Can I play this game if I didn't played any other title of this franchise?

[Edward H.B]

Is it a new game with a self-contained story or is it a sequel where if you haven't played the previous games you're going to miss jokes, cameos, references and so on...?

[Kujar3]

I heard this can be enjoyed without any prior knowledge, but I can't personally tell you if that's 100% true.
Personally I never played the PS3/PS4 titles, will not stop me from playing this. When I looked at the games I did play tho, which would be the original 3 titles + deadlocked, I don't even think playing these games out of order would matter much.
Obviously you wouldn't know how Ratchet and Clank first met, you wouldn't know how Captain Qwark was introduced as a galactic hero, turned out as a con man, betrayed us, been in prison, but it's kind of non-essential? Ratchet may be annoyed at Captain Qwark in 3 but you wouldn't be asking yourself "why?" because he just kind of acts dumb and proposes insane ideas. Context that Ratchet once looked up to him isnnot necessary. Don't think I'd be lost playing the third game first.

You can easily play the PS2/PSP games if you wanted to, as for the later games, not as much. But I think you'll be OK without experiencing them.

[Edward H.B]

Originally posted by Kujar3:

I heard this can be enjoyed without any prior knowledge, but I can't personally tell you if that's 100% true.
Personally I never played the PS3/PS4 titles, will not stop me from playing this. When I looked at the games I did play tho, which would be the original 3 titles + deadlocked, I don't even think playing these games out of order would matter much.
Obviously you wouldn't know how Ratchet and Clank first met, you wouldn't know how Captain Qwark was introduced as a galactic hero, turned out as a con man, betrayed us, been in prison, but it's kind of non-essential? Ratchet may be annoyed at Captain Qwark in 3 but you wouldn't be asking yourself "why?" because he just kind of acts dumb and proposes insane ideas. Context that Ratchet once looked up to him isnnot necessary. Don't think I'd be lost playing the third game first.

You can easily play the PS2/PSP games if you wanted to, as for the later games, not as much. But I think you'll be OK without experiencing them.

I see... I'll try to play the first 3 games via emulation, I dont want to, but so far I have no choise if those games are not ported on PC.
At least, to have a little context for the world and such.
thank you very much for your answer

[steven]

TL;DR : You can play without any knowledge BUT you will miss a lot of things, it's a self contained story (you begin and you finish it in the same game, no "to be continued", no "part 2 coming" like FF7 remake) and not (as this is the continuity of the lore of the previous games, you need some knowledge from them) :

• # IF YOU DON'T CARE OF THE STORY : Play it if you want, take it as another platerformer that goes brrr, shooty shoot, boom boom, jump, straf, explore, next. It's perfectly fine. You will maybe even play the other games if you liked this one.
  
  
• # IF YOU PLAY FOR THE LORE : You will miss plenty of things, important or not (characters, story, settings....) . First, play the PS2 games for the characters / settings (light lore) and then the PS3 games (Future serie) for the story (heavy lore).

I personaly think you can't skip any game (except multiplayers ones and Deadlocked), as Rift apart is the next installement of the Future Serie (so you need to play them in order: can't begin season 2 episode 10 of a serie, need to go back to understand things) and the first 3 games are the origins.


LONG ANSWER :

Played all the games here. You will be lost on some things (some are details and some are importants) :

1. The characters : Ratchet & Clank, Qwark, Nefarious, who they are, what is their story / background....
   You will absolutely not understand some references as they sometime talk about past events or characters (angela, talwyn, tachyon, azimuth, ace, slim, the lombaxes...)
   
   
2. The story : the events (what happened there), the chronology (how long, when), the situations (why)....
   
   * the original trilogy don't have a real story : you are introduced to the characters, jump in action, little backstory here and there, no big thingy BUT you need to play it at least to understand the basics of the characters like Kujar3 said !
   
   * the PS3 games (call the"Future" serie) have a continuous lore. Each game is a continuity of the previous one (kind of). (the lombax, who they are, ratchet / clank past, the dimensionator, the multiverse ...)

And here some point that absolutely don't prevent you from playing the game but still are a good ref to previous games (Nostalgia) :

• The planets : sometime, you go back to old planets from previous games (RC3, Tools of destruction, A crack in time). Not a big miss to not know what they are, but it's always nice to see old planets from another point of view (new gaphics, another area of it or an alt)
  
  
• The weapons : some weapons are back from previous games. That's all XD. Always fun to see how it evolves (or not)
  
  
• Some jokes and not story-related refs

However, I don't think this will prevent you from playing it. Play it for the gameplay (and the story, good story !).
For the lore, play some games before or watch some video about it.
You can go, R&C are good games

[Edward H.B]

Originally posted by steven:

TL;DR : You can play without any knowledge BUT you will miss a lot of things, it's a self contained story (you begin and you finish it in the same game, no "to be continued", no "part 2 coming" like FF7 remake) and not (as this is the continuity of the lore of the previous games, you need some knowledge from them) :

• # IF YOU DON'T CARE OF THE STORY : Play it if you want, take it as another platerformer that goes brrr, shooty shoot, boom boom, jump, straf, explore, next. It's perfectly fine. You will maybe even play the other games if you liked this one.
  
  
• # IF YOU PLAY FOR THE LORE : You will miss plenty of things, important or not (characters, story, settings....) . First, play the PS2 games for the characters / settings (light lore) and then the PS3 games (Future serie) for the story (heavy lore).

I personaly think you can't skip any game (except multiplayers ones and Deadlocked), as Rift apart is the next installement of the Future Serie (so you need to play them in order: can't begin season 2 episode 10 of a serie, need to go back to understand things) and the first 3 games are the origins.


LONG ANSWER :

Played all the games here. You will be lost on some things (some are details and some are importants) :

1. The characters : Ratchet & Clank, Qwark, Nefarious, who they are, what is their story / background....
   You will absolutely not understand some references as they sometime talk about past events or characters (angela, talwyn, tachyon, azimuth, ace, slim, the lombaxes...)
   
   
2. The story : the events (what happened there), the chronology (how long, when), the situations (why)....
   
   * the original trilogy don't have a real story : you are introduced to the characters, jump in action, little backstory here and there, no big thingy BUT you need to play it at least to understand the basics of the characters like Kujar3 said !
   
   * the PS3 games (call the"Future" serie) have a continuous lore. Each game is a continuity of the previous one (kind of). (the lombax, who they are, ratchet / clank past, the dimensionator, the multiverse ...)

And here some point that absolutely don't prevent you from playing the game but still are a good ref to previous games (Nostalgia) :

• The planets : sometime, you go back to old planets from previous games (RC3, Tools of destruction, A crack in time). Not a big miss to not know what they are, but it's always nice to see old planets from another point of view (new gaphics, another area of it or an alt)
  
  
• The weapons : some weapons are back from previous games. That's all XD. Always fun to see how it evolves (or not)
  
  
• Some jokes and not story-related refs

However, I don't think this will prevent you from playing it. Play it for the gameplay (and the story, good story !).
For the lore, play some games before or watch some video about it.
You can go, R&C are good games

Yep, this 100% answers my question, I'll play the other games first, I want to get to know the characters and the world first.
Thank you for your fully explained comment ;)