What can be said about Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart that hasn’t already been said somewhere in the great cosmos that is the internet? (Or even, in our review.) We’ve had a lot of games in 2021 that were absolutely stellar, but none of them - on PlayStation, at least - quite compared to the technical brilliance and exceptional artistry of Insomniac Games’ latest adventure.
This game is vibrant, full of great banter between its main characters, and features some incredibly enjoyable combat. It’s those highs, and many more reasons besides, that make Rift Apart our PlayStation Game of the Year.
Watch our review of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart below…
Furthermore, something that truly sets it apart is how fantastically it uses the next-gen hardware of the PlayStation 5 to let the player instantaneously switch between dimensions - to pass through those rifts of the title. Leading up to the game's release there were plenty of demos and presentations highlighting this aspect of the gameplay, but it’s only when we got our hands on the title that we could truly appreciate just how amazing it is.
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Not only is Rift Apart a technical marvel, a game that paves the way for future titles wanting to really make the most of the PS5’s SSDs, but its instantaneous portals also made many of its puzzles more interesting to try and solve. It’s one thing to be able to hop into another dimension instantly to explore what it has to offer, but to have to go back and forth to solve certain traversal puzzles was just a lot more fun than we were expecting.
And while we all absolutely loved just playing this game with all its new tech, it turns out that it was just as fun to develop. We reached out to Insomniac Games for a comment on being named GAMINGbible’s PlayStation Game of the Year, and our overall Game of the Year too (find our full top 40 here), and this is what game director Mike Daly had to say:
“In addition to being incredibly proud of what the team was able to accomplish with Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, it was also the most fun many of us have had working on a game. We got to lean into the PS5's awesome new tech and indulge our insane ideas for alien weapons. It's been inspiring to see fans' reactions and the cherry on top is GAMINGbible's GOTY. Thank you!”
It’s been just over a year now since the next-gen consoles were released worldwide, and while we have had plenty of games, only a handful felt like real next-gen experiences. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is hands down one of those games. Not only is it a wildly colourful and lively experience, but even to someone who doesn’t understand the tech behind how it plays, this is still a marvel to behold. Safe to say that Insomniac Games has set the bar pretty high for whatever comes next in this series, and also on the PlayStation 5 in general.
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Find our top 40 games of 2021 - featuring Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart - here. You can also check out our PC Game of the Year, our Nintendo Game of the Year, and our Xbox Game of the Year.
Featured Image Credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment, Insomniac GamesTopics: PlayStation, Best of 2021, PlayStation 5