Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart begins with a celebration of Ratchet and Clank’s past adventures. Clank has secretly repaired the Dimensionator, a device that opens portals between dimensions, hoping Ratchet can use it to find the other Lombaxes. Doctor Nefarious steals the device, and a struggle sends the three into a dimension where his counterpart, Emperor Nefarious, rules. Ratchet is separated from Clank and meets Rivet, a Lombax fighting the emperor’s regime. For Ratchet, the trip offers a possible route to his people; for Rivet, it threatens the world she has spent years resisting.

Players alternate between Ratchet and Rivet as they travel to planets including Sargasso, Savali, and Blizar Prime. On Blizar Prime, striking Blizon crystals switches the surroundings between different versions of the location, changing which paths are accessible. Elsewhere, a Rift Tether lets the characters pull themselves toward marked portals during exploration and combat. The two Lombaxes share a weapon collection that includes Mr. Fungi, which deploys a mushroom-shaped ally, and the Topiary Sprinkler, which temporarily turns enemies into hedges. These devices sit alongside series staples such as the Burst Pistol and the returning RYNO weapon.

Rivet’s companion Kit has a history that complicates their friendship: she was once an imperial warbot and was responsible for the injury that cost Rivet her arm. Their story runs alongside Ratchet and Clank’s attempt to recover the Dimensionator before Emperor Nefarious can use it to extend his rule into other dimensions. The game also gives Clank puzzle sequences set in dimensional anomalies, while a small robot named Glitch enters infected computer systems to clear them. These sections break up the Lombaxes’ battles without leaving the central problem of unstable dimensions behind.

Developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Rift Apart launched for PlayStation 5 on June 11, 2021. A Windows version, developed with Nixxes Software, followed on July 26, 2023. The PlayStation 5 release uses the console’s fast storage to move characters rapidly through rifts, including an early sequence that carries Ratchet across several distinct settings. Its DualSense implementation gives some weapons different responses depending on how far the player pulls a trigger. Rather than treating its dimensional premise only as scenery, Rift Apart ties it to level navigation, weapon effects, and the meeting between two Lombaxes whose lives have taken very different paths. It is both a continuation of Ratchet and Clank’s long-running search and Rivet’s first appearance in the series.