Let’s
open this up with a bold statement: There aren’t enough games that
utilise the full extent of the Roman Empire, outside of the Coliseum.
The last game I can remember was Shadow of Rome back on the PS2, and
even then, you were mostly duking it out in the arena. Ryse, however, is
a little bit more adventurous with the source material, with a large
proportion of the game spent fighting barbarians in that backwards
society known as Britannia. Shame that the source material is the only
original bone in this body.
Literally
exploding right out of the gate, Rome is in in flames, with said
barbarians ransacking the city. As Marius, our one man wrecking crew of a
protagonist, you save the Emperor, Nero, by locking yourselves in a
hidden vault. From here, things turn into Jet Li’s Hero, as Marius
recounts the tale of his life which led him to that moment. This being a
videogame, however, you can expect your usual mix of death, death,
death, some slight betrayal sprinkled around the side, and then back to
your regularly scheduled death. And it’s certainly an exquisite looking
death.
The
graphics, in my opinion, are some of the best in class. Dead Rising
pushed the power of the Xbox One with how many zombies could fill the
screen, whereas Ryse channeled it towards looking fantastic, especially
with the levels. Not to say that the characters are bad, they look great
too, even if the character models tend to repeat themselves more than
you’d expect for a next gen game, but the breathtaking views are the
show stealers here.
From
the vibrancy of Rome itself, to the lush forests and caves of
Britannia, all are designed to leave your jaw on the floor. This
atmosphere reaches a peak halfway through the game as you traverse the
Highlands. The night time setting, the creepy, leafless branches
obscuring your view of the sky, the ominous Wickerman looming in the
distance, and enemies who wear the bones of their prey; Chapter V did a
great job of instilling a sense of dread. Couple this with some superb
acting, and you’d swear you were watching a CGI version of Rome.
It’s
a shame then, really, that the polish shown towards the presentation
isn’t continued with the gameplay. To put it nicely, it takes the “fun”
out of functional. X is Attack, Y is Shield Bash (guard breaker), A is
to deflect attacks, and B is an evasive roll. Nothing that hasn’t
already been done before. Weakened enemies can be executed, and whilst
very flashy and initially very gory, they soon get old very quickly.
What’s worse is the quick time events that occur during the execution,
as there’s no way to fail them. There are rewards for executing them
perfectly, but there’s no penalty for making a mistake either, leading
to a disappointingly flaccid QTE sequence at the end of the game.
The
crippling frustration continues with the linear level design. The game
rewards exploration as the only places you can explore seem to be where
the collectibles are. I feel like if the developers didn’t feel
compelled to put collectibles into the game, the levels would basically
be a straight line. Invisible walls also appear inconsistently,
providing Marius with the insurmountable challenge of a 2 foot rock in a
river, reminding you that next gen bells and whistles aren’t enough
when at its very core, the game is built with copy/paste PS2 corridors.
The
problem I have with Ryse: Son of Rome is that it’s so mediocre and
middle of the road. It controls well, but the gameplay is just boring
and begins to feel more like labour well before you reach the end of the
campaign, or roughly 4 hours. I’d talk about the mulitplayer but it’s
just more combat, without the sweet breaks of awesome looking
cutscenes.
Ultimately,
Ryse finds itself in gaming purgatory. Not good enough to be in heaven,
but not terrible enough for hell either. For all of its pros, namely
the graphics and presentation, the monotonous gameplay keeps rearing its
ugly head and stifling the game’s longevity, making Ryse borrow-worthy
at most. This Rome could be built in a day, and you’d have enough time
left to see some other sights too.
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