Ryse: Son of Rome is a true spectacle of a game. From its flashy and over-the-top kill animations to its vast set pieces, the game’s objective is obviously to take the player on a Roman inspired theme park ride, dedicating its focus to style rather than substance. For a casual fan of ancient warfare, this game’s gorgeous graphics and smooth animations can truly immerse you within the fantasy of becoming an indestructible one man army, chopping off limbs with ease. It fulfills its role of making you feel like one of the heroes of modern cinema, such as Brad Pitt’s Achilles or Gerard Butler’s Leonidas. However, to a true history buff, this game could leave you feeling more unfulfilled, as behind its flashy looks lies shallow gameplay and a run of the mill story that reflects very little of the way true Roman warfare was fought. This in of itself is not necessarily a criticism, as there is very little in the way of concrete evidence demonstrating how the Romans fought in reality. It is up to the developers as to what elements they wish to cherry pick from the historical record for inspiration. Therefore, this article’s aim is to highlight how Ryse presents combat in the ancient world and to compare it to what we know of the reality of Roman warfare.
Ryse was developed by Crytek and was released in November of 2013, as a flagship launch title for the Xbox One. Surprisingly, it was originally pitched as a ‘Kinect’ game, using the new console’s motion sensor to allow the player to become the controller, hacking and slashing their way through barbarians with little to no control of movement besides the swinging of a sword or blocking of a shield. However, Microsoft and Crytek would later re-work the game's design to a more traditional action-adventure game, as its ambition and scope became too much for the Kinect’s obvious limitations. Thus, Ryse’s purpose changed, as Microsoft would pivot to using the game to show off the graphical capability of the new console above all else. This explains the rather shallow combat the game eventually delivered, as it is important to realise that this was a game largely made to look good in a thirty minute demo, rather than have combat with any historical accuracy.
Although Ryse plays very fast and loose with history, it is set during the time of Nero and predominantly takes place in Britain, having you fight the untamed and savage tribes within. Historically, we do not have as much as we’d like from our sources of this period regarding combat, as writers such as Tacitus and Cassius Dio have accounts of war that tend to concentrate on the commanders and generals, only referencing individual troops and their roles in their more broad groupings, such as centuries or cohorts. With this in mind, piecing together how combat took place between Roman legionaries and their tribal enemies revolves around a lot of guesswork, with some things being pieced together through reasonable assertions. This ambiguity however, works in the games advantage, as it gives it reasonable grounds for artistic licence and allows it to present a dramatised and glorified depiction of a centurion’s combat techniques against the noble (and not so noble) savage.
HOW RYSE COMPARES TO REALITY:
In Ryse, the combat depicted can be broken down through its control scheme. By pressing (X) the character will stab or slash with their gladius, automatically locking onto a single enemy if close enough, however if the button is held down the character will perform a dramatic jump into the air with a stronger slice downwards, breaking an enemies guard with the force. You can bash others with your shield using (Y), stunning your enemies. Some of the stronger enemies even require a stun before attacking with (X) can become effective, as they will continue to block all attacks from your gladius without it. Moreover, you can also counter enemy attacks by hitting (A), with your character often swinging the shield around to meet the opponent's weapon rather than keeping it tight to their body in anticipation. This unrealistic ability to anticipate and stop a blow from any angle is quite obviously inspired by the successful Batman Arkham games, which are considered the gold-standard for combat in this genre, as many other games attempt to emulate it. This does mean however, that this mechanic makes the combat appear more ‘gamified’ rather than one that could be considered historically accurate. In reality, a scutum most likely remained close to the legionaries body as they weighed around ten kilos. A weight that makes the idea of swinging it around and over your head to catch an opponent's blow seemingly impossible in reality. You can also perform a swift forward roll with (B), to acrobatically escape danger and give yourself more space when crowded. It is a stretch however, to argue that any Roman soldier in full lorica segmentata weighing in around fifteen kilos, could perform such a feat so seamlessly. Not only would a legionnaires armour restrict them from full mobility, but made to move as it does in Ryse, it would probably end up hurting its owner more than defending him.
STYLE OVER SUBSTANCE:
The most unique feature of Ryse’s combat is the finisher animations which take place when you press (RT) on a sufficiently damaged enemy. This seminal mechanic is intrinsically rather than extrinsically motivated, relying on the idea of ‘looking cool’ being enough motivation for the player, as it is easy to perform but provides little to no real gameplay advantage upon its completion. All the other pieces to the game’s combat are set up to get you to the stage of these animations, rather than having the enemies simply falling over and dying like in other games. Because of this crucial mechanic therefore, the game’s combat feels heavy, sluggish and brutal. You can feel the weight of your blows and each kill feels slow, methodical and vicious, much like war and all its horrors in reality. You can not just fell an enemy in a single strike, you need to pick them apart and often dismember them before the job is done, all within a flashy slow-motion camera. Because of this, the film 300, released six years prior, appears to be the game's greatest influence in style, as the popular Spartan-centric film often acts as many people’s first thought of ancient warfare in popular culture and the resemblance between its cinematography and Ryse’s finisher animations is quite striking.
Despite all this however, the fact remains that in Ryse you will often find yourself fighting five, ten or even twenty men alone. Many historians would argue that the Romans were by far technically and tactically superior to their opponents during the imperial period, however this largely came from the discipline and tactical control of the Roman army and not necessarily from individual fighting prowess. In fact, in reality the Germanic and Britannic tribes depicted in Ryse practised very little besides individual combat and thus as that is the main way you engage them within the game, it ultimately does a disservice to Rome’s true advantage by having you fight battles in the only style that suited the enemy. Nevertheless, despite their numbers, the enemies in Ryse conveniently attack you one at a time, allowing the player to dictate the pace and flow of the action. Although this is wishful thinking, it does somewhat, most likely unintentionally, emulate a key factor of real Roman warfare. Many historians often discuss how the Romans and their opponents had a ‘safety distance’ in which most of the combat between them was fought. Much like a boxing match, the Romans and their enemies would not simply swing away at each other for hours on end, but for much of it attempted to feel out their opponent and stay out of their range, looking for weaknesses and openings. At this safety distance, missiles could be thrown, with some individuals mounting small charges to attack the enemy in hand to hand combat, probably not appearing dissimilar to the combat depicted in Ryse at these points. However, this would usually only last minutes within hours long engagements and thus, by the game having the enemies pace around and encircle you, Ryse somewhat hints to this idea of a safety zone, whilst very much remaining within the bounds of gaming conventions.
With all this in mind, it appears the Ryse takes more inspiration from gaming, cinema and more generally, the mythos surrounding Roman warfare, then it does from any true historical source. Going in with this in mind, there is enjoyment to be had in acting out your Roman warrior fantasies, however for enthusiasts looking for an accurate depiction of combat from this period, this is not the game for you. It seems there is very little truth behind the blood in Ryse: Son of Rome.
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