Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is just over two weeks away from launch. Zurkon Jr. has been holding an Almost Launch Party and has so far hosted two trailers featuring different aspects of the game. The third and last trailer he’ll be hosting features a story overview. In the meantime, Variety also spoke to Insomniac about Ratchet’s parallel Lombax character, Rivet.
Following on from his take on weapons and traversal, as well as planets and exploration, Zurkon Jr. gives his own unique take on the game’s story. Dr. Nefarious has taken control of the Dimensionator, transporting Ratchet and Clank to an alternate, darker dimension where they become separated. Whereas they always beat him in their normal dimension, Nefarious always wins in this new dimension. As the duo tries to solve this problem, they’ll find Ratchet’s inter-dimensional Lombax counterpart Rivet, a new empire, robots of all shapes and sizes, and a sheep.
The female Lombax is certainly a better solution to characters in an alternate dimension than the team’s original idea of having two Ratchets. According to Creative Director Marcus Smith that idea was scrapped after it became “a cheap soap opera where somebody’s got an eye patch and you know that one’s evil.” The alternative was a new character but one that held the same ideals as Ratchet. While we’d already seen Rivet in the game’s announcement trailer, we didn’t know who she was until last month’s State of Play presentation.
Rivet is Ratchet’s counterpart, but she is still “an entirely new character with her own distinct personality and a lot of history in this unusual dimension” according to Lead Writer Lauren Mee. After all, she’s been fighting Nefarious for years, although he’s known as Emperor Nefarious in her dimension, and it was during one such battle she lost her arm. She doesn’t have a sidekick like Clank and she isn’t the most social of characters, yet she definitely isn’t shy. Rivet is voiced by Jennifer Hale, known for her prolific video game acting career voicing characters such as the female Commander Shepard in Mass Effect and Sarah Palmer in the Halo franchise.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart will be released exclusively on PS5 on June 11. Those who pre-order the game within the next couple of weeks will receive the Carbonox armor and Pixelizer weapon, both unlocked immediately. Other players will have to earn them over time in-game.
[Source: PlayStation Blog, Variety]