DefiantParrot Reviews Ryse: Son of Rome
Shadow of Rome on the Playstation 2, was one of the most underrated games of that console generation. From the story, to the characters, the gory and brutal combat, interesting (though admittedly sometimes frustrating) stealth sections. Being able to replay any of your gladiatorial fights from the title screen and chariot races, both added a new flavor to break up the monotony of combat and stealth, and added real replayability to the game. It did everything that I feel a game set in ancient Rome should do. And it did it very well.
I tell you this so you can understand my mindset going into Ryse. Could this finally be the spiritual successor to one of my favorite games of all time? I’d read the reviews, I’d seen the scores, but I was hopeful still, that I could find something worthwhile in Ryse. So did I? Well let’s get to that…
Ryse: Son of Rome is the story of Marius Titus, son of Leontius a former warrior of Rome and currently a powerful and respected Roman senator. Marius has followed in his fathers footsteps and has become a soldier of Rome as well. During an opening sequence of barbarians attacking the city of Rome. Marius leaves to escort Emperor Nero to a secret place for safety, where he then begins to tell his tale to the terrified emperor. The story is told through flashbacks as Marius recounts his story, involving the murder of his family, traveling to war with his new commander, Vitallion, facing down the barbarians and their king Oswald and his daughter Boudica, rescuing Nero’s son from strange swamp warriors, and learning the truth of what happened to his family and seeking his vengeance. And if you think you know what happens in the story… You do.
Ryse is an extremely predictable journey, however predictable doesn’t necessarily mean bad. While not introducing anything new, and admittedly telling one of the oldest stories in the book, there is a reason that story is in said book. The narrative is admittedly decent with one moment that did actually take me by surprise. Although it did take about half of the campaign, to truly get me invested to see it through to the end.
*Minor Spoilers Ahead*
The game does a poor job I feel of getting the player to care about Marius’ strife. At the start of the campaign (after the intro) Marius goes to see his family after becoming a Roman soldier. Marius’ mother comes out to greet him for all of three minutes, goes to find his sister and then not 10 minutes later they’re both killed.
Ok… why should I care? And I’m not making light of death or losing family, Mars no, but I barely know Marius here, I got to know his dolt of a dad a little bit. But three minutes with his mom and none at all with his sister does nothing to get me invested.
If you’re going to do a story of revenge, that’s fine some of the best stories are tales of revenge but make me care! It wasn’t until halfway through where one of the emperor’s sons does something that piqued my attention and made me want to see where all this was going.
*Spoilers End*
Ryse is mainly a hack-and-slash action game, with heavy emphasis on combat. I say heavy because very rarely are you doing anything else. As a hack-and-slash, the game is not bad. Ryse has various buttons each with a designated feature, controlling sword strikes, shield blows, dodging and deflecting attacks. Heavy attacks are performed by holding the X or Y button and when sufficiently weakened, enemies can be executed. And this is where my biggest problem with Ryse lies… unintentional rhyme.
The executions are brutally gorgeous, and there are many of them, with many that can be unlocked later too. There’s a variety as well, with dual executions, environment executions, the variety isn’t the problem.
When initiating an execution your adversary will glow either blue or yellow prompting the player to press the corresponding buttons until the enemy is dead. Yes, these are quick-time events ladies and gentleman. “Well that’s obvious” you might say “Shawn you delectable degenerate.” And to that I say, 1: Thank you, and 2: That’s still not the problem. The problem is from the moment you initiate the executions, the moment you press the right trigger, you’ve already won.
If you hit the wrong button, don’t respond in time, or just not hit anything you will still kill your opponent with no punishment except you didn’t get as many experience points.
Yes, for those of you who have played the game I hear you saying “But Shawn you maliciously melancholic moron, those aren’t required, you don’t have to use executions.” And to that I say 1: Rude, and 2: Yes you are right, but executions are the best way to rank up and get more health, do more damage et cetera, and not using the the executions effectively doubles how long it’ll take to progress your character.
For half the game I felt like I was on autopilot, fighting these foes can be a challenge, especially at higher difficulties, until that little QTE prompt appears then there’s no skill involved he’s dead, and then wait until another one appears, rinse and repeat until you win.
God of War was the first game I can think of where QTE’s first reared their ugly, multi-colored head. In that game if you fail the QTE prompt, especially against boss encounters, the game would punish you. Your attack would fail, the enemy would break out of it, and would resume attempting to make your head one with your lower intestine.
God of War gave a sense of challenge and fear of messing up and there’s none of that in Ryse. QTE’s can be used well, but used like this is when they frustrate to the point that I want slap a puppy.
In the few moments when you’re not in physical combat, you are either working with your fellow Romans to form shield walls to approach enemy archers, ordering your soldiers to fire upon the enemy, or positioning where they will be stationed during a coming battle. There were a fun change of pace, when they happened.
However these moments were so infrequent, I often forgot about them until they showed up again, and it would have been nice to have had more of that sprinkled throughout the campaign to break up the monotonous campaign and combat that get can repetitive after a while.
The last thing are “turret sections” which involved firing ballista bolts at enemies while defending a location. The final one in the game involved defending Rome and your shield wall of soldiers from wave after wave of barbarians, with the occasional war elephant thrown in the mix.
This was fun and exhilarating at first because it was the first time seeing these war elephants, not just in battle but at all. Nothing in the game had eluded to Dumbo’s alcoholic father coming to wreck my day. But this sequence dragged on for way too long and wouldn’t end, leading to some horrific hand cramps.
Enemy bosses are nothing special, they are just stronger and more annoying than any other enemy. Pretty much the exact same strategy can be used against them as you would use against their peons. Aside from the “final” boss of course which is just a series of QTE’s and then a cutscene. Because of course it is.
There aren’t really any upgrades to your combat system in any way, whereas in similar combat styled games like Shadow of Mordor and of course the Arkham series (which both of these games based their combat around let’s be honest) both allowed for customization. Ryse really doesn’t have that, Ryse is a simple game. And again simple doesn’t really mean bad, but if you go into this game expecting a deep combat system. You will no doubt leave disappointed.
Of course as a launch title for Microsoft’s new hunk of cheese, Ryse’s job above all, is to look good. And by all the Roman gods we named our planets after does it deliver on that front.
From the character models to the environments, the water, gods even the menus and loading screens. Not one part of Rome looks ugly. It is all a pleasure to behold with no visible slow down on my part, and no bugs or glitches appearing at all during my playtime.
The audio is on the same level as the visuals. The sounds of war along with much of the voice acting was superb. The grunts, screams, slashes, and explosions of war sounded painfully real and a joy to hear from such a visually pleasing game.
Characters like Commander Vitallion and the emperor’s sons Basillius and Commodus deliver wonderful performances. However there are others like Leontius who are unconvincing or Marius who when not screaming like a badass warrior, sounds bored and uninterested.
The last thing to touch on is multiplayer, which I had completely forgotten that this game had. It allows for you and a friend to step into an arena of various maps with your own customizable gladiator to fight waves of enemies, while completing certain objectives. Objectives such as capturing enemy forts, or using oil to burn the enemy spawn point. It features the exact same combat as single player. Complete with the same flaws. although fighting and executing waves of enemies in beautiful gory fashion is a lot of fun with a friend. Although like single player it can get very monotonous and repetitive quickly.
There are a decent amount of maps to choose with different variations out of the gate and they all look beautiful of course. Other arenas can be purchased separately in packs through DLC or through the games $20 season pass. Which also includes another multiplayer mode. Survival mode is a mode where you and another player, battle constant waves of never ending enemies, becoming more and more powerful each wave, with constant XP rewards until you finally succumb to your foes.
However, Survival mode feels ripped straight from the game in my opinion, and therefore I feel you shouldn’t have to pay for it. The multiplayer is light on modes anyway, with only three of them, and one of them is solo! I don’t mind supporting games post release with maps, and costumes and such. But I shouldn’t have to pay extra for a mode that should’ve been in there from day one. And neither should you.
In conclusion, Ryse: Son of Rome is not what I was hoping for, yet wasn’t a complete disappointment. I did have fun playing the game. I finished it in about 5 hours, which you could probably bring that up to 7 or 8 on higher difficulties. The multiplayer is something I see myself revisiting from time to time for a few mindless hours of fun. In short Ryse isn’t terrible but nothing spectacular either.
I give Ryse: Son of Rome my…
Bronze Seal of Acceptance.
It could’ve been better, but also could’ve been a lot worse… Like Gladiator! Are you not entertained!?!