cryengine 3 |

Publisher: Crytek

Developer: Crytek

Release Date: 11/22/2013 (XBONE) 10/13/2014 (PC)

Available On

I first want to say that Ryse isn’t as bad as critics made the game out to be. However, I can see why it was bashed so much. It was the most anticipated Xbox One launch title. When you throw down $500 on a new console plus $60 for a game, you expect to get your money’s worth. Ryse would have pissed me off if that was the only game I picked up for the console. Is the game awful? No, it is just very repetitive and feels like a typical rushed console launch game.

The story and characters in Ryse are fantastic. You follow a Roman centurion named Marius Titus who is fighting the barbarian tribe known as Britain’s. Marius’ family gets murdered by the barbarians; however, there are quite a few plot twists that left me wanting more of the story. I actually love how the story and characters play out. It felt very authentic to the Roman Empire era; I felt like I was playing a piece of history, and you can’t say that often about games. The architecture and the way the characters dressed just sucked me in. Even the fighting styles are brutal and authentic to Roman culture. The excellent facial animations and voice acting help drive the story even further, but it’s just so sad that the story was taken down by the repetitive and bland gameplay.

The game actually seems really awesome in the first chapter. You get to order soldiers to fire volleys at enemies and control a Scorpio, but you don’t get that much control. You literally pick where your soldiers go to make the scenario easier or harder for you. There are several instances where this happens, and I felt like it wasted potential. Swordplay is just so boring by the end of the game. I actually avoided execution moves because they made me nauseous just looking at them (from repetition, not the gore). When you execute an enemy, the camera sweeps around in a cinematic frenzy. This is just so cool at first, but then you realize the quick-time events don’t do shit. The enemies will glow yellow, blue, red, or green, corresponding to the face buttons on the controller. This quick-time event concept is actually great because it’s non-intrusive, but if you miss the quick-time event, there are zero penalties. The animations don’t stop, the enemy doesn’t get the upper hand, there is no loss of health, nothing. It doesn’t even interrupt your combo, which is pretty much blasphemy in the action/adventure genre. Imagine playing God of War and failing a quick-time event; after that, the kill continues and nothing happens. What’s the point of the QTE, then, right?

There is one interesting mechanic that forces you to do QTE’s, which isn’t too bad. There are four different things you can acquire from these QTEs: health, XP, strength, and focus. I used the health drain and XP the most. I never even used my focus except for a couple of fights in the entire game. That’s not a good sign. To top it all off, the boss fights are just boring and awful. Each boss uses the same two move sets throughout the whole fight, and it becomes just a yawn-inducing repetitive hit-and-dodge game. What makes the combat the worst of all, out of everything, is that the same 10 execution animations are used on top of the same 5 enemy types that are just reskinned. It’s a lazy move that cost the game its legs and character that it got from the story and characters.

Don’t get me wrong, the game is worth a weekend rental, and it’s quite enjoyable thanks to the frequent locale changes and fast-moving story. Thankfully, the game doesn’t overstay its welcome by clocking in at about 4–5 completion times. I was able to get nearly all the upgrades before the end of the game, but this game is not worth a second playthrough, not one bit.

Let’s talk about visuals. Ryse is actually one of the best next-gen console games to be released, looks-wise. On PC, there are some enhancements like AA and SSAA, as well as better shadows and higher-resolution textures. However, this game requires a monster rig (GTX Titan) or SLI 8xx-9xx cards to run at 60 FPS maxed out. My i7 4770 and GTX 670 dropped down to the teens in some areas. Ryse uses the CryEngine 3, which looks freaking amazing, and next-gen consoles finally have the power to use it. If you don’t have a rig that was built in the last 18 months, you should probably play it on Xbox One. There’s even an option to use insane textures for 4GB VRAM GPUs. Ryse is one of the few games out that really pushes new rigs to their limits, so this is a good thing for PC gamers.

Screenshot taken directly from my game — The screenshot was taken directly from my game

To top it all off, Ryse isn’t an awful game. It’s a game that has strong legs that are weakened by repetitive combat and awful boss fights. Many of the locales are just awesome, like the Colosseum, but they don’t overstay their welcome, which can balance this out a bit. If the game was pushed back another year, we could have had the best gladiator-type game ever made (Shadow of Rome and Spartan: Total Warrior still remain at the top). It’s a great weekend rental or bargain bin purchase, but nothing more.

Reviewed On

Xbox One Controller

Publisher: EA

Developer: Crytek

Release Date: 2/19/2013

Available On

Have you upgraded your graphics card? Need a new CPU? How about some more RAM? You’re going to need it with the revolutionary CryEngine 3 that powers Crysis 3. Graphics are the first thing that people think of when a new Crysis game comes out, and will their rig run it? Note to console gamers: The PS3 and 360 versions don’t even come close to the maxed-out DirectX 11 version on PC. It looks great on consoles, pushes them to the max, but looks like crap compared.

You are Prophet, or Lawrence Barnes. The story picks up right after Crysis 2, where the Alpha Ceph is trying to harvest and annihilate all of mankind. It’s up to your and the ex-nano suit-wearing Psycho to stop them. You have the help of the rag-tag rebel resistance, which is all but helpless without you. The first thing that Crysis 3 fixes is the linearity and confinement of the city. It’s a mix of both here. It’s not as open as Crysis 1, but you have large open areas where you can decide if you want to go stealth or shoot everyone up. You can use your visor to tag enemies, which is one of the best tactical elements you have in the game. This time around, you can upgrade your nanosuit by giving yourself longer cloaking time, dampening bullets, increasing stealth kill damage, and various other things. You can still customize your weapons, and there are quite a few of them.

The best addition to Crysis 3 is the tech bow. This thing is just awesome and lets you kill people without reducing your energy for cloaking. You can choose your draw strength and ammo type. Each arrow is an instant kill and feels satisfying. You can also hack this time around, so an enemy turret can wipe out a small force for you while you hide. These small things make Crysis much more enjoyable than the near bore-fest of Crysis 2. The game was solid but lacking in gameplay elements. The hacking, tech bow, and upgraded tactical visor really make the game more intense and fun. The AI is also improved, and the game is much harder. Towards the end of the game, I was dying left and right. The new Ceph enemies are tough as nails, but by the end, you get to feel the ultimate power of the nano suit. By the end of the game, you can supercharge your nanosuit and become invincible for short periods of time. Don’t think this is cheating, it feels great after sneaking around and feeling vulnerable all the time.

When it comes to the story, you will be completely lost if you haven’t been following along; even people who have will be a bit lost. The story doesn’t really add anything or make it more interesting. Honestly, I had no idea what was happening half the time, and I played all the games. The story has a lot of potential but just isn’t fleshed out like it could have been. At least there are some more scripted cinematic events that are part of why Crysis 2 was boring. There still isn’t enough, though. After a while, you feel like you are just trudging through wave after wave of Ceph and Cell troops.

The multiplayer is a little more fun, but not something you will come back to a year from now. Multiplayer is solid, but it isn’t much different from the second game. Honestly, after Crytek pretty much abandoned Crysis 2 shortly after its release, I really don’t want to devote much time to multiplayer. At least the game only had a few bugs and has more graphics settings, unlike the second game. The graphics are freaking amazing, with water tessellation, ambient occlusion, SSAA, and various other DX11 effects. Even with everything set to low, it still looks pretty damn good. There is no DX9 mode, though; it is strictly DX11 on PC, so make sure you have a GPU that supports it.

Overall, Crysis 3 adds just enough to make it feel really solid and go out with a bang. There are a few fun scripted moments, the tech bow is awesome, and the graphics will blow you away, but in the end, it doesn’t do a whole lot different from Crysis 2.