a peripheral with extremely subtle haptic feedback, which could mimic sensations other than "some vibration" or "a lot of vibration."

While Rift Apart is by no means the first PS5 game to take advantage of these features, it does feel like the showtime full-length PS5 game that absolutely could not have existed on an earlier PlayStation panel. (I volition grant that the Astro's Playroom pack-in had a lot of similar features.) The PS5's quick-loading SSD and subtle controller facilitate gameplay features that but would not have been possible on the PS4.

Dimensional rifts and big explosions

Dorsum when we got our kickoff glimpse of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, I wrote that it was the just game that showed off what the PS5 was truly capable of. Other titles showed off pretty graphics or ambitious gameplay concepts, simply just Rift Apart showed something that the PS4 could not have done. In that trailer, Ratchet and Clank dove through dimensional portals, only to come up out in fully rendered levels seconds later.

This was not simple trailer trickery; this is a very real office of Rift Apart'south gameplay. To exist fair, you can't simply bound from level to level at-will. Most of the game's portals ship you to distant platforms; some transport you to totally dissimilar stages, but but in a limited context, such as a racetrack or a dominate loonshit. Merely at that place's no denying that these level transitions load instantaneously, and that they play an important role in Rift Apart's gameplay. While the core gameplay in Ratchet & Clank hasn't changed much in the last 19 years, the dimensional rifts just would not accept worked this seamlessly on whatever previous PlayStation organisation.

And so there'southward the DualSense integration. I've been a DualSense skeptic since 24-hour interval one, and Rift Apart is still very much the exception in a bounding main of distracting haptics. Withal, in that location'due south no denying that the latest Ratchet & Clank makes very smart employ of the PS5'southward unusual controller. The vibrations are suitably varied, from big explosions when you fire a rocket launcher, to sudden bursts when your magnetic boots clamp onto a surface, to tiny clicks whenever you collect a bunch of Bolts (the game's currency).

What's more than impressive, notwithstanding, is how Insomniac took advantage of the DualSense'due south adaptive triggers. In games like Spider-Human: Miles Morales, I found the adaptive triggers irritating, as it seemed like their only purpose was to lock up halfway without any gameplay justification. In Rift Apart, though, the adaptive triggers offer useful functionality for most every weapon.

For instance, if you equip the Shatterbomb and pull the trigger halfway down, the explosive will lock on to a nearby enemy. Then, you pull the trigger all the way down to throw the weapon. It's much more precise than the way Ratchet threw bombs in previous games, which means the DualSense confers an actual gameplay advantage. The Executor shotgun lets you lot pull downward the trigger halfway for a unmarried barrel blast, or all the way to unload both barrels. From zooming in with a sniper rifle to rapid-firing with a equalizer pistol, Rift Apart finally puts the adaptive triggers to skillful use.

There's likewise the 3D audio, which sounds very good — though I don't know if it's worlds better than listening to Ratchet & Clank (2016) on the PS4 with a high-quality pair of headphones. Rift Apart has practiced directional audio and some subtle sound furnishings, but they don't affect gameplay as much as the load times and the DualSense features. Perhaps the next big PS5 sectional will also take some kind of significant audio innovation.

Other PS5 exclusives

PS5 Dual Sense Controller Returnal — (Prototype credit: Sony)

Information technology'south one matter to argue that Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart takes full advantage of the PS5'southward unique hardware. Information technology's another matter to claim that it does so better than any other game. However, at the moment, there are merely a handful of true PS5 exclusives, and Rift Apart really does feel more than comprehensive than they do.

To engagement, there are only five PS5 games that you lot can't play on PS4: Astro's Playroom, Demon'southward Souls, Destruction AllStars, Returnal and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. At the risk of selling them brusk, Astro's Playroom and Destruction AllStars are non quite substantial plenty to showcase everything the PS5 tin do. Astro'south Playroom is rather short and express in scope, while Destruction AllStars isn't the nearly aggressive game out at that place.

Then in that location's Demon's Souls. Upwardly until Rift Apart came out, it was easily the best game on the PS5. And yet, Demon's Souls is a very shut remake of a PS3 game. While Demon'south Souls on PS5 is prettier, faster and more accessible than its PS3 predecessor, it would be inaccurate to say that this game could only exist on PS5.

That leaves Returnal. To its credit, Returnal too features fast load times and nuanced DualSense feedback, specially when information technology comes to raindrops. That's doubly impressive, when you consider that Returnal'south developer, Housemarque, is a fraction of the size of Insomniac.

Yet, while Returnal features nearly instantaneous fast-travel between areas, there's nothing really comparable to Rift Apart'due south dimension-hopping. Returnal'southward procedurally generated biomes comprise private "rooms" of moderate size, compared to the expansive, sprawling planets in Rift Apart. While Returnal's haptics are impressive, the adaptive triggers don't enhance gameplay to nearly the aforementioned extent.

There's besides the fact that Returnal, for all of its accomplishments, is a very niche game. The fact that Sony tin say "the PS5 is the only identify to play the world's first large-budget roguelike" is a feather in its cap. Merely when it comes to accessible crowd-pleasers, you generally can't beat Ratchet & Clank — and you really tin't vanquish its latest iteration.

At present, information technology'due south still much harder than it should be to find a PS5, and that volition limit Rift Autonomously'due south initial audience. Simply I hope that the organization becomes widely available earlier the end of the year, if only and so that players tin meet what happens when gameplay, story and hardware notice the perfect midpoint. And if the PS5 continues to exist elusive, then hopefully yous picked upwards Ratchet & Clank on the PS4 when it was costless.

Marshall Honorof is a senior editor for Tom's Guide, overseeing the site'southward coverage of gaming hardware and software. He comes from a science writing groundwork, having studied paleomammalogy, biological anthropology, and the history of science and technology. After hours, you tin can notice him practicing taekwondo or doing deep dives on classic sci-fi.