I was lucky enough to get my hands on it and played it through.
Finished it on Hard (Resistance Leader).
Good combat, good visuals. Some of the weapons where almost completely useless however they might just need to be outfitted with raritanium in order to max out.
New dodge mechanic is interesting but at times the enemies fired so much that all I could do was dodge. This may’ve had something to do with the difficulty I was playing as the enemies attack rate goes up the higher the difficulty you play.
The armor customization is unlike anything in the other R&C games. An outfitters dream. Finding bits of armor can also give you handy perks, dmg resistance more bolts etc. You can also stick to R&Rs original appearance if you don’t fancy any of their armor.
Story Spoilers
It ended as you typically imagen, Nefarious beaten and his Emperor counter-part beaten.An interesting but typical B plot involving Rivets arm. I won’t spoil that. Flows into the game without splashing over too much into the main plot.
There is no explicit indication of a relationship between Ratchet and Rivet however numerous side characters go the nine yards in being in relationships or giving birth to litters of their own. They do however go on picnics and bond in ending offshoots like at the ending of the re-released Spyro games so…its open to interpretation.
We do not see the Lombax society. I suspect this and the relationship between Ratchet and Rivet will be expanded on in the follow up game or major patch if they go in that direction (doubtful for the later happening)
Some of the puzzles and extra activities came with no explanation. Sometimes they sacrifice practicality in navigating obstacles for more visual spectacles (you could for instance go flying off a race track before it fully “loads”) or some of the tether balls decide they’re not going to activate when you go flying over them. Navigating over cliffs at high speeds can also be tricky as if you press that X button at the wrong time all your momentum disappears and you go screaming into an abyss.
Jetpack is absent.
Overall a good experience solid 8/10. I’ll likely be playing through again as not all my weapons are fully upgraded, still missing some gold bolts and I got a new Ryno to find and build.