Ryse: Son of Rome review

Remember that scene in the film Gladiator, when badass Roman general Maximus defeats several enemies in battle before throwing his shield at onlookers and shouting, "Are you not entertained?" That was cool. Since then any games involving Roman gladiators have caught my interest, but there's been a real lack of action titles that inspire me as much as that movie did. That is until Ryse came along.

Telling the story of Marius, a Roman centurion who must defend Rome against bloodthirsty Celtic barbarians, Ryse definitely lets you know that this is a pure action game. The first five minutes will be spent pulling off kills as lethally as possible, and from then on nothing really changes. But that doesn't have to be a bad thing, because as long as you're not expecting an award-winning story or anything particularly innovative then there is a lot to enjoy here.

Ryse has had an interesting journey through development, to say the least. It actually started off life as a Kinect title for the Xbox 360, but somehow it eventually ended up being an Xbox One exclusive years later. Kinect commands are still there, but they only play a minor role and the main aim of Ryse is to chain combination attacks together before pulling off extremely brutal 'execution' moves.

That actually appears to be the selling point of Ryse, and with over 100 different executions to unlock and pull off, developer Crytek has made sure that players will have enough new moves to gawk at as they progress through the game. Executions are activated after draining an enemy of a large portion of his health. After this, an icon will appear above his head and you can get to work on the controversial quick-time events that have been the subject of many of the game's previews.

You see, after triggering an execution scenario, you literally can't lose. Enemies will glow different colours and you'll have to press the right button accordingly, but that's so that you gain more health, XP, damage or focus - used to slow down fights and make Marius super strong. If you activate an execution and then put the controller down on your lap for five seconds, you'll still see Marius pulling off some amazing moves but you just won't get the bonuses for it.

Is this a case of too much hand-holding in modern games, where things have become so easy that most challenges have been dumbed down? That's a subject for another time, but certainly during my play through I tried to pull off each execution perfectly, just so that I could get more bonuses and self-satisfaction. Unfortunately, as you'll be executing the vast majority of enemies in this game - and there are thousands - you're going to be seeing the same moves quite a few times over. So it's a good thing they look pretty.

Which brings us to the visual quality of Ryse, which cannot be underestimated. As I wrote in a preview last year, Ryse is the best looking console game I've played. The lighting, the textures, everything just looks spot on. There were more than a couple occasions where I stopped running around just to take a look at the scenery, which is high praise for a game that's all about intense action. Looks aren't everything, of course, but they help, especially on a brand new console. A slight letdown is the fact that enemies only come in five or six different character models, so you'll be slicing and dicing the same looking barbarians over and over.

The best moments of Ryse come when Marius is fighting alongside fellow Roman soldiers. There are occasions when you'll form the famous Roman turtle formation so that you can approach enemy archers without any casualties. It's up to you to command your unit when to move forward or when to shield, and then you can order your warriors to throw their spears. There will also be times when Marius is running around the battlefield and you can shout, "Archers, cover me!" or similar commands to the Kinect, and from my experience they were almost always followed.

However the fundamentals of the game will always be blocking, hitting and pulling off yet more executions. Enemies circle you and take turns to attack, which definitely makes life easier. It sounds like it should become boring after a while, but I remained hooked right until the end. There's something captivating about trying to chain as many hits together as possible, and unlocking more and more deadly blows.

There are also different collectible items scattered throughout each level, which includes vistas, scrolls and chronicles. They aren't too hard to find but you'll probably have to play through the campaign twice to find them all, and really there is no incentive to go back and do that unless you want those valuable achievement points.

It's also unlikely that you'll be interested in the multiplayer side for too long. Players can team up with another warrior online to take on waves of enemies, but along the way you're given a few different goals to accomplish. This could be taking out archers above you or demolishing catapults, simple stuff but it breaks things up a bit. But really there's no lasting appeal here.

Ryse is stunning to look at and simple to play. It won't be winning awards any time soon but it can offer you a few days of entertainment, just as long as you know what to expect. If you're looking for some modest, violent fun then this is a beautiful, if repetitive, treat.