Just recently played this and while the gameplay is pedestrian at best, the story is pretty damn good and i'll admit that i'm a sucker for historical settings. The game is still very enjoyable on it's own though.
The Roman armors here also looks really wicked.
The fact that it's a launch game and shows that for even a launch game it looks like what many current games on PC running probably mid to high settings, has amazing voice acting, animation, and story, attention to historical detail - mostly weapons, formations, etc. -, and runs smoothly without glitches or framerate hiccups is enough to say that this is a good launch title. Is it a good game overall? Average at best considering that its combat is not as "refined" as the Batman Arkham games, Sleeping Dogs, or the recent Assassin's Creed, but for a launch title and a title on a system unfamiliar to developers - even though both are similar to PCs does not mean developers are going to pick them up and say, "Oh, look, we're going to make every game running the PS4 and Xbox One to the ground", it doesn't work like that - is enough to say that this is a damn, good game as of right now. Future Xbox One and PS4 games will be even better and if Ryse gets a sequel, I'm going to say that it'll be even better just like how Assassin's Creed went from sort of dull and bland combat to exciting and more enjoyable combat in Assassin's Creed 2. I want to see another Ryse game or another game from Crytek similar to Ryse even if it's locked to one platform. I don't care, I'll watch the hell out of the game or I'll buy an Xbox One just for it (and Sunset Overdrive).
People really need to think before opening their damned mouths. People are complaining about Ryse: Son of Rome, Killzone Shadow Fall, Dead Rising 3, and Knack. Hey, do you know why they're on the PS4 and Xbox One? 'Cause the PS3 and Xbox 360 are outdated and many developers are finding trouble dealing with their limited hardware. Back then, sure we could have seen a Knack game, which by the way is totally focused on graphics and is clearly not trying to attract young gamers and gamers who like old school games, on the PS3 and Xbox 360, but why work with those when they're getting phased out? With your mindset, we might as well ride horses, use manual labor for all farming, send letters, shoot arrows, and wooden ships to travel instead of cars, planes, tractors, computers and all those unnecessary inventions. Oh, and remember how Halo 3 looked like Crysis 3 when it came out? You do? You need to get your eyes checked out buddy, since Halo 4 looks good, for now, and Halo 3 looks good when it came out and for a couple months after its release until other games came out.
Yes, launch games are going to look and run mildly if not slightly better than the previous generation's end games, but as the generations continues, games are going to look better, run better, and just be plain better than past games. Really, some games do not age well like past GTAs compared to GTAV or how past Kingdom Hearts feels clunky compared to current ones minus the camera issues from the PSP's and 3DS's lack of another control stick. Others do, like turn-based RPGs, RTS games, games with unique art styles like 8-bit and 16-bit games, games like Okami and Paper Mario; or games that for whatever reason, still feels timeless such as Super Mario Bros., Pac-Man, The Legend of Zelda, and Street Fighter - seriously, most fighting games age well since the mechanics are usually fine tuned and that's a requirement for fighters.
