For reference, I've endlessly replayed the original trilogy, endless-ish-ly replayed Gladiator/Deadlocked, and had one or two playthroughs of A Crack In Time and the PS4 reimagining (the former because I borrowed a PS4, so no replays, and the former for a reason I'll establish later on in this review). I also like to write, so bear with me.

In short, not only is Rift Apart incredibly heartening to behold on Steam, for technical performance and the Halo/God of War-esque unprecedented tearing down of the Forbidden Wall that prevents many games from being multi-platform, but it is damn spectacular, in every sense of the word. You should absolutely play this game (as long as you respect the minimum recommended specs, I couldn't play the game without upgrading from my less than a decade-old computer), if for no other reason than I need you to, so we get Sony to release their necrotic, senseless grip on the rest of the series to loosen and for the ports to flow.

The core gameplay seems as refined as Insomniac seems capable of, in a good way; the guns are as ridiculous and powerful as always, and the changed takes on (what I believe to be) standard categories of weapon are interesting, like the visually and functionally distinct version of the Groovitron. I have some personal gripes about platforming in the more recent Ratchet and Clank entries, mainly how reined in the gliding, double-jump and more specific movement tech has become, but Rift Apart manages to provide a surprising amount of variety to movement that I'm less disappointed at the continued trend of Stunted Movement this time around.

The tech for this game is phenomenal, in that way that makes you double-take and want to stare at it to try and unravel the net of mesmerising knots in front of you. The rifts are the obvious first point, especially in more dynamic circumstances or structured sequences; I haven't tried it on my hard drive, but I don't care to, because this is witchcraft and I'm going to tie a rock to my computer to test if the sorcery makes it float regardless.
I've poked and prodded at what the portals will and won't allow, but so far I've only found one or two restrictions that make sense. Otherwise, you might as well consider them Portal(tm) portals, and I have nothing but respect for the devs responsible for this stuff in particular, as well as an immense curiosity to see a CD PROJEKT RED-esque presentation on how it all works.
Please make one of those. Please.

More subtle is... everything else. Take the introductory grind rail segment; the destruction going on around you, the movement, the seamlessness of going from moment to moment, not including the framing that is more standard with seamless transitions in games nowadays, all of what goes on demonstrates a lot of care and detail that is arguably not present in previous games (perhaps in Into The Nexus, I haven't played that one yet but I desperately want to now). It's gorgeously handled, and performance doesn't seem fazed by Insomniac's efforts. Again, sorcery, get in the medieval contraption.

It's no surprise that in terms of style, and rendering quality, that this game is a looker. There's some amount of critique I could probably make about clarity, but I think that's in nitpick territory, and is potentially a bonus if you think about it as exploration challenge (like, the glowing Gold Bolts don't stand out as an omniscient marker by being the only glowing thing on there? This is a stretch, but stretching is good for you, so there). Otherwise, environment and world design, character designs, props, weapons, effects and all those good bits of basil leaves on this tasty pizza are incredibly solid, with a tender chew and aromatic compliment to the saucy gameplay base.

I'm writing about the rifts again; sometimes, you go through several rifts in sequence, and by extension go through several planets in sequence. With a different game, you could observe and assume that a sequence like this is limited by smaller set pieces, such as a familiar looking room where you conveniently can't see out of the windows because nothing is out there, for performance reasons.
If they're doing this, they put so much detail into these "smaller" set pieces as to reach the point of absurdity, and are basically John Silver flexing at everyone for how technologically jacked they are. If they're not, and they're loading in other planets whilst you're not looking, and activating unique props or environments as they load in, and it's just working without being incredibly obvious and performance-harassing, once more, they've been Granted Eyes and can see traces on the motherboard that uncorrupted beings do not comprehend and use them to make this happen, at the behest of creatures that will ultimately subsume us all.

The story and characterisation is a little bit more than alright.
This sounds like this is the weak point of the game, but it's only the weak link because it's an iron chain link on a chain made primarily of synthesised super-materials. I don't dislike the milder, less joke-dense style of the more recent entries, but it does mean that the amount memorable quotes and non-gameplay events is rather sparse.
I think they've done a reasonable job, however, of providing other appeal points; I do like how the recurring Collectable Hunt for Fun and Profit is justified as helping an animal that's a bit hungry, for example. It's also not like the game is devoid of humour, that would just be misinformation on my part, and Insomniac have competent writers at worst, so don't think that the story is like pulling teeth or something like that.

The keyboard and mouse integration is as you would hope for, meaning "like any other shooter" and not "like an emulator's best efforts of simulating the right amount of analogue stick inputs to roughly approximate mouse movement". This is incredibly positive for this modern iteration of Ratchet Gunplay, as you're able to fully utilise your movement options without compromising your accuracy beyond having a pre-existing skill issue. The presence of accessibility options is also pleasant, even though I won't use them myself.
The one issue I've had with this game as an unintended problem rather than a design difference I >:| at, is that wall jumping will be triggered regardless of movement. This makes being a bit more careful about wall jumping trickier, because you can't stand against the wall without losing height on your initial wall jump position, and it makes complex movement limited, because it will stick you to a surface that wouldn't have been an issue with earlier entries. That's a super nitpicky nitpick, but I'm noting it because I initially thought it might have been a form of platforming assist accessibility option, which would have made more sense to me than "it just works like that now". Even the witches of Insomniac misjudge the height of a step and have a stomach lurch from time to time, I suppose.

I can't tell if this is a bit 'memberberries on my part, but the repeated use of old designs and tools is a lot of fun. It's nice to see certain enemies with simplistic designs in their original games, but rendered with ray-traced detail. Shot in 4K, perhaps. I also like the shared detailing present in the customisation options, which are both comprehensive and amusing in fairly strong measure. Stuff like palette swaps for your wrench and hammer, the ability to give Ratchet a fish instead of a wrench, the legally distinct versions of items like a keysword, and hexagonal gemstone money.

Overall, this is an immensely enjoyable game, and more than worth at least one try to see if it clicks with you. If not for specific, self-imposed context, I'd be either in or well on my way to a NG+ playthrough of Rift Apart, a game that genuinely does stand apart in a stacked games industry.