4. Crytek Is No Sony Santa Monica, Capcom, Or Team Ninja When It Comes To Combat
Ryse is without a doubt, one of the most repetitive games ever made. Its as if Crytek played 5 minutes of Arkham City, Assassins Creed, and God of War, and slapped something together in even less time. Combat in Ryse consists of doing nothing but mashing the ONE attack button while either rolling, blocking, or shield bashing someone with defenses up. When enemies are near death, you can perform an execution on them. You can also enter Focus mode which is nothing more than a slow down time mechanic where youll attack super fast for roughly 10 seconds. Thats it Every single enemy encounter boils down to the above. There are no combos, complex advanced mechanics, new enemy types, shaken up scenarios, or any monkey wrenches whatsoever tossed into your plans. Its shield bash followed by mashing X while rolling occasionally until you can execute someone. Now I will admit, the executions are absolutely brutal and make for some of the most blood red graphic, stomach churning deaths ever seen in gaming and are sure to please those with a bloodlust. What completely dumbfounds me though is that even after buying more executions with experience earned in game, you still see the same freaking executions over and over. At one point during Chapter 7, I went on an insatiable buying spree in hopes of more varied death, but wound up witnessing the same execution three times in one fight! You can switch reward perks (for executions), attack at different angles, and try anything you can think of but Ryse never changes or evolves. Its the definition of repetition. The boss fights arent any better and essentially boil down to rolling, smacking them a few times, and repeating on end for minutes. Its either that or burning through your entire Focus meter just to get the boredom over with as quick as possible. These boss fights are nothing more than character model enemy swaps with extended levels of health. Accounting for everything Ive just said though, the repetition isnt what offends me the most; its the tantalizing idea of adapting the Arkham style of combat into a gratuitously graphic and violent game set in Ancient Rome, only for Crytek to 100% miss the mark on what makes that free-flowing style of combat so satisfying. Ryse isnt a fluid game where youll be effortlessly and seamlessly bouncing between enemies reveling in the gore-fueled satisfaction of slaughtering barbarians as a Roman general, its an extremely weighty and clunky game where every fight plays out with the intensity of turning on a game console. Not to mention, its mechanics are so damn enemy type restrictive that you are bottlenecked into fighting exactly how Crytek wants you to, instead of giving you the freedom to experiment for yourself and tailor the mechanics to your own playing style. Occasionally, the game will be broken up with short sequences where youll be firing at archers with a mounted Scorpio, or marching in formation with your troops as you deflect arrows with your shields. These sections are an interesting idea that creatively play on your role as a Roman general, but also fail to entertain and just feel smashed into the already existing mess of gameplay.