Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart Review — The PS5 Showcase That Escaped Onto PC and Beyond
When Rift Apart shipped in June 2021 — into chip-shortage hysteria, $70 pricing controversy, and scalper-listed PS5s at quadruple MSRP — its most common descriptor was "PS5 technical showcase." Five years later the showcase has escaped the hardware party entirely: a Nixxes-powered PC port landed in July 2023, the game spent over two years in PlayStation Plus Extra, earned a PS5 Pro patch, and remains the franchise's high-water mark on Metacritic at 88. The newest Ratchet & Clank game, meanwhile, is a mobile arena shooter. Make of that what you will.
Table of Contents
- The Story: Dimensionator, Festival of Heroes, and Two Nefarious Problems
- Rivet vs Ratchet: The Identity Question, Five Years Later
- The Arsenal: Rift Apart's Twenty-Weapon Party
- Worlds, Lorbs and the Lombax Lore Line
- The Tech and the 2026 Platform Picture
- Verdict
- FAQ
The Story: Dimensionator, Festival of Heroes, and Two Nefarious Problems
Picking up threads from the 2016 reboot and 2013's Into the Nexus, Rift Apart opens mid-celebration: the Festival of Heroes honoring Ratchet and Clank on Megalopolis springs to life just as Dr. Nefarious crashes the parade to steal the Dimensionator — the Lombax-race artifact Clank spent the narrative gifting to Ratchet as a path back to his people. A miscalculated blast shatters the device and unravels the very scaffolding of reality, flinging the duo across a multiverse where every dimension bends to Emperor Nefarious, the Doctor's more competent, more terrifying counterpart. Into that vacuum falls Rivet: a female Lombax rebel in the Emperor's domains, wielding a hammer, a robot arm, and an origin story that mirrors Ratchet's loneliness just enough to sting. It's franchise-standard good-vs-evil plotting elevated by pacing, dual-Nefarious comedic machinery, and an ending that earns its setup.
Rivet vs Ratchet: The Identity Question, Five Years Later
History has settled the meta-debate on Insomniac's new Lombax: Rivet was a character triumph and a gameplay compromise. As written, she's a different animal — sarcastic where Ratchet is earnest, defined by the arm the Emperor's regime took and the rebellion it made her. As played, she is Ratchet: identical movesets, identical arsenals, no unique combos for her hammer, her mechanical arm adding narrative weight but no mechanical differentiation. Whether that was a feature (fairness across the dual-protagonist design) or a missed opportunity (no unique moves for the series' first new playable Lombax in 20 years) is still the most productive argument in the fandom — particularly in light of the Lombax-history Lorbs on Savali, twelve audio tablets of lore that end on a tease so explicit Insomniac wouldn't have placed it if they weren't keeping a torch lit for a direct sequel.
The Arsenal: Rift Apart's Twenty-Weapon Party
The engineering remains joyful. Around twenty weapons graduate through a playthrough, each distilled to one punchy verb: the Cold Snap encases goons in ice, the Warmonger solves problems with rocket volume, the Negatron Collider deletes columns. DualSense integration remains the reference implementation five years on — the Blast Pistol's trigger mimics its single/auto-fire split so convincingly you can feel the firing mode. All ten Spybots assemble the RYNO 8 (a warp cannon that calls down goofy crossover loot — including a fully-sizeable Horizon-Night-Skyliner cameo); golden bolts purchase cosmetic cheats; Challenge Mode (the franchise's classic NG+) gates the final two weapons behind a second run. If Rift Apart's fights never truly escalate structurally, they never stop being tactically fluid either, and the weapon-wheel dance is why.
Worlds, Lorbs and the Lombax Lore Line
Nine planets, each a one-off production number: Corson V's robot-run neon skyline, Sargasso's predator swamps, Blizar Prime's time-shifting destruction-and-restoration gimmick. Secret off-ramps — dimensional gates, pocket worlds between worlds — house armor-piece rewards (echoing the usual Insomniac compulsion design of "just one more side portal"). Clank's rift-repair interludes (Lift, Speed and Weight spheres directing streams of Clank-possibility echoes) and Glitch's anti-virus arena-lightgun segments are the palette cleansers between heavy-fire chapters; both sections rationed just heavily enough to never become the game. Collectible audiotapes of Lombax history — the Lorbs — quietly carry the series' best world-building in decades, and their mythology teardown of Ratchet's absent civilization is the storytelling Rift Apart is most fondly remembered for.
The Tech and the 2026 Platform Picture
The game launched as the SSD showcase Sony needed: zero-load dimension shifting, ray-traced sheen everywhere, Tempest 3D audio, and — after a Day-1 patch — two additional 60fps graphics modes in Performance and Performance RT. The Pro patch (October 2024) sharpened ray-traced reflections further, though some fans measured it as a lateral move. The Nixxes PC port (July 2023) carried DLSS 3, FSR 2, Intel XeSS and Insomniac's Temporal Injection, unlocked frame rates, ultrawide support, and a full DualSense haptics translation — lauded visually, though early-adopter review scores were bruised by launch-window stuttering that's since been patched into shape (the Steam consensus now sits at 89% Very Positive). In the catalog economy, the game has done two full years in the PS Plus Extra rotation, and the only "new" series entry since announcement is Ratchet & Clank: Ranger Rumble — a free-to-play mobile arena shooter announced November 2025 to a chorus of fan boos. The actual sequel those Savali Lorbs hinted at? Always next year. Insomniac's slate means there's a ticket for Wolverine first.
Verdict
| Why It's Still Gold-Standard in 2026 ✅ | What Still Annoys ❌ |
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Score: 9/10 — Five years later, Rift Apart is still what a PlayStation exclusive is supposed to feel like. It just also turns out to play brilliantly with a mouse, and its most valuable commodity — the story of the Lombaxes — remains criminally unwritten.
Where to Buy (Official Stores Only)
Rift Apart is single-player, so there's no server argument — but the official channels are also where the PS5 Pro enhancements, the port patches, and the save-carrying ecosystem actually live:
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on PC?
Yes — a Nixxes-built port launched July 26, 2023 on Steam and Epic with DLSS 3, FSR 2, XeSS, Temporal Injection, ultrawide support, unlocked frame rates, and DualSense haptics.
Is Rift Apart on PlayStation Plus?
Yes — it has been part of PS Plus Extra/Premium catalog rotations since mid-2023. Availability cycles, but the pattern has been generous to Extra subscribers.
Are Rivet and Ratchet identical to play?
Yes — same weapons, combos and traversal; Rivet's hammer and robot arm are narrative, not mechanical. It's the game's most-debated design choice.
How long is Rift Apart?
Roughly 9–13 hours for a main-story run, 15–20 for completionists (Spybots, golden bolts, armor). Challenge Mode (NG+) adds the final two weapons.
Does Rift Apart have a PS5 Pro mode?
Yes — enhanced performance and ray-traced reflections arrived via the October 2024 Pro patch alongside the existing Fidelity / Performance / Performance RT modes.
Is there a Rift Apart sequel?
Not announced. The only new series entry to date is Ranger Rumble, a free-to-play mobile arena shooter announced November 2025. Lore teases in the Savali Lorbs suggest larger plans, but Insomniac is currently focused on Wolverine.
Is Rift Apart worth buying if I already played on PS5?
Worth a replay on PC for unlocked framerates and ultrawide — but it's the same campaign; no new content exists post-2021.
Why was Rift Apart criticized when it launched at $70?
The sticker landed during PS5 scarcity and a wobbly post-2020 economy; later sales and its vaulting into the $30-and-under rotation made it an easy recommendation — buy at your discount.