Ratchet sets the tone early in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart’s prologue. “We haven’t done anything heroic in years. What if everyone thinks we’re washed up?”
Years is putting it lightly. The last main entry into the original Ratchet & Clank timeline was in 2013, nearly a decade ago. We got the reboot in 2016, five years ago, and it was one of the best-performing entries in the series, despite a lukewarm reaction from hardcore fans. So naturally, I was anxious to see where we’d go from there. Would it be a continuation of the new storyline, or would Insomniac find a way to continue from Into the Nexus? I wasn’t sure at all where things were going with Rift Apart, but the opening completely alleviated any such anxieties, and it made me giddy in the best of ways.
RELATED: It's Looking Like Ratchet & Clank's Angela Isn't A Lombax… Again
Rift Apart opens with a heroic parade, with fittingly themed floats and stands drowned in crowds. The way that this parade opens ushers in a sense of nostalgia that made me feel like we’d slipped right back into 2013 – continuing from a point of finality that had been lingering on my mind since my teenage years. Now, I’m beginning adulthood, and I’m as ecstatic as I was back then. Ratchet & Clank taps into my inner child, and I cherish that Insomniac is still able to make him smile.
The door opens and the announcers are zipping around in the air. There’s Qwark and Skid McMarx, but we saw them in the 2016 reboot. What truly solidifies Rift Apart’s return to the originals is Rusty Pete, a classic icon of the pirate-clad PS3 era, cultivated in the likes of The Quest for Booty. Having him on display front and center from the get-go set a precedent immediately. We weren’t in that 2016 world, the one where Drek was a bumbling buffoon instead of an unsettling and eerie megalomaniac. Rusty Pete brings us to that ending from way back when. Sure, Talywn Apogee would’ve made more sense, arguably, but the pirates were one of the most common and charming recurring set of villains and characters in the original games, so having Pete standing atop a podium with a mic, fumbling in its usage, was perfect, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Him alone would have been enough to usher in this idea that we were back in that original story, the one that sports a fantastic comic, a slew of spin-offs, and a killer main-line with some of the best narratives in the biz. But it’s not just Pete that does it.
What transpires that shows we’re in the original timeline so blatantly but in such a spectacular fashion is the history lesson. Each float depicts its own game, with the very first taking us to Veldin and the crashed ship that housed Clank, leading to the duo's blossoming friendship. The aesthetic of the whole site feels more akin to the 2002 original brought up to modern graphics as opposed to the re-imagined variant we saw in 2016, but we continue to hear about the blarg, even A Crack in Time, with a float dedicated to the great clock. It doesn’t get much more obvious than that. However, what nearly slipped my radar was a nod from Qwark himself. See, in the midst of this celebration of Ratchet & Clank’s history, they get attacked by the rebranded Goons4Less, formerly Thugs4Less.
Qwark nervously chuckles and says, “What is this supposed to be a re-enactment of?” – that’s because, while pretending to be the CEO known as Fizzwidget in Going Commando, Qwark used Thugs4Less to deter Ratchet and Clank, protecting the protopet. He was the villain of the second game, and funnily enough, that very title is omitted from the history lesson. Qwark no doubt orchestrated as much to reduce his culpability, appearing as the unstained hero with no spots on his track record. So, when they attack, he asks what it’s a re-enactment of, perhaps assuming that it’s a recreation of the events of the second game, not Nefarious being nefarious. It’s so subtle, but so perfectly interwoven. You can miss it because it’s that understated, but if you catch it, there’s that glimmer that comes with being rewarded for sticking around since the beginning, a nod to my childhood. The entire opening is a literal celebration of the original games by way of celebrating Ratchet and Clank’s heroics, their various antics in saving the universe ten times over, but it’s also a celebration of Insomniac’s flagship series. Seeing that made me unbelievably confident. This wasn’t just a new entry, it was a respectful wink at the fans, while it also extended a hand to new audiences to bring them into the fold so that they too can enjoy this spectacle of jump-and-gun fun.
I’m overjoyed to see the series resonating with so many who hadn’t played much of it prior to 2016 or even just to Rift Apart. I’m also overjoyed that Insomniac managed to bring those new people in while also celebrating its history with those who have been there every step of the way. There’s a feeling of solidarity and community between the two, and not abandoning that for a shoddy Hollywood remake is such a sigh of relief. I look forward to seeing where the series goes next, finally clueing us into the end of this story that’s been built up since Tools of Destruction, the last of the lombax arc. I’ve gone from being a plucky and excited seven-year-old, picking up that new copy, diving in, completely in awe at the graphics and slick gameplay, to being a 20-year-old feeling the exact same elatement. There’s no series that elicits this kind of response for me, and that opening alone was overwhelmingly nostalgic in the best of ways, all while feeling fresh and revitalizing, rather than nostalgic for nostalgia's sake.
Next: Dragon Age 4 Looks As If It’s Shaping Up Brilliantly
