Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart shows off over 15 minutes of gameplay and new photo, accessibility modes

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The wait for June is getting harder

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.

Connor Sheridan
Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and was formerly a staff writer at GamesRadar.