Ryse: Son of Rome Review (Button Eyes)
Ryse: Son of Rome is a hack-and-slash videogame where you play as Marius Titus, a Roman soldier seeking revenge against barbarians, and rising to a legend in the process. Set during an alternate version of Ancient Rome, there are many historical inaccuracies, so if you're a fan of history don't expect an accurate retelling. The levels are very beautiful and well-designed, though I don't know how accurate the architecture is. Either way, it's pleasing to the eyes and definitely a rare setting in videogames.
For the gameplay, I would describe it to be pretty similar to the Batman Arkham games. Although there aren't many moves or gadgets (only sword and shield) chaining combos, blocking attacks, and evading feels just as satisfying as in the aforementioned franchise. Then there's the execution mechanic, one you can do while the enemy is stunned or low on health. These are basically QTEs, right click when yellow and left when blue. Pressing the wrong button still continues the execution, but with less score.
Other than the singleplayer campaign, there is also the Arena, mostly multiplayer-only, but there are some stages for solo. You have to basically survive stages in the iconic Colosseum. Sadly, being an old game that focuses on story, the MP community is basically inactive and you have to seek out players if you want to enjoy most content from this mode. Personally, I think its best if MP stages can be done solo, or play with NPC.
The story of this game is sadly kinda short, but you can replay levels all you wish, either for fun, getting collectibles, finding XP, or all of them. It adds a bit of replay value, but I really wish the game was longer since I was having fun. Performance is pretty stable as well, except for some levels in the middle. My only complaints about this game aside from its length and MP stages are the "intrusive" HUD, which gets in the way of cool combat screenshots, and the lack of pausing during cutscenes, you must Alt+Tab to pause them.
Overall, Ryse: Son of Rome is a fun game with a decent story and beautiful graphics, and very cheap on sale. If you want thrilling melee combat you should give this game a try. And for fellow Batman Arkham fans, this game may itch that scratch a bit due to the similar combat. I would love more games with that kind of satisfying combat gameplay, and more set in ancient world civilizations would be interesting as well.