One of the first Xbox One exclusives we saw during Microsoft’s E3 media briefing (and therefore, one of the first we’ve seen at all) was Crytek’s Ryse: Son of Rome.
Ryse was actually announced back at E3 2011. At that point, it was purported to be a Kinect-fueld, first-person action game exclusive to the Xbox 360. Now it’s shifted perspective to an over-the-shoulder view, dropped the Kinect mandate, and sports a spiffy new subtitle. Despite the immediately positive-sounding shift from motion controls, I must say I’m a bit worried about the old son.
As a motion-controlled game, Ryse billed itself as an “interactive movie” or “guided experience.” That is to say, it was an on-rails game in the vein of Microsoft’s own Fable: The Journey. That makes sense for a game without any reliable means of input for precise navigation. It’s harder to justify when a controller gives you that standard of control.
When the trailer for the newly rebranded Ryse: Son of Rome unspooled before me, I actually questioned whether it was an on-rails game (having completely forgotten about the 2011 announcement, and the later 2012 backpedaling about the integral nature of Kinect). I wasn’t the only one, either. Based on conversations I’ve had with other E3 attendees, the artificial hallways and one-one-one style of combat make the game look, if not completely “guided,” then at least crushingly linear.
It’s not just the environments that put me in mind of a game made to fit with foreign controls. The QTE-heavy combat shown in the demo screams of combat system that was, at one point, just a hollow series of gestures. Between that and the game’s other problems — including a frame rate that did not look up to E3 demo standards, and a camera which seems pulled suspiciously tight on the protagonist at all times — I’m quite worried about the game.
We’ll likely get a chance to pick over the game with a fine-tooth comb this week, but for now Ryse: Son of Rome looks like a linear, overly simplistic, and rather bland-looking action game, and all of the Bronze Age background explosions in the world won’t cover that up.
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