Xbox One Critic Reviews

When I finished playing this game, I felt like I wanted more. That’s the mark of a good game.

Ryse: Son of Rome is a solid game and arguably has the best graphics of any console game to date.

Overall, Ryse: Son of Rome is a solid launch title that tells a good story, looks freaking amazing, and plays great.

With satisfying combat, breathtaking visuals, a decent campaign and a surprisingly entertaining multiplayer mode, it may not break new ground in terms of gameplay, and it offers little in the way of variety, but what it does, it does well.

Technically speaking, Ryse is a masterpiece. A new step in gaming evolution. Unfortunately the combat is - although fluid - suffocating: from the beginning to the end, you slash the same enemies in the same ways. After few hours, you'll start feeling quite tired.

For those who enjoy a simple hack-n-slash game, Ryse: Son of Rome fits the bill. This is no deep adventure, but rather a chance to burn your aggression by chopping your way through hundreds of barbarians, slowing only to enjoy the carnage during the brutal executions. Still, the stunning visuals and compelling setting will keep some gamers engaged throughout, making Ryse a flawed-but-interesting addition to the Xbox One launch lineup.

This is all fun enough stuff. There’s a nice mix of split-second tactical thinking and deep brutality – I could almost feel each blow through my controller.

Ryse is a bit of a marmite game, if you are looking for a great gaming experience that takes forever to perfect then Ryse is not for you. If you are interested in a Roman interactive movie with a solid story line then I’d say give it a shot.

The campaign is short and linear and the gameplay does get repetitive, but I dug the setting, characters and visceral combat enough to overlook its shortcomings.

Ryse is visually stunning, but the combat system lacks finesse and gets kinda repetitive. [Feb 2014]