Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart has been an explosive return to form for the series, not only acting as a brilliant new chapter but also showing off the absolute best that modern gaming hardware can achieve. With a new entry it’s also time to look back at the entire Ratchet & Clank series in its entirety in order, and see how far we’ve come. Here’s the entire Ratchet & Clank game series in order and some of the standout titles that have made this series such a fan-favourite over the years.
All Ratchet & Clank Games in Order
- Ratchet & Clank – 2002
- Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando – 2003
- Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal – 2004
- Ratchet: Deadlocked – 2005
- Ratchet & Clank: Going Mobile – 2005
- Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters – 2007
- Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction – 2007
- Secret Agent Clank – 2008
- Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty – 2008
- Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time – 2009
- Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One – 2011
- Ratchet & Clank Collection – 2012
- Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault – 2012
- Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus – 2013
- Ratchet & Clank – 2016
- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart – 2021
The start of it all in Ratchet & Clank
2002 was a wild year for video games. Vice City, Morrowind, and WarCraft III took over the PC, but on the console side of things a little game by Insomniac Games called Ratchet & Clank appeared in November.
It was an absolute smash hit, selling millions of copies and garnering plaudits across the board. It set up a formula that’s still being followed in Ratchet & Clank games today. Huge amounts of gadgets, weapons, and a staggering variety of locations are present even right at the start of the series. It’s still extremely playable even today, so if you’re looking to see where this all started out, it’s definitely worth playing.
How Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal defined a generation
Also known simply as Ratchet & Clank 3, Up Your Arsenal refined the Ratchet & Clank formula to perfection, bringing in many of the series staples as well as making a truly genre-defining experience.
What really sets Up Your Arsenal apart from the earlier games and indeed, many of the platformers released on PlayStation 2 was the inclusion of online multiplayer, even bigger worlds, vehicles you can drive, and an increased focus on combat. These not only helped make it the defining Ratchet & Clank game, but also one that defined much of what people would later associate with the PlayStation 2 era.
Laying the foundations for the future in Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack In Time
By 2009 the Ratchet & Clank series of games had settled into a formula, so Insomniac Games decided to shake things up in brand new ways. As you can probably tell by the title, A Crack in Time features time-centric gameplay mechanics, such as recording actions and replaying them.
In addition, A Crack in Time opened up the game even more than previous entries. You could now travel freely between planets using your spaceship, meaning optional challenges could be added in through an expanded, freely explorable system map. With more focus on upgrading your weapons thrown into the mix, A Crack in Time was a huge game that could be played and replayed many times, making it one of the key combat platformers released on the PlayStation 3.
Taking technology in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart to a new level
Finally, we come to Rift Apart. Coming after the rebooted Ratchet & Clank on the PlayStation 4 in 2016, Rift Apart takes advantage of new console hardware to really show what the next generation is capable of. Not only does the game offer near-cinematic quality ray tracing effects and graphics throughout, it uses the PlayStation 5’s SSD to bring new gameplay to the fore which simply wasn’t possible before.
Rift Apart manages to load separate areas almost instantaneously, allowing the player to use the titular rifts to swap between zones and realities in a blink of an eye. This marrying of gameplay and technology means A Rift Apart isn’t just a defining Ratchet & Clank game, it’s a defining moment for the future of gaming on next-generation hardware.
