The Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart State of Play presentation was packed with over 15 minutes of new gameplay, as well as confirmation of a fully featured photo mode and expansive accessibility options.
The gameplay session starts with Ratchet searching for his old pal Clank, treading the streets of a strange dystopian city where Nefarious isn't an incompetent goober of a villain. His meeting with a friendly weapons dealer, who seems to think he's a member of "the resistance," is interrupted when our new Lombax hero Rivet darts past with Clank strapped to her back. The reunion is over before it starts when Rivet leaps into a waiting ship and blasts into the sky.
Much of the gameplay trailer is devoted to showing off the new movement and combat options employed by both Ratchet and Rivet: a new dash move allows you to dodge enemy attacks, special structures allow you to wall run, and grapple points help you traverse gaps. Putting all of these options together for speedy movement through the world - and for deftly avoiding enemy attacks - makes for a more acrobatic combat style than previous Ratchet games, and you can definitely feel some of that Marvel's Spider-Man influence spreading out within Insomniac Games.
The trailer ends with a quick round-up of new features, including open areas to explore, Clank puzzles, and the aforementioned photo mode and accessibility options. It doesn't spend much time on either, but it looks like we'll be able to pose both Ratchet and Rivet, equip them with different armor sets, and change the lighting to frame our perfect photos. The accessibility options range from small tweaks like putting a persistent dot at the center of the screen up to totally changing aiming settings and the colors of the world and important objects around you.
If you think the loading times are fast in this pre-release footage, Insomniac is teasing that they'll probably be even faster when Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart arrives in June. If you're excited for the game, we've rounded up the latest Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart pre-order prices.
I figured Assassin's Creed Shadows' Red Bull collab would just be some naff cosmetics, but it's actually a pair of surprisingly useful gameplay boons for Naoe and Yasuke
Monster Hunter Wilds' worst feature is its "ridiculously poorly built UI," according to fans of the new action RPG – but there's already "a mod that fixes that"
