Ryse: Son of Rome is great for showing off the power of the Xbox One, with beautiful, almost realistic looking graphics. Unfortunately, that's about all it's good for. I was looking forward to trying this game out (even after the terrible reviews), and I can honestly say, it became repetitive in about 5 minutes. The combat is severely lacking depth. You have two basic attack buttons and a block button, but you seldom need to block unless facing multiple enemies, and the attacks just feel button mashy. Every enemy attack gives you a chance to (for lack of a better term) "finish him" with some gory combo that ends with your sword protruding through some body part. Cool the first couple times, extremely annoying after that.
I couldn't tell you if this game has a good story or not, because I literally mustered about 15 minutes of playtime before I wanted to be one of the enemies being gouged by the sword. I have an active gamefly membership, so thankfully it didn't really cost me much. If I had spent real money on it, I'd be incredibly pissed.
Don't waste your time (or money) on this game. If you want to experience the depth of the game, look it up on youtube. You'll be able to experience it for what it is in a brief 3 minute video.