Going Platinum: Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart Is Still One of PS5's Best-Looking Games 1
Image: Push Square

Platinum Trophy #28: Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

Date Earned: 23rd June 2021

Dopamine Index:

Anybody paying attention may have noticed there's been a gap in the Going Platinum schedule.

That mainly just comes down to recovering from a really nasty cold combined with an extremely packed week-or-so of gaming news. Geoff Keighley doesn't care about my suffering.

Anyway, I'm out of the trenches now, and things are coming back to a more regular cadence, so it's time to resume Everyone's* Favourite** Push Square Feature™.

It's a good one, this: Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, a truly wonderful game that I just thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish.

To be honest, I don't have an awful lot to say on this game that hasn't been repeated many times over. I have perfectly temperate takes on this thing.

I think the main thing that comes to me when I reflect on Rift Apart is just how good-looking it is.

A lot of people will reasonably equate the best visuals with realism, and that can certainly be impressive. Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, for all its otherworldly elements, has some of the most incredibly realistic character models and environments I've ever seen.

However, it's not the be-all and end-all. Rift Apart remains one of PS5's most visually striking games, not only for some seriously good texture and material work (Ratchet's fur and Clank's gleaming metal are rendered immaculately, for example) but also a brilliantly cohesive art style across the board.

I'm trying to avoid the cliché of saying it looks like a Pixar movie, but the fact is it kind of does. I think that comes down to brilliant animation, a ton of detail in the environments, and stylised, colourful characters. In that sense, I can't think of another game that quite matches it.

I suppose Kena: Scars of Kosmora will hover in a similar space when that comes around.

But yes, I just really love the way Rift Apart looks. I wouldn't be surprised if it holds up better long-term than a lot of other high-end PS5 games.

That's to say nothing of the technical stuff it's also doing, like the still-impressive world shifting stuff it's doing with the SSD.

Frankly, the Trophies came pretty easily in this game. Given the game's all-ages target audience, a straightforward list of trinkets makes sense, but it's a really fun one to complete all the same.

Obviously there's satisfaction in earning Trophies that are tougher, really testing your skills at a game or encouraging you to try alternative approaches, but there's something to be said for a list that's complete when the game's complete.

It all feels neatly tied up. You've collected all the stuff, you've finished all the optional extras, you've seen and done everything — platinum earned. I dunno, there's just something nice about that.

Cheers, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.

Do you have the platinum Trophy in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart? Tell us in the comments section below.

*Stephen's

**Tolerated