Update 8/28/20: In a Famitsu interview following Rift Apart‘s Gamescom presentation, Daly and Smith said the game offers two performance modes: 4K at 30 FPS, and a “lower resolution” at 60 FPS.
Original Story:
Gamescom 2020’s Opening Night Live ended with an extended look at early portions of Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart. There were plenty of features shown off, and Mike Daly, Rift Apart‘s Game Director, also announced it will be a PlayStation 5 launch window release.
Rift Apart revolves around Ratchet and Clank’s quest to stop the evil Dr. Nefarious from using his Dimensionator weapon to control the world. Creative Director Marcus Smith said it technically acts as an extension to Ratchet and Clank: Into the Nexus.
Newcomers can still ease into it with no prior knowledge, but longtime fans will recognize plenty of returning characters and callbacks to earlier games.
Events take a turn for the worse when Ratchet attacks Dr. Nefarious and de-stabilizes the Dimensionator, opening rifts between worlds throughout the galaxy.
These rifts serve multiple purposes. Purple ones suck NPCs into the unknown and deposit enemies into Ratchet and Clank’s path. Orange rifts are scattered throughout each world, and Daly said players can use these to traverse obstacles and get a surprise drop on unsuspecting foes.
The big rift-roaring action, where Ratchet and Clank get shunted from world to world in quick succession, is reserved for key moments in the game.
More rift types await, but Daly said they’re keeping those back for another time. Daly also mentioned a bit more about how Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart uses the DualSense’s special features.
An earlier PlayStation Blog post mentions how things work — pulling triggers past certain points to alter a weapon’s power — but Daly said the haptics and adaptive triggers add a new layer to every weapon. Players will have to decide on the fly which weapon features to use and whether it’s worth going all-out on certain foes or to save up for bigger challenges.
As mentioned, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart is a PlayStation 5 launch window game. However, it’s not certain how long after launch that window remains open, and neither Smith nor Daly said much about how far along Rift Apart‘s development is. Stay tuned to GameSkinny for more Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart news as it develops.
[Source: Famitsu]
