It has been 7 years since Ryse, son of Rome came out yet I have never played it. It was a launch game for the Xbox 1. So, I thought I would go and play the game to see what it was about and to go see how well it aged.
My First Experience
The “first act” aka tutorial was great. Ascetically, the game looked like it could have come out just before the current generation of series X and S. You can tell they really were trying to prove just what the Xbox 1 could do and it was apparent from the get-go. Cutscenes which was actually intriguing and kept me in (it helped that there was no skip button). You also had an execution system, and the execution system, Oh my god... It just looked so good. The small quick-time events it was a good start until... the bugs.
The Bugs
I understand it is an old game but my play-through was ruined and destroyed by bugs. The second act in the middle had an awful bug where the npc froze. I could not progress and the checkpoint was so far back and I had to replay a chunk. It happens I didn’t mind... but there was more. I continued and it happened again but this time it was a cutscene for the start of Act 3. I managed to pull in 2 game restarts (due to the bugs) in the first hour of me playing. For me, I was surprised. It happens but, in my eyes, I was like “It's a 7-year-old game. Why are these small issues not fixed” It may have been the fact that I was playing the game on the Xbox series S but shouldn’t that help performance? Game crashes and restarts continued throughout my gameplay. Between the game, I managed to have 6 major bugs (which required restarts). It sounds small, however, I finished the story in 5 hours and there were all the little bugs, especially with fighting.
Fighting Mechanics
As I said before, I thoroughly enjoyed the executes, watching them and watching people get killed was great. However, it also added something to the game which I just think is a little outdated, or maybe it's been because I’ve been spoilt with other games. Essentially, for those who haven't played, you gain buffs through executing. Damage buff, Focus buff (ability bar), XP boost or a small heal. Sounds great, until you realize you can only choose 1. There is also no other way to heal. So, I stuck with just the heal. The problem with this is that a lot of the time you’re fighting to survive and you can't execute. You’re in that rhythm of parry light attack, parry light attack. You don’t heal from killing other enemies, which personally I'd have had a smaller heal for defeating enemies but with the “buff” gain a larger heal when executing. That’s just a personal opinion though. The other issues were the timing of the buttons. I would press the block button at an okay time and not block, but then in a similar situation press the block button at such a bad time, and then it does block. This also happened to me with the roll. I streamed and played the game as I wanted to cross-reference my gameplay with my views, and there were plenty of times where the icon flashed up to roll, I've rolled and still taken a big chunk of damage. Like HUH. I will say though, once you were in tune, slicing like you’re dancing, it was satisfying as anything. The actual attacks were clean and good-looking. I would say it's done that better than maybe games made after Ryse. I did have fun with the fighting but at the same time, I had that frustration of things not working as intended. Other than the times it screwed me massively, I had a good time-fighting. However, I was annoyed with some of the history-related attributes of the game.
The era of Rome
Why in god did they set this between 3 different times of the roman empire and COMPLETELY forget that there were different emperors between them. I can overlook that little bit as it’s a game it happens, however, they butchered it from the get-go. In Ryse, they start by saying the Britons attacked the Romans first. They killed the protagonists' parents in Italy and attacked Italy. Briton never made any advancements into Italy at all, the Romans tried invading the Britons and started the Roman-Gallic wars. That was what started the whole game. They also used Blue to distinguish the generals from the normal legionary. The Romans were only ever Red or Purple. Spartans and Athenians were at war for a time and are also the reason why most team deathmatches are Blue vs Red team. To me, it was common knowledge and just seemed like lazy planning. The emperor was also called Augustine, obviously meaning the Cesar, Augustus. It was Julius Cesar who started the Roman-Galic wars. I understand this is a game, but they said the game was historical and essentially should be a part of the game we should break down.
Are there any Major changes I would make to the game and would I recommend anyone else to play Ryse?
My major changes really are an updated control system which is just outdated, its 7 years old, we have all been used to different button controls, for example, parry being R2, not A. I would also have liked the game to be bigger and longer. The story was completed in 5 hours for me and there were so many times where things were missed out which could have made for good content. Without spoiling too much (for those who haven't played) Marius (main character), makes his way back to Rome on his own. Maybe we could have played his way through England and then through Europe in 2 separate acts. I just feel like there was more that could have been done in terms of the story. I will say, however, the character development of Marius is astonishing. I couldn’t find any fault in how they handled that aspect. And the ending, just so good. I would recommend someone playing Ryse, I would just hope they had better luck than me with the bugs which really did taint my game. It’s a good amount of gamerscore. The game reels you in with the cutscenes, and there isn't a huge amount of cutscenes either. The game feels good to play, it's just when you’re playing a game the little things do add up.
To conclude
To conclude, I am giving Ryse a 6.5/10. I originally was planning on giving Ryse a 6, however, it's aged okay and I could name many games which have aged worse. Graphically the game is stunning and the story is amazing, I feel like it’s a little insulting to knock it back to a 6 when the graphics and story are great. The fighting may be a bit outdated and clunky but the game is good. It is on the Gamepass and is free and I did enjoy it. There is a multiplayer which plays the same as Story mode with a couple of modes like Arena (coliseum fighting) and then there is an endless fighting mode so there is always something to do after you completed the game (if you have friends as I couldn’t get into a match). I think it’s a good game to have said you’ve completed and I hope you go save Rome!
Many thanks for reading,
Reece, Volcreation
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