Ryse: Son of Rome (2013)

This title is a visually impressive action-adventure game set in an alternate version of ancient Rome. The MC is called Marius Titus, a Roman centurion seeking vengeance, through cinematic battles and detailed historical environments. The game’s graphics, powered by CryEngine, were considered cutting-edge at the time, delivering highly realistic character models and stunning set pieces.

And while the gameplay is decent, the story and characters are very weak, and everybody at the time admitted that this title was really just meant to be a tech demo. While the visuals stand out, the gameplay has drawn mixed reactions. Combat revolves around quick-time events and choreographed executions, which look dramatic but can become repetitive. The linear level design limits exploration, and the game often prioritizes spectacle over player choice, leading to a predictable experience for some.

The narrative attempts to provide emotional depth to Marius’ journey, but historical liberties and a somewhat formulaic storyline reduce its impact. Nonetheless, some people appreciate the character-driven moments and the effort to weave a personal story amid large-scale battles. Overall, this game is best appreciated for its cinematic presentation and visual fidelity. People seeking a story-driven, visually striking Roman epic may enjoy it, but those looking for varied gameplay or open-ended exploration might find it limited.

Giving this one a 3.5/5, which rounds up of course. I enjoyed this one quite a bit! For one, the graphics, despite being an older title, honestly still hold up so well! I also enjoyed the chance to play in a depiction of Ancient Rome, which I'm not sure how represented it is in first person/3rd person game play like this. I appreciate its depiction, and the moderate usage of red colors, as I know Rome is supposed to be colorful.

This game doesn't appear historically accurate. Ie: I do recognize that certain characters like Boudica, were not in certain places, as in the game here. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed the story of the main characters, for the most part. Very much seems to be inspired story wise by the Gladiator movies in ways.

The gameplay is fun albeit sometimes goes a bit longer than it needs to. It relies on gameplay kind of like Batman Arkham series, in that you go to areas, and then you're attacked by a group of enemies. The game does do a decent job of slowly introducing enemies for a little while, but after sometime, it does get pretty repetitive. There's also a heavy usage of quick time events, but mainly during executions, so I suppose avoidable.

I do recommend, and its not too long of a game, so I don't think it overstays too long of its welcome.

Crytek made this game for release in 2013 which, true to their brand, has it look promising with its cutting edge graphics at the time and some game design ideas. The cinematic setting puts you in the Roman legion sandals of Marius Titus, who retells his story of the falling and rise to vengeance in the face of conspiracy. Now, I am open for a good plot in a historical setting (Ryse is in an alternative timeline) but it's lacking in story impact to give more meaning than a subpar revenge story. If the Ryse franchise had been picked up again, accordingly to Crytek's prior intention, there might have been a chance to redeem the lore it's trying to present, including the reason why the gods were playing into story. The unlockables do lend into the lore with the journals and comic pages, which is a plus.

The action gameplay is a mixed bag, for better or worse. Its fighting system has a bit more than a hack-and-slash methodology, incorporating sword and shield attacks, timing scores, focus mode etc. When you ambush or injure a foe enough, you can execute them in a quick-time event manner, where your performance grants you an amount of healing, xp, focus or extra damage, depending on your real-time choice. The choreography is solid and pleasing to the eye (especially at the final level), which sadly gets worn down by a narrow range of enemy fights queued up in the story progression. There are more than a few occasions I find the fighting repetitive and I wonder if a new sort of challenge will arrive soon.

But when it does, it's some breath of fresh air to pick off enemies with javelins and arrows spat out of a scorpio (mounted ballista) and get backup from legion archers. The game had me progress levels by joining up and control a legion formation to shield, press forward and rain projectiles with. Even an element of choice is offered up on where I'd like my fellow soldiers to position at, influencing the flow of the battlefield I see fit.

I haven't delved deep beyond the story mode but there's more from the game that offers some replayability like arena modes for solo or multiplayer that rewards in-game booster packs. In the end, I wonder if Crytek would pick the Ryse IP up again and unlock some potential that it's been lacking. With more foe variety and improved combat dynamics, Ryse: Son of Rome would have risen (no pun intended) to a gem status within the gaming community.

Beat on Centurion difficulty (3 out of 4) at rank 6 (legionary). I found 12/51 chronicles, 14/21 vistas and 16/27 scrolls. The bonus text and artwork from them was nice, but it was a waste to have collectibles in the game. It was also pointless to have breakable pots, though I did get health from them on occasion. I put my upgrades into health, ammo capacity and blood frenzy (even though I never did enough perfect hits to activate that). I skipped the xp boost upgrades and maxed out focus during a boss fight about half way through the game. It was a mistake to skip the xp boost because I was just a sliver away from rank 7 and never unlocked the final tier of upgrades. I hardly ever used focus; it was mostly useful to burn down those fast dual wielders.

I died in the very first scene as I learned how to fight, but quickly picked up the combat. I am not a fan of fighting game style complicated combos, so I really appreciated the simple 1 button for each action. The alternating sword and shield attacks to keep the enemies off balance was the same as in Mars War Logs and Technomancer, and the deflection and evade roll were very generous. I never tried to get perfect deflects. Combat was mostly about choosing the correct button for the situation; button mashing was a good way to get hurt. Despite the simplicity, I found I really had to focus and pay attention, especially when there were large numbers of enemies. Some of the battles in this game were ridiculous with like 8+ guys surrounding me. I would try to go on the offense and focus down the easier enemy types to take the pressure off, which often meant I took quite a few hits. The axe guys with their unblockable power attack were the ones I went for first, just because it was more difficult to deal with evading than deflecting. Next were the basic enemies. Then I went for the dual wielders and only used shield bash attacks because they always dodged sword attacks; their combo attacks were more tricky to deflect too. The dual blunt guys ended their combos with a power attack, so they were the most dangerous enemy type. Shield guys came next as I found it more difficult to get them into an execution state; other enemies would stay in the execution state if I accidentally him them an extra time, but not the shield guys. I had to focus a bit more and fight a little more methodically to set up a shield guy for execution. The power charging shield guys were slightly more difficult because that was another attack I had to watch out for, and the Roman shield soldiers were even more dangerous with a larger variety of attacks. Last I killed the big 2 hander guys because they were even more defensive than shield guys; I could not shield bash them to open into a combo, rather I could only hurt them after they attacked. Then I would quick sword attack, and power sword attacks could stagger them. I often accidentally pulled off power attacks from pressing the button for too long; it took more presence of mind to only the tap the button lightly. There could have been more enemy types, such as dogs, spears, and light skirmishers that could evade roll.

Overall the combat was incredibly satisfying. Not too complex, but requiring enough concentration and skill to be engaging. The QTE executions were a welcome break to the combat rather than the atrocity that must QTEs are, because they were entirely optional. I could still kill enemies with regular attacks, but there were xp and mechanical bonuses for completing executions. I mostly used the health restore effect because I regularly took damage, and used the xp boost whenever I was full on health. There was no penalty for failing either, just less bonus. I did like the way the enemies glowed the color of the button to press, and this kinda reinforced the basic gameplay. I could even learn the execution animations and know whether Marius was going to strike with the sword or shield next before the color came up. I also liked the color coding for environmental interaction. The bosses were not difficult. I died at Glott on my first attempt because I had trouble figuring out how to counter his charge, but I got it the next try; it was about always pressing evade, then doing the shield bash QTE during the charge. Boudicca was just a dual wielder and I bashed her in the face with my shield until she went down. Commodus was the most difficult battle in the game, with all of his clones. My normal strategy of going all out offense to burn down targets did not work at all, rather I had to do the exact opposite and focus on defense. I did not like how the later bosses were immune to everything except the quick sword attack immediately after deflecting or evading their attacks. Solo Commodus was a little tricky because his gold armor made it difficult to see the red glowing of his power attack. I tried to turn up the gamma settings, but the game had no in built gamma slider. What, they expect me to actually change my tv settings? Epic fail. The final fight against Boudicca took a couple tries, but was not overly difficult to figure out the pattern of evading and deflecting. That battle was a little disappointing because why was she the strongest threat? Now if she was still on a war elephant and you had to melee her like that, then that would have been a truly epic final boss. The ending QTE sequence against the praetorians was lame and could have been replaced with just a cutscene of chasing the emperor without changing the feel of the end. I did enjoy the setpiece alternate combat sections: the limited tactical element of commanding and positioning your troops, the ballista shooting with snappy aim assist, the siege, and the testudo. I hated the instant death QTE traps though. That was an example of QTEs done wrong and really hurt any incentive to risk exploring for collectibles.

Despite the obvious historical inaccuracies, this was a very enjoyable game. I loved the brutal satisfying combat. I loved the slow motion gore of the executions. There is nothing better than savagely shoving a sword through a guy as he screams in pain and blood flows freely, then his worthless meat flops lifeless to the ground. The story was good, and I liked the glorification of Rome, war and violence. It really felt like a Call of Duty game set in ancient times, with excellent cinematic quality. The mystical aspects were pretty interesting and I thought the god characters were Demeter and Merlin. I have no idea what the multiplayer is like and will most likely never try it. It looks questionable with microtransaction nonsense. Will beat on the highest difficulty at some point in the future.

8.0/10

I didn’t really think I would enjoy this one much as I did. Not sure about it being a ‘hidden gem’ because I’ve seen several people singing its praises, but I still think it deserves a lot more credit for what it does: Ryse is a visually epic story of revenge that comes with a great chaotic, war like feel and satisfying combat mechanics. Having come fresh from playing For Honor, I have to say I much rather preferred this approach in such a short game. You won’t find any complicated button patterns or anything like that, and I guess the battles may feel somewhat repetitive towards the end, but the goal is to make you feel like this Centurion badass slashing through enemies like there’s no tomorrow, and in that sense, the simple, streamlined combat works really well to provide that. In fact, most of the mechanics here are simple, and even basic movements like climbing or crouching are done automatically so that the player can totally focus on their visual journey. It feels to me like the mechanics are the way they are because they’re simply there to serve the story, and serve it in a way that still feels punchy and dramatic. And speaking of story, this one actually surprised me quite a bit. I wasn’t really expecting much, but I became hooked on it as it progressed, and what initially looked like a very straightforward narrative turned into something I wasn’t expecting involving subplots of lunacy, megalomania and mysticism. Backed by solid voice acting, I really enjoyed the vibe you get from pretty much the beginning of the game. There’s a lot to like here.

The game can sometimes feel a bit janky, and it’s in these moments that you peek behind the curtain of visual awesomeness (seriously, this game came out in 2013??) and see the lack of polish. I also wish the level design was slightly better, though in such a linear experience that’s not a big deal at all. But overall, especially because it doesn’t demand that many hours from you - you can easily play trough it in one long session -, Ryse is a really cool game that I wish had received a bit more recognition when it came out and I had decided to play sooner. Probably a 8/10 in my book.

They advertised this game so much when the Xbox One came out, yikes. Talk about a bad one, the story alone was not it. The characters were boring and the ones who were interesting never got enough time on screen. The gameplay was too plain and the graphics were not consistent throughout. Extremely skippable, which is a shame since the setting and concept had so much potential. However, it failed at everything it set out to do, the best part is that the game is quite short.

I didn't ever plan on playing this game, cause I've never owned any Xbox systems, but I saw it as a PC game on Humble Bundle for $3. Admittedly, I'm always a little cautious to get really intensive games for PC, cause my laptop is neither fancy, nor dancy. Luckily, I was able to get it running on my PC after cranking the graphics down to low.

I honestly don't know how I feel about this game. If I wanted to be a cynical critic, I'd call this game nothing but a glorified tech demo, but on the other hand I did have fun being in Ancient Rome. Going on about the graphics, as mentioned, it is very good to look at, even on lower settings, this was a game meant to sell the Xbox 1. The two main areas levels are set in are Rome & Britannia. Rome, like AC Odyssey's Athens, is recreated in all it's ancient glory and the forests of the English Isle have a spooky aura to them. There were some issue of lagging, especially during the big battles with lots of moving parts, but I hold my laptop more accountable for that. One thing I do blame the game for is that all the enemy Barbarians in the game look very similar. A little diversity in character models would be appreciated. The Roman Legion can get away with it because they have a standardized uniform.

The gameplay of Ryse is nothing to write home about unfortunately. It boils down to walk a little bit, enter an arena, and fight the Barbarians. The combat is sort of like the Witcher or Batman Arkham. You open them up with a shield bash, take a few stabs, then counter-block & repeat. When the enemy gets to low health, you can execute them with a QTE, those old relics. It's not a very engaging combat system, and it's all you do in the game. So, leaning on the cynical critic side, I would say this game isn't very much of a game.

The history of Ancient Rome is my favorite area of study behind the American Old West. This game is more movie Roman Empire than historic Roman Empire, which is fine. It's not like the Assassins Creed series that tries to have a pretense of historical realism. Ryse pulls the names from some historic characters like Nero & Boudica, but that's about as historic as it gets. It's more an original story set in an Ancient Rome setting. With a majority of the game set during a war in Britannia, a favored cliche for Roman stories. Of course, all the Romans have English accents. I know I complain about all the Frenchmen with English accents, but the "BBC Romans" are one of my favorite media tropes. A lot of the armors and arms look good, except the armors your player character wears look too over-designed. There's sections where you march in formation, which it feels cool to march shield to shield, using testudo and launching pilum.

When it comes to Roman games, I usually only think of the Total War series, or an old PS2 title whose name escapes me. I loved playing general of a vast Legion in Total War, but it's nice to have a modern game that gives you a sandals on the ground perspective. It makes you feel more a part of the ancient history, whereas in Total War you just have little red dudes attacking little purple dudes in an open field.

As for the story, it's a rather short linear game. The narrative does take a few inspirations from Russell Crowe's Gladiator, and the D-Day Invasion from Saving Private Ryan of all things. It's a story of a Roman soldier, Marius, who's family is murdered by Barbarians, so he fights them in Britannia, only to learn it was the Emperor who betrayed his family, so he goes on a revenge killing across Rome. Nothing revolutionary, but it's still solidly told.

The 3 missions in Britannia feel a bit like filler when compared to the final two missions in Rome. Those final missions seem to have the bulk of the story and characterization and I wish more time was spent making the story pace better. Still, there were some great moments that I couldn't help but have fun playing. One in particular is during the escape from York where Marius is fighting off a horde of Barbarians single-handedly with a swelling movie score playing in the background. Another mission with great atmosphere is the path to the Wicker Man. Here you're on what the Romans considered the edge of the world and the game gives you that feeling. You're leading your Legion into a foggy, dark woods that seems more myth than reality.

All in all, this game is first and foremost meant to serve as a launch title to show off the pretty Xbox One graphics and be an engaging game second, kind of like how the Order was for PS4. However, if you're like me and just really like Roman history and the idea of being a Centurion, you can get a few hours of enjoyment for this game. I'd recommend picking it up for a dirt cheap price though.

Ryse turned out to be a good in-between game. I just came off of 150 hours or Witcher 3 and was looking for something short and quick. I didn't expect much from Ryse, but it actually delivered in some ways I didn't expect. The story was surprisingly engaging. I've always been interested in Roman history, so the setting was already right up my alley. It strays far from actual history, of course, but it hits enough of the right notes to satisfy. There are also some nicely realized characters with some decent voice acting. The main character, Marius, and the Briton princess, Boudica, are particularly good.

The combat is simple but fun. It is exceedingly gory, particulary the finishers, so if that's not your thing, you might want to steer clear. There is a fairly extensive upgrade system, but at least in the single-player campaign on medium difficulty, the upgrades don't make much of a difference. This isn't a difficult game. The combat is interspersed with turret sequences for variety, but they are mostly forgettable. My biggest complaint is the final few boss battles at the end of the game. The mechanics of these fights are pretty weak, basically boiling down to dodging boss attacks and hitting them--just once--when their backs are exposed, for very minimal damage, and then doing it again. And again. And again. These fights aren't hard, just boring. It's an unfortunate end to an otherwise fun game.