I’ve been playing the Ratchet & Clank series since the first one came bundled in the PS2 my family bought in the early 2000s. It is one of those random constants in my life, because I’m not usually much of a fan of the genre, but I have played and completed every mainline R&C game that has come out, and have collected physical copies of most of them, and do thoroughly enjoy them all. Even the 2016 game-based-on-movie-based-on-game remake/reboot. There’s a certain charm to them, and while the biting humor of the original PS2 series has gone away, it still has a whimsical fun to it the series where you’re a small furry creature ripping the galaxy a new one with a massive variety of absurd (and absurdly fun) weaponry.

Rift Apart was the literal reason I bought a PS5, and having now played it through three times, I have to say it was totally worth it. I will need some more time to let the honeymoon phase of it to fade to decide where I put it among my favorites, but I’m guessing probably solid second favorite R&C game. I put way too much time + nostalgia into Going Commando for it to ever really lose its spot as my all time favorite.

The visuals for Rift Apart are absolutely jaw dropping. This is one of the most next-gen games I’ve seen, and I really, really hope they remake the old games at some point to look like this. The combat is fantastic, as usual, and the weapons all look and feel great. My only gripe with the weapons and combat is this game’s RYNO is probably the weakest one of the series. As fun as it is to open rifts and drop a giant monster onto an enemy, the damage is lackluster.