GI: Ryse combat has the complexity of dialing phone numbers

LOL. Still buying it.

I’m hoping that later levels introduce some more difficult enemies, as the dozens of encounters I had consisted of all the complexity of dialing phone numbers. Almost every fight started with me hitting the attack button a couple of times, then pushing the enemy in an effort to stop him from breaking my combo. Then, I’d continue attacking until he was weak enough for the execution sequence. Once this occurs, the game slows down and the enemy flashes various colors. You press the face button of the appropriate color, and your protagonist Marius dismembers or murders the foe in dramatic fashion.

This was exactly my experience when I played it, except that it was clunky and unresponsive as well. Thankfully, the lack of those complaints in this preview proves they have improved it since.

http://www.gameinformer.com/games/ryse_son_of_rome/b/xboxone/archive/2013/11/06/ryse-son-of-rome-is-as-fun-as-dialing-phone-numbers.aspx

Not surprising. What do you expect from a game so heavily reliant on quick-time events? Game always seemed more concerned with style over substance in regard to its combat.

I just read GameSpot's preview and Kevin Vanord said that the combat is kind of reminiscent of Batman Arkham games. The QTE's don't kick in until the enemy is finished so that's alright although I still want to see QTE's banned from gaming forever. He also claims that it's linear as hell.

Crytek has been infamously been putting in massive amounts of crunch and no doubt they've been trying to make the combat system suck less but I doubt one can revise a game from top to bottom in the course of a few months. If Ryse finds an audience (its easy on the eyes), maybe the sequel will play a lot better.

On a possibly related note, somebody in Germany has lured Todd Papy (director of GoW Ascension, which had story issues but played well) away from Sony Santa Monica.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-11-04-god-of-war-ascension-director-quits-sony-santa-monica

That's what I've been reading with the combat as well, the similarity with the Batman Arkham games.

Thankfully, I like the Arkham franchise.

You know the biggest problem with QTEs is just how awful they have been implemented over the years. While I had a good time playing The Force Unleashed for instance, it was a big offender of bad practices. Locking your eyes on the QTE prompt and missing all the hot sexy action that Starkiller was pulling off took you out of the game instead of engaging you with it.

The way it's described in this excerpt actually sounds kind of interesting. Not sure how it would play out, especially if you have to keep doing similar actions over and over. But if they've managed to refine QTEs into something palatable, that could be alright.

I hadn't planned on playing Ryse. At least not right out of the gate. Too many zombies that need killing to waste time with the Roman legions and whatnot. But after reading that, I'm a bit more interested than I was. So thanks for posting it.

God of Bore :P

Don't forget this is used to be a kinect railshooter and has later been refitted to look more like a proper game.

Yeah, you can take the game out of the Kinect, but you can't take the Kinect out of the game.

When i see the game in E3 , i got disappointed by its gameplay , it'd be great if they go deep n have a liittle more combats n stuff....not jus slow motion !

Funny how developers are already abandoning the kinect 2 boat before it has even sailed

Well, that's good news. I may go back and play Orta.

Orta was a fantastic game. I got that as a birthday present. Pretty sure I still have it too. I may just do the same. :)

Microsoft is giving away the free Killer Instinct download code to their loyal XBL customers. I havent gotten my email yet but then again I am far from loyal. only had XBL for maybe 2-3 months.

Judging by the preview, it looks like Ryse is another case of "Good concept - Bad execution". I was immediately hooked by what looked to be a promising Roman legionnaire game, but it's a shame it's nothing more than a sequence button-dialer.

The visuals look tight and gorgeous, however.

If it makes you feel any better, I've had GOLD since Halo 2 and haven't gotten one either. :(

They are sending it out in batches. Unless your XBL rep is that of a racist 12 year old, you should be getting one in the mail.

I had a Gold account from 2001 to 2011.. I wonder if I will get one. Someone should email them and tell them not to bother if so. :P

Not a fan of Killer Instinct?

Well my radical hate speech is known both far and wide.

Do me a S0lid and give it to me. :P

If I get one, it's yours. :)

Can you imagine this being one of the best launch titles of all time? That would be a total surprise.

@S0lidSnake:

I played rise this past weekend....Gamespots preview is line with my experience....Not sure what you mean by clunky....perhaps it was user error....

It would be hilarious and unexpected.

Solid played it back at the Eurogamer Expo. Chances are it was the same demo they had at E3, which, as I recall, looked pretty clunky as well. I never got my hands on it, granted (lines were too long), but what I saw didn't inspire confidence.

What did the demo show off, by chance?

Most everyone is trashing it except IGN, and they loved it.

One of those games I want to like but everything I've seen has been garbage. 'Cept the visuals, those looked fine.

yup. Gamescom demo actually. It was coop and a mess.

This level:

IGN has been pretty shit for a while now. They gave CoD the highest score out of all the major websites. 8.8

If it wasn't for Gamespot's shitty reviewers, IGN would be the worst website out there.

They made a demo for Gamescom? Huh. Thought they would have just reused what they showed at E3 like everyone else does.

Still looks kinda clunky, though. It's like the animations are just a bit too stiff, the transitions between them and the general flow of combat not as fluid as it should be.

Absolutely. That's why it's fun to point out that IGN continues their trend of predictability.

Actually, now that I think about it, I wonder if Ryan McCaffery did that preview. He's humorously biased.

Edit: It wasn't. IGN's impressions hold a little more weight now :P

As far as I know, the Single player E3 demo they showed has never been played by anyone. In fact, I have never seen it demoed since. Gamescom was the first time the game was playable and they decided to show this terrible coop demo that had so many glitches many threads were dedicated to them.

It was the same demo they had at the EB Expo which was disappointing to say the least.

Thankfully a newer version of this coop mode was shown a few weeks ago and the graphics have improved dramatically, but the animations are still not as smooth as something like Batman.

I'm still interested in trying it. It's one of my Day One preorders.

You also need a Gamerscore of over 75,000 I believe. I got an email for a free Killer Instinct but I would have much rather preferred a free Xbox One which they are also giving to some lucky people as well.

After watching some of the videos posted today, I actually really want to play Ryse now, so I'll probably be picking it up.

Re thinking about getting it day 1, maybe down the line. I mean, play through it once, then what? The multiplayer looks terrible, not worth the $60 up front.

Those were many bugs and glitches. I hope all those has been fixed because the Xbox One is coming out soon.

Game looks good. I guess Id be upset at these impressions if I were getting a One. Hearing that Crimson Dragon is now sans Kinect sucks to hear though. Unless I'm offered the option to buy the One without the Kinect but that doesn't seem likely anytime soon.

You can still play Crimson Dragon with Kinect.

@Randolph:

Maximus! Maximus! Maximus!

It's pretty hard for me to get over my dislike of the setting of the game, that era just has little to no appeal to me on average. But the footage of the game released the other day just makes it looks so, so, much better than it has looked to me previously. Expands my day one set up to...

Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag. A game I also initially had zero interest in, due to AC franchise fatigue. But it seems to right a lot of the wrongs of AC3, and is being roundly praised for having an astounding amount of content, so it seems like a good value that I could get a lot of mileage out of.

Dead Rising 3. Much like Ryse, recent videos of the game have surfaced to assure me it's a good time to be had, especially Gamespot's recent interview with the development team.

It was thought that the humor was gone. Two words: Banana Hammock.

Ryse: Son of Rome. See above, it just looks really good. I love proper QTE implementation that keeps your eyes focused on the action at not at some obscure area of the screen away from what's actually being done. Slick as hell presentation doesn't hurt, because we all want something to show off our new toy.

Killer Instinct. I have gone on and on about how this game really looks like something special and would be to Double Helix what Killzone 2 was to Guerrilla Games, or Uncharted to Naughty Dog. The glowing hands on previews of late and continued positive gamer testimonials have me convinced I was reading Ken Lobb's goofy smile right, he did know they had a damned good game on their hands. This game is the one that got me paying attention to the Xbone at all a few weeks back just in time to hop on to that last chance batch of reserve Gamestop had open a bit back.

Crimson Dragon. Two parts Panzer Dragoon series, (including an aftertaste of PD Saga) one part Star Fox 64. The ability to use my XBL friends dragons as wingmates in the campaign is awesome. (and we BOTH get XP for it)

I'm not past the idea of possibly adding in Forza 5 as well so I can get a feel for the delicious new possibilities opened up by the rumbling triggers. If I can start learning fighters, I can start learning sim racers. They also have the rather cool looking Powerstar Golf on day one via XBL. I'm also hyped for D4 in Q1 next year, looks like the next great Kinect game post Child of Eden. Overall, I'm surprised at all the stuff I'm seeing that I actually really want, this launch has more depth to it than I had previously thought.

Now all it needs is a HALO game and it'd be like the OG Xbox all over again, and I adored the OG Xbox. (I'm still holding out hope for a Halo 4 Directors Cut next year on the Bone.)

What I meant was it sucks it's also playable without Kinect because I'm not buying a One as long as Kinect is required, and the thing that took that game off my radar was the insistence on having to use it. I've been desiring a new Panzer Dragoon-esque game for a long time now.

The Roman backdrop is one of the appealing aspects to me for Ryse. One of my favorite movies just happens to be the Ridley Scott classic, Gladiator!! :-)

Randy, I had the opportunity to play a few games at the Xbox Tour last weekend and came away feeling good with some of the launch day Xbox One games. With Ryse I played the co-op arena mode and my intial reaction was, "this is like being in the movie gladiator". Visually the game looked good, although I would have preferred to see the game indoors, to get a better visual sense of the graphics. The game play is similar to that of Batman Arkam style of play. Although one of the guys I was with, mentioned that it reminded him of AC. Not sure that I agree with that as the character movements in AC are smoother. Now....In no way is the game going to revolutionize game play, but it was a lot of fun. Player movement was not as clunky as some have said it to be. Perhaps some improvements have been made in that regard. Interestingly most of the folks playing the game made no mention of the character animation and many of the football fans in the Budlight tent section, seemed very enthused with Ryse. Some even chanting, "Maximus, Maximus, Maximus". I am sure some of that was induced by the consumption of beer.

Forza 5....Looked really good. The cars were beautiful and the way the controllers rumbled with the game added a nice sense of realism.

I already commented on Killer Instinct...And I am looking forward to challenging you online...I just need to get back in touch with Pat first.

MS, for much of the criticism it has received, has done a great job with their Xbox One demo and I hope that their in store kiosk continues this.