Ryse: Son of Rome review

Read our full in-depth Xbox One review now.

With a history of making beautiful PC games, it should be no surprise that developer Crytek’s debut Xbox One effort is among the best looking launch titles. What comes as a shock is that it isn’t a futuristic first person shooter; the creators of Crysis have turned their attention to ancient history for Ryse: Son of Rome.

The perspective has changed too; Ryse is played in the third person, giving you an good view of protagonist Marius Titus as he traverses ancient empires, hacking and slashing his way through barbarian hordes and a veritable who’s who of first century historical figures. It’s all told with unflinching seriousness, even if the sub-plot involving legends of the ‘spirit of vengeance’ have absolutely no basis in Roman history at all. The developers have taken so many liberties with ancient history that Ryse technically takes place in an alternate timeline – it’s not quite as fantastical as the God of War series, but it certainly stretches the truth in places.

Ryse has something else in common with Sony Santa Monica’s Greek mythological brawler – a shocking level of violence. It’s definitely not for the faint of heart, as you’ll be chopping off limbs just a few minutes into the game’s opening chapter. The combat is visceral yet simple, with light attacks hitting quickly and heavy attacks taking more time, but with the added ability to throw your opponents of balance – letting you land a strike when their defences are lowered. Blocking enemy attacks requires tight timing, with no on-screen prompts like the ones seen in the Batman Arkham games to give you a heads-up. You have to be constantly aware of your enemies, which gets tricky when you’re surrounded on all sides; the tougher bad guys attack multiple times, have powerful attacks that must be dodged rather than blocked, or shields that block all light attacks.

Once you deal enough damage, Marius can perform a series of bloody finishing moves. These are context sensitive attacks which almost always end with severed arms or skewered foes, and even though they change if you’re near some scenery, they quickly get repetitive. Each one is essentially a quick time event, with the enemy glowing blue or yellow to represent the X and Y buttons respectively. Match the colours quickly and your hit combo will increase, earning you additional valour points which can be spent on upgrading your abilities.

Your arsenal is, for the most part, restricted to a sword and shield. You can hold a limited number of javelins (Pila), which are dotted throughout each level, but with no way to mix things up in battle, we made it roughly half-way through the campaign before realising we’d seen pretty much everything the combat system has to offer. Thankfully there are additional challenges, which let you command the legionaries under Marius’ control. Taking formation and advancing on an enemy stronghold, turtling up beneath your shields as arrow volleys fire into you is immensely satisfying, as is using Kinect voice commands to order your troops to fire ballistas and catapults.

Some Zelda-eqsue pot smashing boosts your score when there are no enemies on screen, but the campaign is otherwise entirely linear and focused on combat rather than exploration. There are no open-ended areas to explore and most of the collectibles are hidden in plain sight, so a second play through isn’t really needed to see everything. This is especially true if you have a tablet to hand – Crytek has crafted a comprehensive SmartGlass companion app which provides maps, visual clues and detailed instructions on where to look if you’re having trouble. It certainly saves a trip to YouTube to trawl through walkthrough videos, although unlike other SmartGlass companion apps it won’t work on a smartphone.

The journey through the campaign may be a straightforward, one, but it’s also one that’s very easy on the eyes. Ryse looks stunning, with varied locations, realistic lighting and impeccable textures. Water flows convincingly and glistens in the sunlight, while the fully motion captured characters look almost lifelike – even if it’s slightly bemusing that a cast of ancient romans all have British accents. It’s a testament to the power of the Xbox One, as even though the game runs at a native 900p rather than Full HD, it’s still one of the best looking things available on Microsoft’s console this early in its life cycle.

Once you’ve wrapped up the disappointingly short campaign, Ryse tries to keep you invested with its two-player cooperative Gladiator multiplayer mode. Set in a bizarre interpretation of the Colosseum, which shifts and changes with every passing round to create new challenges, it’s here that Microsoft’s continuing push for micro-transactions makes an unwanted appearance. You can upgrade your gladiator’s equipment using virtual cash earned from your fights, but it’s much quicker (and much less of a grind) to buy booster packs with real money. Considering there were no leaderboards at the time of writing, and that the sword-and-shield combat system, quick time execution moves and limited enemy variety are the same as the campaign, there’s little here to keep you coming back for more.

Ryse is undoubtedly one of the best looking games on the Xbox One today, but it’s merely a visual spectacle with limited substance. Once you’ve gotten over its gorgeous virtual recreation of ancient Rome, however inaccurate its history may be, the repetitive combat and linear story and nearly enough to make it a must-have launch game.