Am I panicking a little at this point? Maybe I am It’s getting pretty late and these lists aren’t totally 100% done. But I haven’t managed to miss any uploads yet, even at the expense of more important things I should be focusing on. But tradition is tradition, and I just need to keep ploughing through my top ten video games of 2021 list.
This list is one of my top ten favourite games that come out in in the year 2021. In the past I’ve been a little loose with the rules and kind of slipped DLCs and expansions into the mix. But with the real rise of service games now, I felt like I finally had to break away and create a list of my older favourite games too. Which you can check out by clicking this link here.
Here’s number two, another one that could have easily been in the number 1 slot:
#2: Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
Played on PlayStation 5 | Released 11th June | Developed by Insomniac Games
Back in July, I wrote a review of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart in which I spent the majority of my time lamenting the changes to the franchise as it had ages. The “Disneyfication” of the characters and franchise over the years, starting as a more cynical, parody filled universe and becoming more of a wholesome, family friendly, Pixar-like approach to the world.
Despite my cynical, grumpy old man rant about a franchise losing what little edge it had that made me enjoy it so much in the first place, Ratchet & Clank: Rift apart is still one of the best video games to come out in 2021. And that’s not meant as a backhanded compliment either, it genuinely is beautiful, charming and very fun continuation of the franchise that pretty much was the straw that made me actually go and search out a PlayStation 5.
Despite falling off the franchise for a while following the PS2 era, getting back into this game felt like slipping into an old shoe. It acts as the beginning of a new story while taking events of the older games into account. Clank presents his friend Ratchet with a repaired Dimensionator in the game’s intro hoping to find the Lombax together with Ratchet.
However, Dr. Nefarious shows up to ruing everything and ends up breaking the dimensions, stranding Ratchet and Clank in a parallel dimensions where it’s version of nefarious always and it’s version of Ratchet and Clank never met.
Queue the genderbent versions of Ratchet and Clank in Rivet and Kit. Play switches between the two characters, and to avoid any confusion with progression, allows the player to just share their arsenal of wear and wonderful weapons they collect throughout the course of the game.
In my prior review I described the game as “another one of these”. Which it certainly is to a certain extent. It’s a very good example of the tried and tested formula of the franchise. Which leads me to believe the game was more of a commission from Sony in order to drum up interest and help sell the PS5 rather than a passion project and natural next game from Insomniac themselves.
Not than I’m complaining, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the game. And even if it was a proof of concept for the unique features of the PS5, it does it incredibly well. The game looks amazing, it continues to be the best looking game I’ve played on the PS5. Coupled with the game’s gimmick of seamlessly transitioning between realities using portals with no loading times whatsoever.
It’s a great feature and shows off just what the PS5 can do super effectively. My only real complaint about the game was that it felt a little short and after playing through the entire thing twice and unlocking everything there was to unlock I still felt like I wanted to continue messing with it.
The game does set itself up for a sequel though, so maybe, when they’re done with Spider-Man and Wolverine, we might get another one of these. I certainly hope so.
A Richard Wood Text Adventure 