Ryse Son of Rome (Xbox One)

Ryse was a launch title for the Xbox One in 2013, it was developed by Crytek.

Marius Titus, a Roman Centurion, leads Rome in a battle against Celtic Barbarians. Marius gets Roman Emperor, Nero in a safe private room, where he begins to tell the emperor his story. A tale of how Marius lost his family, rose high in the Roman Legion and his revenge.

Ryse to this day is the best looking game I've seen. I was in awe just looking at Marius in his armour when I first started the game. The shine on his armour is beautiful, incredibly well designed. Sadly, that's practically all this game has. Once you start fighting you're quickly deflated. Think of the combat as a imitation on the Batman Arkham series, it's not a bad imitation, just a bland one. You'll soon be bored of just fighting back the same four looking barbarians. What's makes it even worse is the executions. They're just quicktime events, the enemies light up blue, yellow and red for you to press the corresponding button. It makes a wonderful looking game just look tacky.

You fight with a sword and shield, the shield works best for partying and can interrupt attacks. Taller, stronger enemies take longer to kill and will require you to dodge their attacks by rolling. You'll know you have to dodge when the enemy lights up bright red like a Christmas tree. You can also collect spears and use them to throw at enemies, especially archers I don't really know what else to say about it, that's the gist of the fighting and that's literally the whole game. There's a couple boss fights but they work the same way. You can use ballistas, but they work the same as spears just faster.

The story is decent, cliché and obvious what's going to happen at times. The cutscenes look amazing and the acting of Marius and Nero is great. There aren't too many characters, there's Vitallion leader of Marius' legion he's one of the best characters. Boudica is the daughter of the leader of the barbarians, and there's also the emperor's spoilt and annoying sons, Basilius and Commodus.

There's a multiplayer that shouldn't exist. There's a survival mode where you just fight for as long as you can. There's arena where you're given the same basic task and fight off a lot of enemies, in an arena where it moves mechanically and just seems completely out of place in a game set in ANCIENT Rome. All that and it's only two players, there's even a choice to play that solo, why when it's boring with another player? A max two player multiplayer and you can't even have one on one battles with your friends, huge error.


That's about it. There's not much to talk about when the gameplay is just fighting and heavily involved quick time events, or a cliché story and terrible multiplayer that shouldn't exist. At the same time, it's worth playing through once, even just for how amazing this game looks.

6.9/10