Ryse: Son of Rome Reviews
Ryse is a rather short, repetitive, beautiful game that is going to be a tough sell for many while others will adore it.
Ryse Son of Rome is a beautiful looking game on the Xbox One that regrettably suffers from monotonous gameplay which is a "crying" shame. I wanted so much for this game and at the end of the day, it's more a tech demo than a fully fledged game.
Ryse: Son of Rome is a bloody, gorgeous adventure. It's a shame then that there's so much squandered potential. Its short length and the lack of variety bury what good the game has to offer. I wouldn't be averse to a sequel if they can flesh out the experience and tell a purely human story, but as Ryse stands it's hard to recommend at full price.
Wait for a price drop if you're in no rush to get either this game or an Xbox One entirely. The story, acting, and visuals hold it up, but the gameplay weighs it down hard.
Great graphics are not everything ... Ryse will offer you an intriguing (though trivial) story in a great climate! Damage to untapped potential...
Review in Polish | Read full review
Overall, Ryse is processed at a very high level, looks impressive, diverse and has depth, but the whole thing pulls one significant element and this problem with the fighting.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Rome wasn't built in a day but you'll easily complete Ryse inside of one - but you'll also enjoy the adventure whilst it lasts.
Ryse: Son of Rome is a solid game and arguably has the best graphics of any console game to date. The combat is engaging, and the multiplayer extension feels like the Shadows of Rome multiplayer that never was. Although the title does come across as a one-trick pony, a fair amount of care was put into that element. Ultimately, I found the game to be the most enjoyable of all Xbox One launch titles, and putting this much emphasis on a new IP is always commendable. If you want the best-looking game on the new Xbox One console, Ryse is the easy choice to make, and the combat is enough to keep your interest until the end.
Ryse is stupid, beautiful, stupid, visceral, stupid and much more fun than we ever gave it credit for. A surprisingly solid launch title let down by a limited stock of enemies to fight, not its controversial yet ultimately entertaining swordplay.
Ryse falls short in almost every area in which a game can. Pretty and polished though it may be, it is not an essential title.
For every dollar that goes into technical and visual design, that's one that doesn't go towards amplifying a combat system, and I'm okay with that tradeoff so long as the gameplay is fun, if not incredibly deep. In a world of limited budgets constraining unlimited potential, Crytek's priorities were not misplaced. 'Ryse: Son of Rome' is an absolutely gorgeous game with a combat system designed to look flawless. For the most part it absolutely does. I'd never make the argument that Crytek is going for something too far away from shallow thrills, but if the potential of the new generation is in the execution of progressive, game-enhancing visuals, then that potential has been fulfilled.
Looking back on this review, I'm actually a bit depressed that the highlight of the game (for me, at least) was simply how good Ryse looked. It's obvious that Crytek is capable of so much more, but Ryse simply borrows the best that a few franchises has to offer, and instead chooses to cobble them together quite lazily with a few superfluous mechanics thrown in for good measure, rather than refining and building upon the core game. Granted, Ryse could have been doomed from the start, having started out as a Kinect-only title with a fairly limited control scheme, but I can't help but feel that a brand new IP deserved a little bit more than what we ultimately got. But hey, at least it looks good, right?
Ryse: Son of Rome is a decent action trip and a good addition for the Xbox One launch lineup, but on its own there's nothing particularly memorable to help stand the test of time.
Ryse: Son of Rome is a game you need to have for your Xbox One for the great pictures and detailed, realistic environments in the ancient Roman Empire. Furthermore, this game offers little original. It's a very solid game in which you can make your move, as long as you have good timing. Keep your cool, because those enemies who attack all at once are working the nerves when you try to go off your beautiful little bit of buttons. Ryse does, however, give you a nice challenging game that has virtually no weird glitches.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
Ryse is exactly what a launch title in 2013 should have been. It is gorgeous, it does not overstay its welcome, and as it is now on Game Pass it is easy to recommend to anyone who has Game Pass on console. It is also available on PC, but you need to buy it outright there. On the whole? If you have not played this game and you liked the HBO series Rome and seeing the same execution play out 1500 times? This is the game for you!
Unfortunately, Ryse: Son of Rome is not a production that can exceed the average level, with its excellent graphics, moderate sounds, weakness of the combat system and the story. With a slightly longer gameplay time, more detailed story processing and a few adjustments to the combat system, Ryse, which can actually be quite successful, cannot go any further than resembling a true technology demo in this state.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
RYSE's stunning visuals, solid story and a nearly unmatched cinematic flair, are unfortunately offset by simple and repetitive combat, and gameplay that offers little challenge.