You might remember the announcement a couple months back about a Gladiator-type game called Ryse, an Xbox One exclusive that would be up for grabs on the console’s launch day.

Through the summer, developer Crytek has steadily given us more insight into this potentially groundbreaking game. Trailers, more announcements (Kinect features), a new name (from Ryse to Ryse: Son of Rome), as well as a chance to check out the gameplay at E3 this past June. While the story and graphics were a sight to behold, the gameplay left many gamers anxious and worried of what they might be dealt with.

‘QTE’ is, to this day, a very loathed acronym for an even more hated aspect of action/fighting games. Quick-time events have long since developed a reputation for being notoriously annoying and pointless additions to games. More than anything, they act as a plague, staining what could otherwise be fantastic gameplay. Where they’re not a pain to do, they’re redundant, which ends up making the game overall quite stale and drained of replay value.



The last build of Ryse at E3 included a number of QTE’s in various action sequences, which were praised for their fluidity and innovative style, much like the latest Batman: Arkham games. However, those annoying little moments of timed button mashing all but broke that pleasant experience, leaving people nothing short of disgruntled and thinking that Ryse would be another victim of that trend.

However, the latest updates at Gamescom have provided far more hope for this title than Ceasar’s dictatorial regime. According to Crytek, the QTE’s have essentially been banished. They are still present in the gameplay, but only at an optional level. This leaves you with the choice of using them or not, and rather than flashing button symbols on the screen, certain parts of the enemy’s body will “glow” a certain color (blue for ‘x’, yellow for ‘y’). This helps keep them as subtle as possible, a significant change from before and a nice compromise, even if at least some of us just wanted them gone altogether.

Another gameplay update is the revamp of the “execution reward system”. At E3, the plan then was for players to be rewarded with unique fighting boosts, such as extra health or focus (a resource that allows the main character Marius to daze enemies and then deliver powerful attacks), after performing executions.

The “elephant” problem though was that players had absolutely no control over which executions were performed, and subsequently, what boosts were received. If Marius is low on health and instead goes for a focus boost, well..props for being brave at least. This issue has since been remedied by allowing the player to use the D-pad to select which boost they’d like to get, allowing them to take more control of the fight rather than the game fighting for them. This also contributes to making the fights more fluid, and allowing the player to learn and master new combos and strategies for handling enemies that have different strengths/weaknesses. Much of the game overall is about handling hordes of barbarians that can easily overcome you without tactical creativity. With full control of the fight, you truly can put yourself in Marius’s shoes, get your 300 soundtrack going, and tear through mobs of enemies to your heart’s content.

The final big update from Gamescom is the co-op multiplayer mode, appropriately called ‘Gladiator’. Here you’re thrown into a gigantic colosseum and pitted against an onslaught of enemies as the crowd of thousands watches and cheers you on. Judging by the trailer for it, you get to take on not just enemies, but specific objectives depending on the given “terrain” with the help of your co-op partner.

Ryse: Son of Rome comes to Xbox One in November on launch day.

Check out the trailer for this new mode below.