Roughly 2/3rds done with the story, meant to finish but I've got too many other things on my plate right now to do so. Did not enjoy my time with this as much as I expected.
To start positively, it is absolutely gorgeous. The sheer density of things and effects is mind-boggling. It looks incredible in motion and the cutscenes are movie quality. It runs like a treat on PS5, which is good because I couldn't play much of the previous reboot game on PS4 because it was the only game that's ever made me motion sick.
Everything else? Eh. The combat is sorta the central mechanic and I found it mostly just adequate at best and pretty boring at worst. Arena fights just don't offer much in the way of excitement. The gun variety is sort of neat but rarely did I feel like they did much to incentivize actual varied play or strategy, just that you have a bunch of weapons to cycle between when you run out of ammo. The dimensional portals were one of the big "ooh look what the PS5 can do" elements they talked a lot about, but they're just effectively grapple points. You can zip around during fights but only to specific locations, which limits the actual movement a bit. The enemy variety was a little lacking and the bosses were not exciting. Their setpieces aren't bad but actually fighting them was unengaging.
The biggest sticking point for me was the story and its writing. Ratchet is downright dull, the jokes don't land, and the central idea of the dimensionator allowing access to new realities isn't as interesting as I'd hoped. Most scenes just felt a bit lifeless, which is disappointing. The only character that got consistent chuckles from me was Gary. Rivet is cool but, again, just fell flat for me.
Since R&C is one of the old pillars of platformer / collectathons, I was expecting better platforming, too. Most levels are relatively devoid of that sort of challenge and I was stunned at how often I would clip through / into things and go places the game clearly didn't want me to go.
Some positives though: there are more than a few cool worlds to explore and having optional side quests in unique locations is a good touch. This is one of the most option-heavy games I've ever played. You can essentially tailor the game to however you want to play, which is cool. Collectables are fun to get and I like the golden bolt fun options as well as the gear effects not being tied to actually equipping them. The thing I probably liked the most were the pocket dimension rooms. They always felt unique and different, which is cool. Gave a very Mario Sunshine Fludd-less levels vibe.
All in all, Rift Apart was kinda neat at times and relatively middle of the road other times. It's a tight romp in a short package, but I don't think it's really for me.
To start positively, it is absolutely gorgeous. The sheer density of things and effects is mind-boggling. It looks incredible in motion and the cutscenes are movie quality. It runs like a treat on PS5, which is good because I couldn't play much of the previous reboot game on PS4 because it was the only game that's ever made me motion sick.
Everything else? Eh. The combat is sorta the central mechanic and I found it mostly just adequate at best and pretty boring at worst. Arena fights just don't offer much in the way of excitement. The gun variety is sort of neat but rarely did I feel like they did much to incentivize actual varied play or strategy, just that you have a bunch of weapons to cycle between when you run out of ammo. The dimensional portals were one of the big "ooh look what the PS5 can do" elements they talked a lot about, but they're just effectively grapple points. You can zip around during fights but only to specific locations, which limits the actual movement a bit. The enemy variety was a little lacking and the bosses were not exciting. Their setpieces aren't bad but actually fighting them was unengaging.
The biggest sticking point for me was the story and its writing. Ratchet is downright dull, the jokes don't land, and the central idea of the dimensionator allowing access to new realities isn't as interesting as I'd hoped. Most scenes just felt a bit lifeless, which is disappointing. The only character that got consistent chuckles from me was Gary. Rivet is cool but, again, just fell flat for me.
Since R&C is one of the old pillars of platformer / collectathons, I was expecting better platforming, too. Most levels are relatively devoid of that sort of challenge and I was stunned at how often I would clip through / into things and go places the game clearly didn't want me to go.
Some positives though: there are more than a few cool worlds to explore and having optional side quests in unique locations is a good touch. This is one of the most option-heavy games I've ever played. You can essentially tailor the game to however you want to play, which is cool. Collectables are fun to get and I like the golden bolt fun options as well as the gear effects not being tied to actually equipping them. The thing I probably liked the most were the pocket dimension rooms. They always felt unique and different, which is cool. Gave a very Mario Sunshine Fludd-less levels vibe.
All in all, Rift Apart was kinda neat at times and relatively middle of the road other times. It's a tight romp in a short package, but I don't think it's really for me.