Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, weapons, gadgets and performances

Ratchet & Clank

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart has shown up on several occasions since its announcement and with each new appearance we have always been ecstatic. Until now, however, there was little concrete information regarding level design, combat system and equipment, but recently we had the opportunity to let the guys of Insomniac Games tell us many details about the game, and find out what Rift Apart will reserve for us. June 11, when it arrives exclusively on PlayStation 5.

Weapons and equipment

Let's start with an extremely important component of Ratchet & Clank: weapons. The arsenal of Ratchet, and in the case of Rift Apart also of Rivet, is one of the hallmarks of the saga. Adam Noonchester, Lead Gameplay Programmer at Insomniac Games, revealed to us what are the three characteristics at the base of the Rift Apart arsenal, namely entertainment, strategy and humor. Each weapon in the game embraces these three elements, but the difference lies in how much one of these prevails over the other two: there are weapons designed to create a real fireworks display on the screen, others reasoned according to a specific combat strategy and others to be simply bizarre or funny, without becoming of little use. This is the case of the Topiary Sprinkler, a glove with which to hurl a garden sprinkler on the battlefield that temporarily immobilizes enemies, transforming them into hedges; the irreverence of the object does not stop there since, looking more closely at the 3D model of the weapon, we noticed that a yellow color was chosen for the glove ... except for the thumb, which is strictly green!

Ratchet fights some enemies with the Burst Pistol Although we are quite certain that the Topiary Sprinkler belongs to that deliciously nonsense category of weapons typical of Ratchet & Clank, such as the Pecorator (which turned enemies into sheep) and the Glove Discotron (with which to hurl a strobe ball on the battlefield that hypnotized all enemies, forcing them to dance to disco music), we could see the great advantage of the weapon in action: in a gameplay sequence, Rivet threw the sprinkler behind a group of shielded enemies, with a parabolic launch. In this way, once the opponents were immobilized, the protagonist could get around their protections and hit them without too many problems. Despite the discreet confusion on the battlefield, the launch of the bomb seemed to us extremely casual and not very cumbersome, not only because it is guided by the usual arc of trajectory that defines the parabola of the projectile before launch, but also for the strong visual facilitation. : in Rift Apart, in fact, the management of the camera varies for each weapon.

Ratchet in Nefarious City To further improve the combat, a small orange bar has been added near the viewfinder that immediately indicates the amount of ammunition available, without having to constantly look at the indicator at the top right. However, that icon remains important because it tells the player the amount of ammo left, the power level and the experience points accumulated with that weapon. In fact, the traditional weapon upgrade mechanics seem to remain unchanged where, for each hit scored, a certain amount of experience points are earned. Once you have accumulated enough points, the weapon levels up, becoming more powerful and sometimes adding if not to change firing modes, aiming and so on.

Shared arsenal

We have seen numerous weapons in action, including old acquaintances such as the Glove of Fate and some interesting new entries such as the Ricochet, a weapon with powerful ricochet bullets; our favorite at the moment is the Void Pulser, a gun that creates a shield in front of the protagonist and which is then hurled at enemies, shattering devastatingly on every surface hit. We talk about "character" in a generic way because the guys from Insomniac have provided us with an important detail about the Rift Apart arsenal: the weapons inventory of Ratchet and Rivet is shared.

Rivet fights a robot pirate on Torren IV It will therefore not be necessary to unlock the same weapon twice but, more simply, when one of the two adds a new item to the collection, the other also benefits; a choice aimed at making game progression less laborious and frustrating. However, the traditional weapon mapping remains unchanged, which allows you to assign a quick weapon to each button of the D-pad, and the balance of magazines: historically in the Ratchet & Clank saga, players could easily understand how powerful a weapon was in based on the amount of bullets the magazine could hold ... the fewer bullets there were, the greater the power of the weapon! However, the developers wanted to make a clarification about the ammunition: it is difficult during a fight to remain totally dry, but the balance between exploded shots and reloads available on the battlefield has been carefully weighed. "You will feel your ammo supply dwindling during combat and at some point you will have to pay attention to it," said Rift Apart Game Director Mike Daly jokingly.

How DualSense is applied

Ratchet fires a powerful shot with the Enforcer Another important statement was that of Marcus Smith, Creative Director of Insomniac Games, who bluntly exclaimed: "DualSense seems made for Ratchet's arsenal!". The development team has in fact concentrated a lot on the potential of the PlayStation 5 pad, telling us in detail, and with decidedly enthusiastic tones, how DualSense has been an element capable of enriching the gaming experience, making it intuitive and immersive at the same time. The relationship between the firing modes of the weapons and the features of the controller is very interesting: each weapon in the arsenal acquires its own personality by significantly changing the type of shot based on how much the trigger of the pad is pressed. The Burst Pistol, for example, fires a series of bullets with a slow and precise cadence if the trigger is held down to halfway; pressing it completely the weapon increases the rate of fire, resulting much faster but losing accuracy. Pulling the trigger up to half stroke while holding the Enforcer, a large double-barreled shotgun, it alternates the shot between the two guns; with full pressure the Enforcer explodes a powerful shot using both barrels at the same time. Finally, the NegaTron, an energy weapon, charges with a half-stroke pull of the trigger, then releases a powerful beam by pressing the button all the way.

Vibrates everything

Ratchet rides a alien creature These are just a few examples of how the Rift Apart arsenal marries perfectly with the functions of DualSense, but the important point for the developers was to explain to us how all this makes the use of weapons intuitive, and how the resistance of the trigger loads the player with expectations about the power of the shot that is about to follow when the button is pressed completely. Obviously this did not completely surprise us because, to be honest, there has always been a close synergy between Ratchet & Clank and the possibilities offered by PlayStation peripherals ... and those who have played Weapons of Destruction will remember the secret dance of the robot pirates. to be done with Sixaxis! Obviously the hope is that the capabilities of DualSense have not been exploited only by the arsenal of Ratchet and Rivet, and we had a reassurance in this sense when the developers talked about the mounts present in the game, such as the one glimpsed during the demo of the State of Play. The haptic feedback of DualSense, according to Daly, is capable of giving life to the creatures that Ratchet and Rivet will ride, giving them a pleasant vibration.

Rivet obtains the Hurlshot The interdimensional faults present in the game, which the player will be able to perceive before even seeing thanks to the increasing intensity of the DualSense vibration. open, where the use of turbo shoes will allow faster navigation of large spaces. Speaking of mobility, we should also mention the Hurlshot, an object similar to the Swingshot (i.e. the historical gadget that allows Ratchet to hook onto suspended holds and swing to reach distant ledges) which allows Rivet to accumulate enough energy to throw himself very far like a catapult. Last but not least, the confirmation of the return of the armor, where it will be possible to combine several pieces of different sets and the presence of some game sections dedicated solely and exclusively to Clank.

Performance and ray tracing

Remaining in the technical field, the intervention of Mike Fitzgerald, Core Technology Director of Insomniac, is also very interesting. Fitzgerald talked to us about how the SSD and all the hardware of the PlayStation 5 were indispensable for the realization of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. The multitude of animations and assets on the screen, the total absence of separation between cinematics and gameplay, the speed with which scenarios and levels are loaded are all factors that the development team had not initially taken into consideration. The experience with Miles Morales, Fitzgerald confessed in a very transparent way, has taught Insomniac the true potential of the PlayStation hardware, according to him not really fully exploited by the spin-off of Spider-Man. Time and time again the team was amazed at what PlayStation 5 could actually do and we were literally blown away when Fitzgerald showed a scene where Rivet went from planet to planet simply by hitting a crystal. Those who have played the previous Ratchet & Clank will remember very well the loading times between worlds, where we saw Ratchet's spaceship fly into space and arrive at its destination. In Rift Apart, on the other hand, it is enough to simply flip a switch and PlayStation 5, in the blink of an eye, teleports us to a new level, without any loading. When asked directly about the game's graphical modes, the developers did not expose themselves too much, declaring that Rift Apart can be played at both 30 and 60 frames per second.Fitzgerald finally showed some examples of active ray tracing in the game: impressive , in particular, it is the amount of reflections that generates the metallic coating of Clank, where the artists themselves had to work for a long time on the texture of the material in order not to make it excessively shiny. Funny then was a release by Fitzgerald regarding the Pixelator, a weapon of the game that transforms the hit enemies into cubes: "Each face of the cubes is a reflective surface, if you don't believe it, I invite you to use the photo mode when you can play. to Rift Apart! " Okay Mike: challenge accepted!

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