Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

Rift Apart is probably the best-looking game I've run on my OLED, full stop. The dimension-rifts happen with zero loading. One second you're in a neon city, the next a swamp planet, and that trick alone justifies owning a PS5. I finished the campaign in under ten hours, which for me these days counts as a genuine luxury. It leans more toward platforming and weapon spectacle than deep adventure design, closer to Astro Bot than to Ghost of Tsushima. The Clank sections and dimension puzzles keep it from being pure shooting, though, and Rivet is a great addition to the cast. Short, gorgeous, and genuinely fun. If you want a game the whole family can watch over your shoulder, start here.

Light, easy, and one of the best-looking games the PS5 has produced. That sounds like faint praise but it is not. Rift Apart does something most games cannot: it uses the hardware in a way you actually notice during play, not just in trailers. The instant dimension shifts happen in real time with no load screen, and the first time it happens it genuinely stops you. The DualSense implementation here is among the most thoughtful on the platform. It sits at three because it does not reach the emotional or mechanical highs of the games above it, but as a pure PS5 argument, it is one of the clearest ones on this list.

Rift Apart is the game I put on when I want to enjoy something without having to earn it first. Vibrant, colourful, cheerful without being cloying. It is not too long, not too short, and the difficulty never punishes you for playing in short bursts. The weapon variety keeps combat from going stale across its 15-hour runtime, and the dimensional rift mechanics are used more cleverly than the trailers suggest. I tried explaining to a non-gaming friend why this was worth watching and just handed them the controller instead. They got it immediately. That kind of instant readability is rarer than it looks, and it is exactly why this game rounds out the list.

The dimension-hopping sequences load so fast that the first time it happens you genuinely do not believe the console did that without a cut. Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart was built to show off the PS5 SSD and it does exactly that, but what keeps it interesting is that the game underneath the spectacle is also genuinely good. Tight platforming, satisfying weapons, a pace that respects your time. I played it with my kids watching and the whole thing works as family viewing too, which is rare for a game at this production level. If someone hands you a PS5 for the first time, this is the disc you put in first.

Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart was the first game I put on when I got my PS5, because it was specifically designed to show what the hardware could do and still be fun while doing it. Instant portal transitions with no load time, haptic feedback on every weapon, a visual style that looks hand-rendered rather than rendered. It is shorter and lighter than anything in the main ten, which is the honest reason it is here rather than there. But it is polished to a degree that very few games match, and if you want something you can finish in a weekend that leaves you feeling good about the console, Rift Apart still does the job.

Rift Apart is not a long game, and that is exactly why it works for me right now. Fifteen hours, no filler, every moment doing something interesting with the hardware. The DualSense work is the best in the catalog: weapon haptics, trigger resistance, all of it actually serves the gameplay rather than just demonstrating specs. My kids watched me play the opening hour and wanted their own turn. The visual density is extraordinary for a PS5 showcase, and the humor lands more often than it has any right to. If you want something to play over a weekend that leaves you feeling good rather than exhausted, this is it.