PS5's Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart - What We Know So Far

The Ratchet & Clank franchise goes all the way back to the PlayStation 2 and includes 11 games and one movie. Though the series has slowed down in recent years, with only one game made for the PlayStation 4, the announcement of a 12th entry at Sony's June 11 Future of Gaming showcase was a pleasant surprise for many. 

The Announcement Trailer for Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart revealed that the plot will feature dimensions collapsing in on one another. The iconic duo travel through rifts in time and engage in over-the-top combat with an array of cool gadgets. The look of the game has many fans wowed by the possibilities of next-generation technology.

Rift Apart is being developed by Insomniac Games, which many industry watchers figured was busy with Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Sony will publish the title, which serves as a canonical extension of 2013's Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus. Here's what we know about Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart so far.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart will release within the PlayStation 5's launch window. However, since Sony has yet to announce a specific date for its new console's release, no one knows exactly when Rift Apart is due out. 

Insomniac and Sony are marketing Rift Apart as a PlayStation 5 exclusive, so don't expect the game to show up elsewhere. The Ratchet & Clank series hasn't even been ported directly to PC before, and it's unlikely this title will make the jump. While Insomniac Games has developed a handful of Windows games in the past, it generally sticks to consoles. There have even been petitions to get Marvel's Spider-Man and Ratchet & Clank onto PCs, though nothing seems to have come of them.

The PlayStation 5 launches in the Holiday 2020 time frame, so, you may get to play Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart by the end of the year.

In addition to the Rift Apart Announcement Trailer, Insomniac debuted a seven and half minute Gameplay Demo at Gamescom 2020. It highlights the fast-paced action — complete with clean mechanics, advanced 3D audio and unique weapons — that you can expect from the platformer.

The Gameplay Demo also showcases the PlayStation 5's SSD technology, which allows players to switch between worlds almost instantaneously. All that dimension-jumping appears seamless. The new Ratchet & Clank has no loading screens, as Insomniac's Marcus Smith and Mike Daly confirmed during a Gamescon opening night interview. 

In the Gameplay Demo, you get a look at the Rift Tether tool. You can also see the effects of ray tracing, which creates more realistic environments through interactions with light and shadow. Beyond that, the preview simply shows what many already knew: Rift Apart might be the title that sells the PlayStation 5.

As Ratchet and Clank chase Dr. Nefarious, they also attempt to fix dimensional damage their enemy has done with his powerful Dimensionator device. The strafe shooting, jumping, and platform elements will all seem very familiar to fans of the series. 

According to the PlayStation Blog, new weapons include the Burst Pistol, Topiary Sprinkler, Shatterbomb, and the Enforcer, a double barrel shotgun with multiple fire modes. As usual, these weapons are full of personality, this time enhanced by the haptic feedback which adds an entirely new and expressive layer to the gameplay as Daly noted at Gamescom.

Among the old and new faces, there will be a playable female character, too — the first Lombax to be seen in the series other than Ratchet. She showed up in the Announcement Trailer and her presence was confirmed through a tweet from Insomniac, though the developer has remained reluctant about providing further details.