Ryse: Son of Rome (2013)

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

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.