Ryse: Son of Rome Day One Edition - Xbox One

So first off, I sat down yesterday morning with my Xbox One ready to play an actual game, rather than just playing and setting up the menu's and watching movies. First game I popped in was Ryse, and may I say, although short, was very fulfilling.The game takes you on a journey as Marius, a son of Rome who's out on a quest for vengence and glory. The combat and action are awesome, take away some minor timing queues that throw you off when trying to pull off an execution. Executions, they are ways to finish off your enemies, and by pressing the up, down, left, or right on the D-pad to choose what type of powerup you would like to have once you complete a sucessful execution (health, damage, XP, or focus). Executions are done by pressing the right trigger when you see a white or red skull over your enemy, then press the right color button (blue or yellow) when the enemyflashes that specific color (bascially yellow is your shield and blue is the sword).Graphics look amazing, I was very impressed by the foilage and different areas in which they take us, from the city settings, to forests, to night scapes, and so on. One thing to note, during some fights you may find yourself having issues moving the camera, as if it was stuck on a bush or building and you might get attacked off screen or don't know what queues it tells you for an execution. You fight all sorts of men, no monsters, or animals, or anything like that, just soldiers, men, people who think they are gods and so on.Story, I really enjoyed, was a little confused at the beginning but then it smoothed itself out and brought the story around full circle, very fun. Some fights were tough, no joke, but a blast! Also, expect a twist or two, i thought I was following it, and figured something would happen, but not what did happen.Lastly, the game does have multiplayer, however i havent even tried that yet, i apologize. I will do that later this week when my brother gets it so we can play Co-Op in the arena.All in all, fun great game, now here is the downfall, but for me was a plus. I sat down like i said yesterday morning to play, and finished the game (on normal) last night around 8 pm. So it lasted MAYBE 10 hours, i did take 30 mins to eat lunch and dinner with my gf and a 30 min break in the middle. So maybe closer to 8 hours and yes i died on a couple fights.Just wanted to fill you all in, sorry for the bounce around review, but i really enjoyed this game, even though it was short, i loved it. And why i liked it being short, well i have other games i want to play and when i play games i am OCD and have to finish one before i start another hah. Hope this gives you guys some insight.Enjoy!*Update* 12/09/13Sorry for the delay, but here is my multiplayer thoughts;A blast! I waited to play with my brother, although you go through the maps quickly since there are only 12 or 14 of them, they provide a good challenge. Each one has a new set up, shows you and your partner walking out in the gear that you equip on your gladiators. Each one has a set of random events and you only go through some of them, then have to fight leaders or a higher power to complete that wave.But working with your partner, one taking on some of the guys while you run and put fires out or blow up catapults, is just so fun, then you come back and help him or save him depending. Some of the enemies can quickly overwhelm so you can't be afraid to run to your partnet to get help. But heres the fun thing....co-op executions, SO FUN when you pull them off.Lastly, as you play and win, you gain gold to buy equipment or skills (if you didn't use the XP from the campaign you earn). You also increase in rank to unlock the next tiers of equipment. From what i can tell, i went to the top teir and tried to buy something and it told me i needed to be above rank 80, so yea, there will be alot of fighting to get up there. This will take a while. But say your buddy doesn't want to play, or you want to rank up to the next tier in order to get better gear. There is a Solo mode, where you enter into one of 4 arenas on your own. They can be tough, but also one bloody blast ;)Again, sorry for the sporatic review, but it is fun, i can't wait to play again. Have fun!

This is the first review that have written on Amazon despite having purchased so many items. I felt the need to do so because of all the bad reviews I read from the so called professionals but it seems they are no better than most of the movie critic reviews I read on good movies with bad reviews.So here it goes, first off as usual Amazon shipped my purchase quickly and it was delivered on time in perfect condition. I was eager to install the game after setting up my new Xbox One so I inserted the disk and waited for it to let me know it was ready for play, the games take awhile on the Xbox One to install because of there size but a few minutes is nothing once you get started playing. As soon as it loaded I was taken to a cut scene setting up the story and was immediately amazed at how beautiful everything looked. I usually do my gaming on pc and am used to great graphics but this was amazing.After the cut scene ended I expected the graphics to be somewhat less as the cut scenes are usually better than the actual gameplay but I was completely wrong, I was blown away taking time out from playing to simply look around at the amazing scenery, the sky, trees, foliage, ground everything is absolutely incredible looking and all the details will leave you saying wow. The story is great and it was tough putting down my controller to get some sleep last night as I wanted to see what happens next. The fighting even though most of the review sites I read said was repetitive felt right to me and the difficulty was just right, I chose the second difficulty and cannot remember what it was called but it was just right for my skill set and not having played a console in some time was easy enough to make my way through with a few deaths mixed in to keep me from getting to confident in my skill. Timing is important so trying to button mash your way through will not work which makes it feel more immersive. The fighting is very brutal and gory with some awesome execution scenes when you get your enemy low on health but this is only how I would have imagined it to be and nothing short of what you have seen if you watched the movie Gladiator. You are on rails in the game but there are still enough places to wander around that it is possible to get lost for a minute but they have included a nice feature where after awhile there will be a subtle way point pop up to guide you to where you need to go. All in all I believe I am probably just over half way through the game and am really enjoying my time with it, I have not tried any of the other game modes but am looking forward to trying them when I finish the campaign. I would definitely recommend this game, if you like the things I have written about you will not be disappointed.

It's a very visually stunning game, the landscapes are all very well done and *most* of the graphics are really good. (I say most because in some cases, for example, facial responses and rendering are done SUPER well, and others the artist should have been fired)It's a very repetitive game, as a lot of people stated it's very similar to the latest batman games, but not as wide open or fun. The enemies become increasingly harder and thus more boring and tedious, because even though you "upgrade" your character, you don't really do anything new outside of executions. It's frustratingly short, with little to no replay value for me.I haven't tried the multiplayer, and likely won't, so my review doesn't take this into account.I took off a star because of the in game microtransactions (to be fair you don't NEED them). I just CANNOT get behind paying full price for any game and including this into the equation. (side note this is one of the reasons I WILL NEVER buy another EA sports game because of all the in game ads)Once in awhile the game freezes while loading scenes, which requires you to turn off the xbox and restart it for the game to resume working.Overall a good game if you can score it for under 30 bucks, but stay away until then.

The game was not working upon arrival.

This is the first game/campaign I completed on Xbox One. It starts with Roman soldier saving Nero from english Barbarians and slowly plunges into a revenge story. The story is not brilliant but is neither dull. It is fun to play.The campaign duration is very short. I completed it in Recruit mode in like a day or two and in Soldier mode in 3 hours.The multiplayer takes quite sometime to find a match. Multiplayer games are challenging and are in different arenas.To sum it up all, I had playing this one and I still play a multiplayer match if I get bored with other games.

The game has good graphics...but I had the same problem as I had playing batman arkham knight as the voice sound is not audible at some game scenes.The story line is good but the game is not suitable for pro gamer.I used to play this game when I am bored of all other games.the controls are easy.What I am suggesting is you can buy a good action game like COD series rather than this game for this cost.

Am awesome game.Very short game.Was able to complete it in 16 hours. Very addictive. Awesome graphics. Loved it.

I bought this game along with the Xbox One on its release date in India and the following review is based on that impression alone. As of writing this review, a few months have passed after the Xbox One and better games such as AC: Unity, Far Cry 4, Shadow of Mordor have been released.If you are looking for a game that really showcases the power of the next gen console, look no further than Ryse: Son of Rome. The game is a visual treat with extremely detailed environment and character models. Ryse is easily the best looking game among the first batch of games released with the next gen consoles.While this is a pretty game with a decent story, its gameplay isn't all that great. It is a hack and slash/Beat Em Up game like Castlevania, Ninja Gaiden, Batman - Arkham & Devil May Cry series without the deep and interesting combat gameplay. This game become extremely repetitive after the first few hours once the novelty of playing a next gen game has faded. This game has good potential but due to its limited and repetitive gameplay, it become boring after a while. By the 50th enemy, the QTE [quick time event] is no longer cool.Combat consists of Attack, Heavy Attack, Block and Evade all mapped to the face buttons on the controller. When an enemy or enemies are significantly damaged, they start blinking red and hitting the right trigger initiates a QTE movements which involves decapitation, disembowelment or other gory finishers on the enemies. When QTE or more enemies, the game look extremely cool and the finishers are excellent. If the game developers put in more time on the combat and enemy types to make it enjoyable such as the Batman - Arkham Series, the game would be a great addition to the first wave of the next gen console games. Sadly, this is not the case as the game consists of very very limited upgrades regarding Combat and such.The voice acting and character models are top notch and nothing negative can be said about them. The environments are constantly varying. One moment you are killing enemies in a dark ominous forests and the next, you are butchering enemies in the Colosseum. The game takes advantage of the hardware upgrades of the next gen consoles and the characters and environments are extremely detailed bordering on realistic and life like.The story is good and follows a legionnaire's quest for revenge against the Barbarians who slaughtered his family that ultimately descends into political conspiracies and such. Decent story at best.If you are looking to test your next gen consoles but are limited by the games available on the market, this game is the perfect medium to break into your Xbox One to fully appreciate the power of the next gen consoles until better games such as AC: Unity and Shadow of Mordor are released.This game had a lot of potential and could have been developed in such a way to start a beat em up series such as Batman - Arkham series with the historical setting of Pre - Christian Era Rome similar to Assassins Creed. Sadly, the first installment falls short in the gameplay department while excelling in the visual, character models and environmental conception.A potentially good game with average gameplay and stunning visuals. Buy this game if you have just bought the Xbox One on its release date and need a game to kill time until better games hit the Indian Market.