Rift Apart Makes Cheating Fun Again
By
Eric Switzer
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart’s no-shame approach to cheat codes is a breath of fresh air.
Cheating used to be awesome. If you’ve never given yourself god powers and spawned in 50 tanks in Grand Theft Auto 3, you haven’t lived. Growing up, cheating was like a shortcut to fun. Why would I grind my Pokemon team to level 100 when I’ve got infinite rare candies? I’m 11, do you think I’ve got nothing better to do? Girls wouldn’t even talk to you if you didn’t have the newest GameShark in middle school, that’s how core cheating was to youth culture in the early ‘00s.
But something changed around the time that online games started getting popular. Cheating turned into hacking, and everyone that does it is an asshole. Cheating for fun died on the same day that someone figured out how to see through walls in Counter-Strike. The backlash to cheating as a concept was so severe that even single-player games either punished you for using them or left them out completely. Cheat codes are a relic of the past now, but miraculously, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart managed to bring them back in a big way. Not only does Rift Apart feature a veritable Hall of Fame of cheat codes, it also never once takes anything away or makes you feel bad for using them.
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Like in previous Ratchet & Clank games, cheats in Rift Apart are unlocked by collecting the hidden gold bolts scattered around each planet. Every time you find a gold bolt, you’ll instantly have access to a new cheat. Some of these cheats are classics like Big Head mode, golden guns, and screen filters, while later gold bolts unlock infinite health and ammo.
This is the perfect approach to cheats, and one we haven’t seen in many years. Some modern games do have cheat codes, but they’re either unavailable until after you finish the game, like Resident Evil Village, or they disable achievements, like Rage 2’s cheat menu.
But Rift Apart lets you mess around with your cheats as soon as you find a gold bolt, even if it’s on your first playthrough. It never punishes you for using them either. Even if you turn on infinite health and ammo, you’re not restricted from earning any of the game’s achievements. The cheats are simply rewards for finding the hidden bolts, which, let’s be honest, aren’t all that hidden anyway. Halfway through the game, you’re even given a map that shows where all of them can be found. You don’t even need to backtrack to get them for the most part. There’s only two bolts in the entire game that you can’t get on your first visit to their location.
Other than the infinite health and ammo cheats, these aren’t even game-changing options. Most of them are just fun visual options that add a little more flair to the game. One of my favorites is the cheat that causes enemies to explode in confetti when defeated. For a game already packed with particles, I couldn’t believe this additional effect worked as well as it did.
Rift Apart is a great reminder of how much fun cheating can be. The infinite ammo is a great time saver for ranking up all your weapons, especially in new game plus when they can be leveled all the way to ten. There’s nothing shameful about using cheats, and Rift Apart does a fantastic job of treating them like optional tools, rather than sins. I hope we can return to a golden era of cheat codes thanks to the Rift Apart. Because everyone deserves a little big head mode now then.
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Every Cheat In Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
Cheats in Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart are tied to the Gold Bolts, which are collectibles typically hidden throughout each of the game’s planets and levels. Finding every Gold Bolt can be time-consuming and tricky, but they offer some pretty cool rewards in the long run.
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There are 25 Gold Bolts to collect in Rift Apart, but obtaining them typically doesn’t unlock cheats or special abilities.
Instead, for the most part, collecting Gold Bolts will unlock things such as skins for Ratchet and Rivet’s weapons, sticker packs for the game’s Photo Mode, or Music that the player can listen to at a Jukebox. However, there are a handful of fun Cheats that will make gathering the Gold Bolts well worth the time and effort!
9/9 RPG — 6 Gold Bolts
The RPG Cheat in Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart adds a visual representation of damage dealt to enemies by the player.
Enabling the RPG Cheat requires the player to have collected 6 Gold Bolts and shows damage numbers above any enemy hit by the player.
8/9 Rendering Modes Pack 1 — 8 Gold Bolts
The Rendering Modes Packs in Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart allows the player to use the game’s many Photo Mode filters in the actual game.
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Rendering Mode Pack 1 requires the player to have collected 8 Gold Bolts and contains four different filters for in-game use.
Noir — A high contrast, black and white filter.
Sepia — A vintage-looking filter with warm brown tones.
Mars — A warm reddish-pink hue with high contrast.
Home Movie — Adds scanlines over the game, making it look like a homemade VHS video.
7/9 Head Size — 11 Gold Bolts
Photo via: culturedvultures.com
Changing the Head Size of the playable characters in a game is a classic Cheat/Secret, and it’s incredible seeing it return in Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart.
After collecting 8 Gold Bolts, the player will be able to change Ratchet and Rivet’s head to become Tiny, Big, or switch it back to default. Any changes will not be present in cutscenes, however.
6/9 Home Run Hitter — 14 Gold Bolts
Home Run Hitter is an incredibly fun Cheat in Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart and will require the player to gather 14 Gold Bolts, which could take a bit of time.
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With the Home Run Hitter Cheat enabled, the player will send enemies flying across the world if they land the killing blow on an enemy with their melee weapon.
5/9 Confetti Craniums — 15 Gold Bolts
Confetti Craniums is another fun Cheat in Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart and requires 15 Gold Bolts to enable it.
When the Confetti Craniums cheat is active, the player will send confetti flying out of the enemy’s head with each successful hit. Watching confetti pour out of a bunch of different enemies at once is an experience for sure.
4/9 Rendering Modes Pack 2 — 18 Gold Bolts
Much like the first Rendering Modes Pack, the second one also allows the player to play through the game with various filters applied.
Rendering Modes Pack 2 contains three filters and requires 18 Gold Bolts to activate. Even though there are many more filters in the Photo Mode, this is the last Rendering Modes Pack available in Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart.
Newsprint — Applies an overlay that emulates a newspaper over the game, putting many tiny black dots all over the screen and muting the colors.
Filmic — Makes the game look like an old-timey film. Fit with lots of film grain and the old projector artifacts and particles.
Retro — Makes everything pixelated and mutes the game’s colors.
3/9 Mirror Mode — 19 Gold Bolts
Mirror Mode is one of the few Cheats in Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart that may do more harm than good to the player. To enable Mirror Mode, the player will need 19 Gold Bolts, which can be tricky.
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Activating Mirror Mode will flip the game’s world horizontally, making everything a tad bit different and harder to navigate. This Cheat isn’t recommended for use until after the player is more familiar with the game and perhaps already beat it!
2/9 Infinite Health — 23 Gold Bolts
One of the more classic Cheats in games is allowing the player to become a God and take no damage from enemy attacks. Fortunately, that is possible in Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart.
