Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart Review (PC) – A Superb Way to Play the Game

Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart is one of the best platformers on the PS5, and now PC players can jump into the fun. This sci-fi tale is spectacular, with vibrant visuals and an epic story that has Ratchet explore an alternate dimension. It also introduces the fan-favorite Rivet into the series. However, the PC port hasn’t been as successful as PlayStation may have wanted. There are a few technical hiccups, but other than that, it’s a fantastic way to play the latest game in the wonderful sci-fi series. But you’ll find out in our Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart PC Port review.

Game Name: Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart
Platform(s):  PC (reviewed), PS5
Publisher(s): PlayStation PC LLC
Developer(s): Insomniac Games, Nixxes Software
Release Date: $59.99

A rough opening for the Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart PC port

The beginning of Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart may trouble your PC, as it did mine. I’d that my PC is in the upper-mid range, and I was able to run the game on High settings at 120 frames per second. Despite the power of my desktop, however, it did struggle during the opening of the game. Rift Apart defaulted to Very High settings, and it ran badly. I immediately switched over to High, and it began to run like butter 99% of the time.

However, the opening section of the game requires a lot of power. There’s a lot of animation, spectacular explosions, and level-switching from scene to scene. During the transitions from level to level, the game did have some distracting frame drops that made me wince.

One of the game’s leading properties is its fast loading between levels with an SSD. This is very obvious during the opening moments that has Ratchet switching from world to world in rifts in a matter of seconds. This is where Rift Apart struggled as Ratchet was left flying motionless for a few seconds before entering each world during this segment. I have an SSD installed, and the game still struggled for a moment. If you have an HDD hard drive, however, this will be significantly worse, as shown in the video below by Iceburg Tech.

On Steam, PlayStation recommends you have an SSD for this game, and it’s easy to see why. However, the game should at least be playable during your experience. The recommended settings do require a SSD, however, so if you want to run Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart with the best graphical settings, you’ll need one. If you want to run the game with ray tracing with a 4K resolution, PlayStation has a handy chart that you can review below. You’ll need to be sure that your PC is up to the task.

**Check to enlarge if this is too small to read**

The coast is clear

After the tough opening, however, the coast should be clear. Once each level is loaded in, the game runs at a smooth 144 frames per second at 1080p resolution with my PC. The colors do look a little washed out when compared to the PS5 version, but it still looks spectacular. The high frame rate truly makes it shine brighter. Witnessing the cars flying past above you and seeing the imagination of Insomniac’s artists come to life is astonishing.

The addition of ray tracing is also neat; for example, you can see Ms. Zurkon’s antenna shining in bright red and Clank’s eyes beaming green amongst the darker environment of Corson V. You can also see Ratchet’s hover boots reflecting light on a metal surface. It’s one of the prettiest games of this generation so far, especially if you love animated movies.

Strangely, the mouse and keyboard controls work somewhat well. Ratchet’s melee attack is easily accessible on the F key, and strafing left and right feels like controlling Doom or another precise shooter. Your weapons can be changed by rolling the scroll wheel, and aiming is easy with the accuracy of the mouse. I felt like I was fully in control of Ratchet, even during the platforming segments, which is impressive as the keyboard is not usually the best way for jumping from space to space.

Some strange key bindings

What I did find a bit awkward, however, are the secondary motions. Warping is controlled by pressing left CTRL while the hookshot is Q. They’re a little hard to reach for my beefy fingers. Thankfully, there’s key mapping you can utilize.

The stellar haptic feedback from the PS5 version is also present in the PC version. Just plug in a DualSense controller through a USB cable or through Bluetooth, and you’re ready to go. It truly adds to the experience as each shot from Ratchet’s weapon is unique.

A few issues to speak of

Before you start Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart, upgrade your graphics card. When I tried to play it without doing this, it crashed instantly. After updating my graphics card driver with GeForce Experience, it ran straight away. On the Steam Community page for Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart, some claim that Nvidia Reflex is causing crashes for the game. If you’re getting them often, make sure to turn it off. That should fix your issues. Personally, I haven’t encountered any crashes after updating my graphics card driver.

A spectacular Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart PC port

From the few hours I’ve played Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart, it’s an outstanding PC port. Being able to play one of my favorite PS5 games at 144 frames per second with ray tracing is superb. I bet it’s even better in Ultrawide resolutions. It supports 21:9, 32:9, and 48:9. I’m jealous if you have a 48:9 setup; with each world’s gorgeous visuals and open space, it would look incredible.

While the overall image looks a little blurred on my desktop, the game runs well after the opening section and looks gorgeous with ray tracing. Check out Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart if you’ve loved the series in the past or want to check out this bombastic shooter-platformer hybrid on your PC. I hope the talented developers at Nixxes make ports of other Ratchet & Clank games on the PC in the future.

Review Disclosure Statement:  Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart was provided to us by PlayStation Canada for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy for more info.

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