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.
In the five hours it took to complete Ryse, I experienced a whirlwind of excitement and disgust. I loved the sights, sounds, and basic combat, and loathed the finishers and gameplay deviations
Ryse is beautiful but hollow
Ryse leans too heavily on its merely decent combat, but at least it looks really, really nice doing so.
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.
Ryse is an absolutely beautiful game, but all the beauty in the world can't make up for repetitive gameplay that will most likely bore the average gamer, even those who like hack-and-slash.
Ryse is a decent game, given its length, but it's one that is certainly more fun to look at than it is to play. If you're looking for a game that will push your gaming hardware to the limit, then Ryse certainly fits, especially if you're itching to game on 4K hardware. Otherwise, there are better ways to pass the time.
Ryse: Son of Rome might be the best looking game released on either the PS4 or Xbox One. Unfortunately, it's lacking in the gameplay department. You can tell that there's potential here, but it has yet to be reached.
While Ryse may not be the train wreck that some feared, it just doesn't live up to the potential that many others hoped for.
As good a showcase for the new console's graphics capabilities as Forza 5 – if only the gameplay was as beautiful
Ultimately, however, while there's fun to be had, Ryse: Son of Rome is a little too shallow to conquer the Xbox One's launch lineup.
At its core, Ryse is beautiful, flawed, but still enjoyable. Xbox One owners should definitely give Ryse a chance. Eventually. Maybe just not now, nor at its current price tag.
There's no denying that it looks absolutely stunning, but sometimes a pretty face isn't everything and due to some extremely bland combat, Ryse: Son of Rome fails to be the killer app that many had hoped it would be. Still, for a launch title, you could do worse.
Gladiator may have won Oscars, but Ryse is much more like the movie 300 – nice to look at, mindless and silly at times, and the kind of experience you'll probably forget as soon as the credits roll.
We must say that Ryse offers no long-lasting value, it is definitely a renter at best, but it is a beautiful one. Once you complete Marius' story mode in about five to six hours and try out the co-op multiplayer once or twice, there isn't much else to it. Ryse does an excellent job at showcasing the capabilities of the Xbox One itself, but it lacks any real substance.
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.
If you played Ryse: Son of Rome on Xbox One, there's little reason to return on PC. It may contain higher resolutions and a more flexible frame rate, but otherwise it's substantially the same game.
Yes it screams "I used to be a Kinect game," yes it's limited in story as well as combat and yes, you've played many, many games like this previously, better games with more systems and gameplay but...but...crucially, Ryse: Son of Rome looks breathtaking. The perfect launch game, doing nothing new, arguably less so than current gen games but adequately showing off the new hardware - think of it as a tech demo with quick time event executions and you will not be disappointed.
Well-designed gameplay and a consistent bare-bones narrative could have saved this. As it stands, it's a rental title, maybe.
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.