INTRO
Well I just finished this game that was very enjoyable for me most of all in the past 13 hours it took me to play through.
Before I begin with the praise I have to give a warning. This game contains fictional history galore and it is an arcadey game so please forgive me my very positive rating despite that.

In Ryse you take command of a soldier called Marius. His father was a famous roman commander and now is a senator of the SPQR. The game FICTIONALLY plays in the late roman era, when Nero was emperor. There are several things that are completely untrue, like you will fight Boadicea and she will invade Rome with elephants. Truely as a fan of roman history this is so completely off that we need to set the storyline to world of Hollywood fables or even worse.

But apart from that this game is really a must have for any fan of Roman history.


GREAT THINGS
The storyline was actually very interesting - though being fictional - and it conceals unexpected changes, that I do not want to spoil in detail. At the end many things start to become clear.

This games offers extreme stunning graphics I have never seen before in this quality. The extensive use of high res textures and pixel shader based objects is just amazing. Also the details of certain objects are really fotorealistic.

Imho, there is even no quality difference between prerendered video sequences and maxed out settings when you play this game.
The enviroment is extremely detailed and quite historically accurate. The Colosseum, parts of Roman temples, wax tables, and many many other things that you MAY see, if you turn off motion blur and also care to watch for when playing.

The music of this game is really 1st class and never gets really boring! I could even recommend it to listen to the Youtube Ryse OST while playing games like Total War Rome (2) or other roman themed games.
There is nothing negative to mention in this regard. It makes you feel like you are playing Gladiator and Hans Zimmer has composed the score for this game, seriously.
In the options you can even pick single tracks that you will hear in the game, which I found to be a quite remarkable detail. This way you can listen to a track again if it rocked your ears. But not only the music is rocksolid but also the voice actors. I can only put my hand into the fire for the german localisation. The soundtrack and character / storyteller voices of Ryse are definitely an ear-gasm.

THE FLIPSIDE OF THE DENARI
The combat mechanics are very strange, even though it is a ported XBox game. Many things are unclear, despite a short introduction. The many various combat animations are again stunning.

The con side is that no one really explains why soldiers are flashing blue or yellow (or sometime fail to do so in max settings, especially at the final scene - Avenge your family.)

If an enemy flashes blue this means you need to left click your mouse once as soon as possible, yellow means right click the mouse the same way.

This game is all about fluidness of combat and perfect timing. I really treated my mouse and keyboard for this game.
The better your combat the better your bonuses that vary from health regeneration, XP to unlock more moves and other things, a slowmotion (capsule / focus) and other things you can choose whenever you want.

Once you understood the control they are very easy even on PC. But I think it is more intuitive on Xbox.

The only major issue I had with the game is, that you will face boss fights that are just annoying. You need to kill bosses even several times like Boadicea or Commodus etc. And the major problem is that you simply cannot skip the prerendered scenes of have to do some things over and over again before the actual starts fight. This was so exhausting.

If you actually look closer to the environment as I did, you will notice the classic lack of all console games also in the details and object. While the beauty may conceal it many many things / objects become repetitive in this game and also the foes you need to slay down over and over and over again.

To be honest after 5 hours of gameplay it was only the combination of graphics, music and the story that made me to play this to the end because this repetitiveness.

As for your hero you play and other things in the game, as said it is very arcadey. Often it felt like I am Tomb Raider 2013, but just as a roman. Nothing can really hurt you :)

+ extremely amazing graphics and lovely details, that are historical accurate
+ quite good physics
+ outstanding and tremendous music that contributes much to the game
+ interesting storyline with some unexpected things
+ just WOW fluid animations, kill animations etc
+ gore galore!
o Storyline is completely fantasy, misusing the historical context
o very high system requirements on maxed out settings (970 GTX, 1080p around 20-60 fps)
- repetitive fights
- unskipable and thus repetitive scenes (before boss fights)
- repetitive enviromental items
- endless slaughtering / battles get boring after a time
- repetitive scenes (like forming testudo / pila archers)
- linear and narrow levels, less open world feeling as in Tomb Raider 2013

After all I can give this game a clear recommendation, but it is actually hard to give it a overall positive one, if one calms down about the graphics and other candy stuff and forcing a more objective view.

[h1]Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori![/h1] [b]INTRO[/b] Well I just finished this game that was very enjoyable for me most of all in the past 13 hours it took me to play through. Before I begin with the praise I have to give a warning. [b] This game contains fictional history galore and it is an arcadey game[/b] so please forgive me my very positive rating despite that. In Ryse you take command of a soldier called Marius. His father was a famous roman commander and now is a senator of the SPQR. The game FICTIONALLY plays in the late roman era, when Nero was emperor. There are several things that are completely untrue, like you will fight Boadicea and she will invade Rome with elephants. Truely as a fan of roman history this is so completely off that we need to set the storyline to world of Hollywood fables or even worse. But apart from that this game is really a must have for any fan of Roman history. [b]GREAT THINGS[/b] The storyline was actually very interesting - though being fictional - and it conceals unexpected changes, that I do not want to spoil in detail. At the end many things start to become clear. This games offers extreme stunning graphics I have never seen before in this quality. The extensive use of high res textures and pixel shader based objects is just amazing. Also the details of certain objects are really fotorealistic. Imho, there is even no quality difference between prerendered video sequences and maxed out settings when you play this game. The enviroment is extremely detailed and quite historically accurate. The Colosseum, parts of Roman temples, wax tables, and many many other things that you MAY see, if you turn off motion blur and also care to watch for when playing. The music of this game is really 1st class and never gets really boring! I could even recommend it to listen to the Youtube Ryse OST while playing games like Total War Rome (2) or other roman themed games. There is nothing negative to mention in this regard. It makes you feel like you are playing Gladiator and Hans Zimmer has composed the score for this game, seriously. In the options you can even pick single tracks that you will hear in the game, which I found to be a quite remarkable detail. This way you can listen to a track again if it rocked your ears. But not only the music is rocksolid but also the voice actors. I can only put my hand into the fire for the german localisation. The soundtrack and character / storyteller voices of Ryse are definitely an ear-gasm. [b]THE FLIPSIDE OF THE DENARI[/b] The combat mechanics are very strange, even though it is a ported XBox game. Many things are unclear, despite a short introduction. The many various combat animations are again stunning. The con side is that no one really explains why soldiers are flashing blue or yellow (or sometime fail to do so in max settings, especially at the final scene - Avenge your family.) If an enemy flashes blue this means you need to left click your mouse once as soon as possible, yellow means right click the mouse the same way. This game is all about fluidness of combat and perfect timing. I really treated my mouse and keyboard for this game. The better your combat the better your bonuses that vary from health regeneration, XP to unlock more moves and other things, a slowmotion (capsule / focus) and other things you can choose whenever you want. Once you understood the control they are very easy even on PC. But I think it is more intuitive on Xbox. The only major issue I had with the game is, that you will face boss fights that are just annoying. You need to kill bosses even several times like Boadicea or Commodus etc. And the major problem is that you simply cannot skip the prerendered scenes of have to do some things over and over again before the actual starts fight. This was so exhausting. If you actually look closer to the environment as I did, you will notice the classic lack of all console games also in the details and object. While the beauty may conceal it many many things / objects become repetitive in this game and also the foes you need to slay down over and over and over again. To be honest after 5 hours of gameplay it was only the combination of graphics, music and the story that made me to play this to the end because this repetitiveness. As for your hero you play and other things in the game, as said it is very arcadey. Often it felt like I am Tomb Raider 2013, but just as a roman. Nothing can really hurt you :) [h1]Summary of pro and cons:[/h1] + extremely amazing graphics and lovely details, that are historical accurate + quite good physics + outstanding and tremendous music that contributes much to the game + interesting storyline with some unexpected things + just WOW fluid animations, kill animations etc + gore galore! o Storyline is completely fantasy, misusing the historical context o very high system requirements on maxed out settings (970 GTX, 1080p around 20-60 fps) - repetitive fights - unskipable and thus repetitive scenes (before boss fights) - repetitive enviromental items - endless slaughtering / battles get boring after a time - repetitive scenes (like forming testudo / pila archers) - linear and narrow levels, less open world feeling as in Tomb Raider 2013 After all I can give this game a clear recommendation, but it is actually hard to give it a overall positive one, if one calms down about the graphics and other candy stuff and forcing a more objective view. [h1]In summary of all aspects I would like to give this game a fair 75 of 100 score. And again a recommendation to buy in a sale[/h1]