Ryse: Son of Rome is an action-adventure hack and slash game played in a third-person perspective. Players assume control of Marius Titus, a Roman general who is on a quest to avenge his murdered family. Throughout the game, players gain access to weapons that can be used to assault enemies or defend themselves.
Ever since its release with Xbox One, I always wanted to try it and see why it is getting all the hate. Surprisingly, it ain't bad. Story: I usually like Roman empire timeline and its setting, and this was no different. The story overall was a mixed bag though. What I liked was the cinematic nature of the story, how it felt like a Hollywood movie and all that.
Some of the characters in the game were also pretty good, particularly the emperor's son. And had good voice acting to boast.
Also, the supernatural element of the story added a layer of mystery to it, which was also nice to have. BUT the story was inconsistent and poorly managed.
Some stuff happen too quickly and you're like 'Wait, was I suppose to care?' Also, many times, voice acting was either corny, or just plain bad. Gameplay: Game's biggest flaw is its gameplay. At first, it looks fine and all but after half an hour of it, you have experienced all there is to it. It is a hack'n slash-ish game BUT there are no combos, only different styles of execution.
The combat is over-simplified and starts to feel really repetitive early on. Cutting down waves and waves of enemies becomes a chore instead of being fun. The infamous QTE fest this combat was suppose to be was surprisingly non-existent. I mean sure executions are all QTE's but you have choice in that matter, only very rarely will the game force you to execute.
And because of this, executions themselves were the most satisfying part of the combat for me. Slicing up enemies in different gory ways when I felt like it was great. Graphics: It is a Crytek game so yeah, it looks gorgeous. The facial animations are great, the textures are great, great lighting, great environments etc etc. With all the settings cranked up including Supersampling, it actually feels like you are playing a CGI movie, the graphics are THAT good. It is in fact the best looking game of this genre that I have ever played.
Sound: The soundtrack was great. It was like those epic Hollywood olden times type and really complemented the cinematic nature of the game. Voice acting of some actors was great, while many had OK to lame voice acting. Our hero himself had decent one, and some of his speeches and stuff were pretty good. Overall: With all the negativity this game got ever since its release, I'm actually surprised that it wasn't all that bad, I think many people just hated on it just for the sake of hating, a common trend nowadays. It had its flaws, plenty of them actually, but there are good things about this game too.
Just goes to show always try the game for yourself if it looks good to you, reviews and general opinion can only give you a hint.
Crytek has had a rather rough year, starting with the launch of Ryse: Son of Rome on the Xbox One in November 2013. It didn’t quite live up to expectations sales-wise and its middling critical reception certainly didn’t help. Then there was the matter of financial troubles at Crytek, which eventually lead to Crytek UK employees not showing up to work due to unpaid salaries. This resulted in Homefront: The Revolution being bought out by Deep Silver which was co-publishing the game and development being taken out of Crytek’s hands. That’s not counting the numerous departures from various studios and the apparent cancellation of Ryse 2.Regardless, the studio continues to soldier on. It’s bringing Ryse: Son of Rome to PC and boasting a fair number of graphical upgrades to justify the purchase. HUNT: Horrors of the Gilded Age will also be arriving in the coming months and even with all the apparent instability, senior producer Brian Chambers doesn’t sound too worried.
GamingBolt recently caught up with Chambers to talk about the PC version of Ryse: Son of Rome, the chances of Ryse 2 releasing and ever arriving on the PC, and much more.' The decision to bring Ryse to PC was logical to us, not only did it allow us to respond directly to our fans, it was an opportunity for us to show off an aspect of what CryEngine is capable of.' Sayed: I was under the impression that Xbox One was the only place one could play Ryse on. Can you let us know what kind of exclusivity deal did you had with Microsoft regarding Ryse?Brian Chambers: Ryse was an Xbox One Launch title. The Ryse IP belongs to Crytek which enables us to now bring it to PC.Rashid K. Sayed: So why is Crytek bringing Ryse on PC, as opposed to the PlayStation 4?Brian Chambers: The game’s arrival on PC is a direct response to interest from gamers.
The PC community, as well as Crytek fans reached out to us and asked for it. We also feel the growing public appetite for 4K experiences makes this the perfect moment to bring it to PC.Rashid K. Sayed: I find the decision to PC rather interesting.
Crytek had layoffs in the last few months and obviously you would want to recover some of the money back. Why not launch Ryse on PS4, a console that has apparently sold over 10 million units and is leading the new console cycle, especially with Cevat that they are not happy with X1 sales?Brian Chambers: The decision to bring Ryse to PC was logical to us, not only did it allow us to respond directly to our fans, it was an opportunity for us to show off an aspect of what CryEngine is capable of. The PS4 has gained a large user base in a short time and Crytek will develop titles for it the near future, such as HUNT: Horrors of the Gilded Age. Currently there is no announcement regarding Ryse coming to PS4.' Ryse 2 was never announced by Microsoft or Crytek and therefore we hope you'll understand that we can't comment on it.'
Sayed: Ryse Son of Rome was and is still perhaps the best looking game on the Xbox One. What kind of graphical updates can players expect in the PC version of the game?Brian Chambers: Thanks, we worked hard to bring players the level quality that we had on Xbox One, and we continued to push it for Ryse PC.