Ryse: Son of Rome ReviewDecember 3, 2013 by


Ryse was the first game I played on my Xbox One. I'll save the whole discussion and debate on whether or not I wasted my time and money on Xbox One at launch for a whole other blog, trust me, there's ALOT more in the pipeline. Ryse is a mess of a game, a beautiful mess, but a mess at that. It's a game that creates something of a longing for something better. The whole time I played Ryse, I imagined a game that LOOKED this good, but offered a lot more. I wish Crytek had thought of that too, because if they had, this game would have been a whole lot better.

Marius Titus, the protagonist of the game, travels up the ranks of Roman Soldiers in an attempt to avenge his family's murders at the hands of Barbarian armies. He is a rather bland hero, someone I really couldn't find myself getting behind at all throughout the game. Most of the missions are played through as flashbacks, with the "present time" being Marius telling his tales to Roman Emperor Nero. Nothing about the plot stands out, minus the locales you visit, from a visual standpoint. This game feels like a Call of Duty game almost, going from set piece to set piece, not really giving much narrative, and assuming the combat and visuals will carry you throughout the experience. The visuals sure do, the gameplay sure doesn't...

                                 Beautiful Graphics...boring everything else.

The main thing wrong with Ryse and its gameplay is the repetitiveness. It loses its steam way too song, we're talking the end of the first chapter, you'll have seen everything there is to see. The game has basic functions, like dodging, parrying, attacking with your sword and bashing with your shield, and then that's it. You have those same basic functions throughout the entire game, and it really gets old, really really fast. You'll encounter an enemy, hit them until an icon flashes above their head, and then begin the execution quick time event...which proceeds to highlight the enemy a specific color indicting which button you're supposed to hit. So if they flash yellow, hit Y, or blue, then hit X. It's really that simple. The game has a combo system, seeing how many hits you can rack up in a row, without getting hit or going a certain time without landing a blow. Now, where it gets to be ridiculous is where the executions come into play. When you hit the execute button, you don't even have to press anything, you will still execute the enemy, the only reason you should hit buttons if you want to keep your combo up... So, yeah...there's that.

The game tries to do things to keep you interested, like giving you options on receiving benefits after successful executions. Health, Focus, or XP can be gained by killing, but really, it doesn't change anything. I still don't really know what focus does in this game. Is that bad? Yea, kinda, I played it, and I'm reviewing it, but I'm being honest...what the hell does focus do? No idea. None. You'll get experience to earn upgrades throughout the game, but none of them impact combat in any fashionable way, they just enhance your abilities...and by that I mean increase your ?focus? and health, or give you other things I barely noticed while finishing the campaign. There just isn't a lot of depth here, it's a shallow game, with a shallow story. Occasionally you're able to form a phalanx and march to your destination, which is cool, but even the handful of times you do that became annoying. Luckily, the game is gorgeous to look at.

                                     I fought this guy...about a million times

If you're looking for that game to show off to your friends and boast about the Xbox One's graphical powers, Ryse is it. It's without a doubt the best looking game on either console. It's simply beautiful, but at the same time, no one is really impressed, because it's Crytek. People have come to expect that kind of greatness from them, so when something this good comes out, people are more like "Meh, Crytek", than "OMGZ GRAPHIXXX SHITE!" The game is beautiful though, with fantastic character models, lots of effects going on in the middle of battles, and amazing environments that look and feel alive. My main concern with anything visual in this game is in the form of enemies. There are seriously only 4 models used in this entire game as far as enemies go. There's a heavy, mid-weight and light enemy, that have unique attack patterns, but they all look the same. Later in the story you'll see them with masks on, but they're still the same model. The heavy guy always has black long hair and a full beard. The light guy is always bald. It's ENTIRELY too consistent and playing through two chapters with my buddy Thomas had him laughing his ass off at the fact. It's silly...and lazy. I expect more out of Crytek. I guess the game really is beautiful because they focused on quality models, but definitely not quantity.

                   Now that's a hero I can get behind....What's his name again?

There is multiplayer, in the form of having a friend join up with you in the Coliseum to fight baddies. You'll select a good to pledge loyalty to and get bonuses depending on which you choose, but if you're playing this after the campaign, you'll run into nothing new here. It's the same old, same old, and it sucks to say that. The game just bleeds potential, then finds a way to stop the bleeding, and patch up the wound, giving you nothing in the end. Poor analogy, I know, but this has been a rough Xbone experience.

Ryse: Son of Rome is the most disappointing launch title I have played for either console (and I played Knack...another day, another time). It's beautiful to look at, and should have been kept a tech demo to show off the power of Xbox One. Instead, it came out, falling short on almost every level, and providing players a short experience that fails to excite, and if you manage to make it to the end of the six hour campaign, you won't be interested in going back. It's an experience I'd recommend skipping for now, wait for a sale, if you must play it, or wait for Crytek to hopefully get their shit together, get a sequel in the works, and really show us what they can do. I am hopeful, but they have a lot of ground to make up.

Treeter's Score: 6

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  • Xbox One vs. Playstation 4 comparison blog
  • Reviews of both systems
  • Killzone: Shadow Fall Review (PS4)
  • Call of Duty: Ghosts Review (PS4)
  • Madden 25 Review (PS4)
  • Knack Review (PS4)
  • Ryse: Son of Rome Review (XBONE)
  • Dead Rising 3 Review (XBONE)




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Xbox One Facebook reactionsMay 21, 2013 by

I didn't take kindly to the Xbox One announcement. Enjoy my nerd rage....

FailBox introduced in 15 mins. Can't wait to see the next Kinect, all the games tailored towards mom and kids, oh, and another stupid Call of Duty game. IT'S ALL ABOUT THE FUTURE, AMIRIGHT? #FailBox #PS4

IGN's Senior Playstation editor is covering the next Xbox reveal. Wonder how he feels about the new system. They also want to see Halo 4, Gears 4 and Forza 5. I want to see some NEW games...plz

and there went Neogaf.

Xbox one? The hell? Get your numbering together.

Is this a gaming system, or are we here to watch The Price is Right?

Skype on Xbox one! Grandma is interested now.

I like the controller tho....


I swear to god, if EA is going exclusive with Microsoft, I am going to flip the f out.

Remember everyone before you get all excited. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02ajPL3Kna4 ...don't believe the hype.

They opened with Cable TV/Interface/Kinect and will close with Call of Duty: Lame. Priorities are all messed up.


@jeffgerstmann "Applause is coming from the back of the room, for those of you that asked. Pretty sure that's where all the MS employees are." TELL EM JEFF. Biased event ftl

Yeah, this woman's a gamer alright.....

This woman looks like my elementary school principle. AKA, the antigamer. Get her off the screen, please.


Ok, it's just a TV show for Halo....nevermind. I don't have to buy one....wait, a Halo tv show? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH #FAIL

And, not interested in Call of Duty, it will sell because people are obsessed with mediocrity. Whatever.

Call of Duty: Ghosts featuring such riveting new things as pushing objects over, swimming and a dog! Oh my god, the creativity, it's .....amazing

I don't want to use Kinect, I don't want to use SmartGlass, I don't want to Skype my grandma, I want to play games. You showed a video of "Gameplay" 59 minutes into your presentation. You fail as a Gaming console. Sony, you have my money.

We better not hear anything at E3 about the non-gaming stuff on this console. We got enough of the useless BS today. I want to see the GAMES, cuz you know, that's what it's about...Games....I want to see those "15" exclusives they claim they have. I bet 12 of them are XBLA games.

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