A look at Ryse: Son of Rome; you will know that the next generation has arrived. The detail, the scale and the overall visual pleasure it brings you, like a kid with his mouth open at the machine throwing candy! Except it’s not about throwing candy at you, it’s about caramel-covered sourdough drops.

Yes, this is how Ryse feels. The images absorb you, but the game makes you want to go out. What initially seems like an impressive precision- and time-based system (Infinity Blade anyone?), Along with pleasing visual cues and impressive slow-motion animations, soon descends into a stunning button clock and mash exercise. Within an hour you will realize that combat training is so much. Nothing more and nothing less. Sure, you have a lot of other things, like blocking, parrying, etc. But that doesn’t count now, does it?

However, what I liked about the game were the hideous stabs and bloody dismemberments that are in your face, thanks to the quick finish; he just screams in brutality. TARGET gets repetitive super fast! Also the fact that executions do not require any skill to carry them out; You can literally set your controller and the animation will play the same way. Pressing the quick button earns higher experience point rewards, but the animation doesn’t change! Since there are only maybe five or six enemy types in all of Ryse, the many combat scenarios quickly turn into reruns of the same tactics: dodge, shield strike, sword swipe, repeat, execute, over and over. time. It reminds me a lot of that gladiator minigame in Sports Champions … in hindsight it was probably more fun!

Ryse: The next generation qualities of Son of Rome are amazing! One look and you’ll know that Crytek’s latest CryEngine iteration has made great strides in the right direction. When it comes to human faces and bodies, I think the developers have really taken the standard to new levels. But again, all these images are destroyed by the game and to make it more frustrating, the characters look almost the same, and there are only 4-5 types of them; which again becomes repetitive very fast! It reminds me of Double Dragon, where you would be fighting 2 Abobos, dressed exactly the same.

Coming to multiplayer and online, there is a co-op mode, but it’s a huge disappointment as it has everything the single player has and adds gold, loot, and a slow and slow update system. What’s sad in co-op is that you’ll see your partner suddenly idle, but he’s actually in the middle of a run! There are tons of armor and weapons you can get, but if you can handle going through repetitive hell, you might find that it adds a bit of longevity to the game. Although not for me it did not. At this point, I had already given up on the game.

Overall, the game doesn’t help make it worthy of a launch title, but yes, the visuals certainly do. However, we strongly recommend that you stay away from this game if you are trying to buy it.