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Rivet and Clank: Galactical Furryphilia.


My impressions are based on a PS5-20-hour-long playthrough on the “Renegade Legend” difficulty level. All the Armor Sets, Gold Bolts have been collected; RYNO 8 has been unlocked.
One of the best former PS5 exclusives sets foot in the royal platform once again. The general trend of releasing Sony’s games on Steam is delightful, even despite the delays. Like most games in the series, Rift Apart is a crazy run’n’gun action-adventure with platforming elements and puzzle sections.


New Characters.

The players assume control of the familiar faces: Ratchet and Clank. The former is a noble softie with a huge arse...nal, that consists of a whopping 20 weapons with varying degrees of insanity. The latter is a mechanical embodiment of mind, conscience and breaks from constant fights, as Clank’s sole purpose lies in solving rather uncomplicated, yet original puzzles.
However, the list of playable characters doesn’t end here. Due to the ongoing events, the game introduces Rivet, a MASTERful BAIT for furries, a female version of Ratchet, who, for some entirely unknown reason and by virtue of interdimensional chivalry, gives up the larger chunk of the game’s playtime to her; and also a KT-7461 robot, which, to no one’s surprise, is an alternative version of Clank, but with one massive story arc. These new characters copy all the abilities of the main cast. Character selection and/or co-op mode are unavailable. Ratchet and Rivet operate separately, which means you get to play as them only in the pre-determined order.

Story.

Normally, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to expect a complex and comprehensive story from a game with a 6+ rating, however, Rift Apart delivers a pleasant surprise. Granted, the story is indeed very simplistic, but it gets a lot of attention: about 4 hours of wonderfully directed cutscenes and gameplay events, filled with brilliantly written dialogues between our heroes, that display their characters and the development thereof as the story progresses. Between the lines there are double entendres to be found here and there, that wouldn’t be recognizable for kids. Generally-speaking, it’s a lightweight satire on the dictatorial regimes, humor, discussions about fate, purpose and finding yourself in this world.

The Unique Selling Point.

The ability to fast travel between the dimensions was slightly overused in the ads of both the game and PS5, in my opinion. Undoubtedly, the directed episodes, that take the player on a journey through multiple entirely different locations that become the battleground within the same boss fight - are the undeniable highlight of the game. There are a few of these episodes, including those that involve platforming. But the problem is that the game isn’t filled to the brim with them, and on the scale of the whole game, the number of such scenes is not substantial. However, these interdimensional rifts create many tactical options. The battle arenas have these rifts, that move the player a relatively small distance within the same location, instead of sending them into another dimension, and virtually function as a teleport. It allows for practically instantaneous repositioning, flanking, closing in on the enemies, evading projectiles, and in general it simply looks spectacular. All in all, using this ability during gameplay doesn’t look all that striking from the marketing standpoint, but is highly effective in practice.

Gameplay.

Main missions are the only requirement for the story progression and they send the players on a rampage against all that lives. The assignments are scattered around the visually distinct and unbelievably fascinating planets, which you can fast travel between. This is rather convenient since aside from the main missions, there are also optional ones that have no time limits and net you generous rewards such as bonus currency, which is used for purchasing new weapons and upgrades for the existing ones, as well as the new Armor and Armor sets. Thorough exploration is also greatly rewarded.

Customization System.

The Armor Sets system is sublime not only thank to its customization, which noticeably changes characters’ appearance and refreshes your impression of the characters as they go through each set, but also because each armor piece grants our heroes passive bonuses that range from extra experience and resources acquisition to various resistances to certain types of enemies. And there’s plenty of them.

Bosses.

Boss fights here are engaging thanks to the superb combat system, new movement abilities such as Phantom Dash, the aforementioned rifts and also simply fantastic direction and intensity of the story. All of this combined creates a holistic and pleasant gameplay experience overall. But there are a couple of disappointing problems: frequently reused and reskinned bosses. While this is not game-breaking by any means, you’re still highly likely to experience some degree of irritation by the end of the game if throughout a 10-20-hour-long playthrough you have to face 5 Nefarious Juggernauts, who share the exact same moveset.


Puzzles.

As for the puzzles, as I had mentioned above: they aren’t exactly difficult. They typically boil down to correct resource usage. It’s always satisfying to receive a well-deserved dose of joy when you finally put the final piece to the puzzle after a short streak of unfruitful experiments. Fun fact: absolutely each puzzle in the game can be skipped as if it’s a cutscene. I personally believe that theoretically this option might be contradictory to the narrative. Clank develops as a character by solving these puzzles. You know, the intellectual evolution of this character is a tough sell, considering that he has done absolutely nothing to achieve it. Ludonarrative dissonance at its finest... Though, it doesn’t really bug me personally. I almost always stand for having a choice/option to tailor the experience as you like, within the framework of the game’s main concept, obviously. It’s clear that RnC is all about the big guns and non-stop gunplay, therefore I find the option to skip the puzzles in itself to be acceptable and reasonable. However, I advise against skipping them. They provide a short break, focus on the sidekicks, and in general were fun to brainstorm through. Skipping is only fine when you’re starting to feel the burnout.

Platforming.

I haven’t found any blunders in this aspect of the game in my playthrough. They work wonderfully and certain scenes are simply breathtaking thanks to the game’s inherent gigantism, speed and smooth transitions.

Level Design.

The only unjustifiable problem is the inconsistency of the visual language in the level design. There are certain spots in the environment that are off-limits for entirely unexplainable reasons: you may run into invisible walls or get stuck inside the textures, while you’d be easily able to reach similar places without any issues in other locations. Invisible walls are a relic of the past. There are plenty of ways to design the playable environments in a way that would allow the players to subconsciously recognize the scalability of the surroundings. This sort of mishaps can seriously break the immersion.

Conclusion.

All in all, while not without its flaws, the game was amazing and its technological potential is now fully unlocked in the PC universe.
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