The Ultimate Face-Off: Unveiling the Mind-Blowing PC Experience of Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart Compared to PS5
Experience the highly anticipated arrival of Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart on PC, although some workarounds may have slightly impacted the overall gameplay Discover how the PC version stacks up against the exhilarating PS5 experience
Highlights
Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, a highly acclaimed PS5 title, has made its way to PC; however, fans may not be as satisfied with the experience on this platform.Utilizing Microsoft's DirectStorage 1.2 technology, the PC version of Rift Apart aims to meet its technical requirements. Nevertheless, it falls short of the PS5 version in terms of both graphics and gameplay quality.
The PC version of Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart falls short of the original PS5 release, despite the improvements in PC features such as better ray-traced reflections. The visual and technical downgrades, as well as slower and choppier portal transitions, contribute to an inferior PC experience compared to the PS5 version.
How Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart Can Run on PC
In Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, the well-known team finds themselves separated across different dimensions when Clank gives Ratchet a fixed Dimensionator to search for the Lombax race. Meanwhile, the villainous Doctor Nefarious also desires the device in order to conquer multiple dimensions, starting the plot with his initial attempt. As Ratchet and Clank strive to reunite, players encounter exciting new characters, including the female Lombax named Rivet. The core next-gen feature of Rift Apart is its Dimensionator, which, due to its technical demands, Insomniac Games, the developers, stated that only the PS5's SSD could handle the game's requirements at the time of its release. Although it is now possible to play the game on PC, fans may experience a slightly less impressive gameplay on that platform.
Porting Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart to PC may seem like an odd decision considering it was specifically designed for the PS5 and its release timing is out of the ordinary. Developers had to overcome the challenge of adapting the game to run on PC without the SSD requirement, which was initially considered integral to the Rift Apart experience. The marketing of the game heavily emphasized the PS5's powerful SSD, making Rift Apart an iconic experience for the console. However, the PC adaptation relies on innovative technology from Microsoft in an attempt to meet the demanding memory and GPU requirements of the game.
Rift Apart's PC version takes advantage of Microsoft's DirectStorage 1.2 technology, which was initially introduced as a means to efficiently transfer data from solid-state drives to the GPU, bypassing the CPU and avoiding any slowdowns. With the 1.2 version of this technology, games can now utilize GPU decompression to relieve the CPU from handling the task of decompressing assets, transferring it instead to the graphics card. Making it an impressive milestone, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart becomes the first-ever PC game to support DirectStorage 1.2 from its launch day, establishing itself as a significant release on the platform. Consequently, the resulting experience provides further confirmation of the validity of Insomniac Game's original claims regarding the PS5 SSD.
How Rift Apart's PC Experience Compares to the PS5's
The PC release of Rift Apart received mixed reactions from the gaming community. Some members took the opportunity to mock the port, mocking the perceived importance of the SSD as a selling point. However, despite being outdated, the claims made by Insomniac about the game still hold true to some extent. Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart can be played on PC using advanced technologies that have recently become available, but overall, the quality of the experience is not on par with the original version.
The PC version of Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart does not match the quality and seamless experience of the PS5 version. Fans playing on PC, regardless of their hardware setup, will notice visual and technical downgrades compared to the PS5 version. While the PC version offers improved features such as higher-quality ray-traced reflections, ray-traced shadows, and ambient occlusion, the quality of the reflections is inconsistent and lower than what can be seen on the PS5. Additionally, the portal transitions in the PC version are slower and choppier, failing to replicate the seamless experience found on the PS5. Despite the use of advanced PC gaming technology, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart's PC version falls short in replicating the polished and seamlessly executed gameplay of the original PS5 release. The game is available now on both PC and PS5.
