Insomniac is a studio that goes above and beyond with photo mode. I recently spoke to Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart's game director Mike Daly, who explained the passion many developers have for the mode, and for the creative ways the community uses it in both Spider-Man games. You can read more about that in our full interview with Daly here, but perhaps the most interesting revelation came in the preview I saw a few days prior to my talk with Daly - Rift Apart has some ray tracing so tiny, you'll need photo mode to see it.
Obviously, the game still includes the big ray tracing. You'll see Ratchet and Rivet reflected in glass and puddles and shiny metal, just like in both Spidey games. These ray traced reflections will even stretch and distort in the curved chrome of Clank's head. If you equip the Pixelizer though, that's when the ray tracing starts to really flex its muscles.
While the game is bringing a host of new weapons, like the Topiary Sprinkler, it's also keeping some of the old classics, like the Pixelizer. As you might have guessed from the name, this gun turns your enemies into pixels - in the old game, they transform into a bunch of 2D squares then fall to the ground in a heap.
Thanks to the PS5 though, each pixelated cube will now be in 3D, and if you zoom in close enough in photo mode, you'll see your teeny tiny reflection staring back at you. Or at least, you'll see Ratchet or Rivet's reflection staring back at you. Since the characters can be posed within the photo mode too, you can change their reflections in the microscopic mirrors as well. Of course, you can also change their poses and look at them properly, rather than via a ray traced reflection, but that's nowhere near as fun.
You'll be able to try out this ray tracing for yourself, and all the other weapons in Ratchet and Rivet's arsenal, on June 11, when Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart launches exclusively for the PS5.