Ryse was very much capable of being the next Assassin’s Creed. Unfortunately, it fails on a few levels that make it a mediocre experience overall.
The setting is fantastic, and it is one of the most artistically proficient games I’ve ever played - no surprise coming from Crytek. It’s beauty is only marred by the Xbox One’s inability to maintain it a consistent frame rate. When there are too many enemies or particle effects on the screen, the Xbox stutters in a jarring but manageable way. That is to say, it’s obvious that the game is performing poorly, but because of the nature of Ryse’s combat/technical systems, it doesn’t really detract from the overall gameplay. It’s just a little annoying.
Though it offers a surprisingly good story in a fantastic setting with beautiful visuals, it stumbles almost everywhere else. Its combat is boring, repetitive, and lacks any type of finesse. Animations are long and unforgiving, and a majority of the game is spent fighting multiple copies of same enemy. You can go from camp to camp (or even within a singular fight) and see exact twins of the enemies you just fought. It’s as if the barbarians are a tribe of eight people who have cloned themselves hundreds of times over. Though it is rather linear, the various settings kept the environments from feeling stale, and I never felt like the levels were too narrow.
The game also does a good job of not getting kluge with too much fantasy. That is, I imagine it would have been very easy for the developers to go off the deep end by introducing more less-than-historical elements than are already present in an attempt to make the game more interesting.
This game is not worth playing at its original $60, but as the price drops (it’s $39.99 as of the time of this writing), consider picking it up for its story and setting alone. You’ll have to make due with boring combat, but the game has a decent amount to offer if you can look past that.
TL;DR - Ryse presents its heroic story with beautiful graphics and a supremely interesting setting. Unfortunately, its let down by repetitive combat, a lack of enemy diversity, and the Xbox’s inability to play it at a consistent frame rate.