➤ Centurions in 4k 🎮

The debate that was unleashed after the arrival in the stores of Ryse: Son of Rome was one of the most heated among those that accompanied the launch of Xbox One, either because of the enormous hopes placed in this project due to its magnificent sector. technical, you want for the more general fibrillation to finally put the new next-gen consoles in the living room. The result was a fluctuating title that failed to combine visual magnificence with gameplay and a game structure at the height, necessary to involve the player by taking him by the hand in the whirlwind succession of fights that would have brought him into contact with environments to breathtaking views. After seeing it for the first time in Cologne at the last GamesCom, the time has finally come to express ourselves definitively on the PC version of the action developed by Crytek, for years the undisputed master when it comes to pure digital aesthetics. However, we are not so sure that a version of Ryse: Son of Rome including all four DLCs published so far and a series of technical implementations aimed at improving its already considerable visual impact are worth the price of the ticket. After having thoroughly stripped it by whipping our trusty PC workstation, we came out with a satisfied eye, but we cannot deny that various aspects of the production have left us very perplexed.

Did time and PC optimizations benefit Ryse after his lukewarm Xbox One debut?

Story of revenge

The Rome of Nero in which Ryse is set is held in check by hordes of angry barbarians who desire nothing more than the destruction of the despotic and oppressive Empire, which for too many years has put neighboring peoples to fire and sword to expand its borders . Once he invaded the streets of the capital, it was up to Marius Titus, a young general of the army, to take care of the protection of the Emperor in an attempt to keep his promise not to make Rome capitulate at any price, not even that of his own life.

That of Marius is in fact a story of revenge, marked by the massacre of his family by some mercenaries and by the oath to claim their death at any cost, even hunt down the executioners at the end of the world, if necessary. This ploy allows developers to vary environments, from imperial Rome to stormy coasts and lush and withered forests, linking everything with a series of rather mundane cinematics that act as a weak glue to the campaign missions. There are intrigue, friendship, betrayal and a hint of the supernatural in Ryse's narrative, though it lacks the twists worthy of the name as well as greater characterization of the characters., to be remembered more for their technical realization rather than for the actual narrative contribution. The supporting actors are anonymous in their roles and dialogues, but it is expressions and animations that raise them from the role of simple extras, making them express anger, hatred, fear and suffering, giving depth to antagonists who with their lewd and contemptuous ways make themselves hated more for how they appear that for what they express. The fights are brutal, rending and mutilation are wasted, as well as epic scenes of sieges and shipwrecks embellished with a game engine that gives a majesty, a depth of field and a detail so engaging that it arouses constant wonder in the player's eyes. It is precisely on this dualism that the game of Ryse: Son of Rome is played: an engine so advanced and amazing that it stimulates the player's interest in proceeding in the main campaign, as opposed to an anonymous and easily forgotten narrative and game structure.

The gladius of the gods

Once the pad has been gripped, the title shows its side to a whole series of flaws that push in the opposite direction to the aforementioned technical merits. The Ryse combat system proves to be deficient from many points of view, first of all a basic repetitiveness that undermines its depth in its entirety. Trying to imitate other exponents of the genre, Crytek proposes a fluid and seamless combat system, with our centurion moving agile between enemies, alternating swings, dodges and shield parries. The pressure of the attack keys remains staid and never too frenetic, more focused on timing rather than on the player's ability to ring complex combos, returning the excellent sense of heaviness given by the bulky Roman armor.

Once a certain number of hits have been scored, the executions are unlocked, which will trigger a short quick time event after which Marius will enjoy a more or less substantial increase in damage, experience, fury or health, based on the selected perk using the directional buttons. The better the timing with which we press the correct keys, the greater the bonus received, with the only big problem being that this is awarded even if we don't even get the right one. Once the execution has started, the result will always be the same: enemy dead and bonus received, with the result of excessively facilitating the battles ensuring that you are almost never left in reserve of energy. The command mapping work done on the keyboard is excellent, but we confirm what was written in the preview phase: abandoning it for a pad in our view remains the preferable option. To alternate the hand-to-hand combat, there are short situations in which Marius leads a handful of soldiers to make his way through specific sections of the levels, using the tortoise formation to shelter from the rain of enemy incendiary arrows and throwing javelins together. to his fellow soldiers to the hostiles posted on the heights. Also in this case, everything turns out to be tremendously banal and uninvolving, above all due to the absence of any strategic ambition resulting from narrow and linear environments where the platoon moves firmly on tracks. To vary the formula in an almost completely unexpected way we think the multiplayer with the Gladiator mode, set inside the Colosseum in a succession of scenarios that change wave after wave. Before going down to the Arena it is necessary to ask the favor of one of the four available gods, who in exchange give only one of the four perks used in the campaign, forcing us to make a choice that will inevitably influence our fighting style. We can be more aggressive and focus on damage or more conservative by choosing vital regeneration, the fact is that the situation is destined to become complicated in a short time, whether you are alone or accompanied online by a friend. Similarly to the single player you will need to earn experience points and credits to level up your character and buy weapons, equipment and healing potions with which to upgrade to survive in the ten available environments. With five additional skins and more than ten new maps, it is multiplayer that enjoys the most of this new edition of Ryse: Son of Rome, which is similar to the Xbox One version on the single player front, but decidedly richer in its multiplayer declination thanks to the presence of all four DLCs related to the Crytek production. Despite the new contents, however, the defects of a shallow and engaging combat system re-emerge rather quickly, accompanied by the reduced variety of enemies that in a short time tire the player forcing him to abandon the pad after having feasted his eyes in front of such great beauty. visual.

PC System Requirements

Test Setup

Processor: Intel i7-4770K
Memory: 8 GB of RAM
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670

Minimum requirements

Processor: Dual core with HyperThreading or quad core: at least Intel Core i3 at 2.8 Ghz or AMD Phenom II X4 at 3.2 GHz
Memory: 4 GB of RAM
Video Card: DirectX 11 compatible and 1GB RAM: at least NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 or AMD Radeon HD 7770
Operating system: Windows 64-bit (Vista, 7, 8)

Recommended Requirements

Processor: Quad core or Six core: at least Intel Core i5 at 3.3 GhZ or AMD FX-6350 at 4.9 GHz
Memory: 8 GB of RAM
Video Card: DirectX 11 compatible and 2GB RAM: at least NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660Ti or AMD Radeon 260x / 7850

Something extra

Ultimately, we just have to point out what you all surely already know: Crytek has polished its jewel in the splendor of 4K which, provided you have adequate components available, will give rise to a truly extraordinary visual spectacle. Taking advantage of the talent of its developers and the natural inclination towards the PC environment, the Teutonic software house has managed to put in the player's hands an extremely complex and performing CryEngine, but no less optimized.

Although the graphic assets are the same, the greater detail offered compared to the Xbox One version is palpable right from the start, with a cleaner image accompanied by lighting and volumetric effects that give greater involvement and realism to the game scenes. The rain during the storm, the fire that blazes, the lens flare of a sunset over the capital are a real joy for the eyes. With our test configuration, we had no problems enjoying Ryse in maximum detail: with an anisotropic filter at 16x and leaving out the Supersampling, we played quietly in Full HD without experiencing any drops whatsoever from the graphics engine, always granite above 30. frames per second. It should be noted that among the settings there are two separate options for managing the resolution, one dedicated to rendering, and one instead of the number of actual pixels sent to the screen.. In this way, by keeping the resolution of the monitor fixed, we can ask the graphics engine to render the title at a lower resolution and then upscale the final image, in order to gain valuable leeway to recover some frames making the game experience. smoother and more stable. If you want to aim for UltraHD it is instead necessary to go to high-end hardware, with Crytek even recommending an Intel Core i7 2700K or AMD FX-8350 processor accompanied by NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 or Titan video card as an alternative to the AMD Radeon 290X . Not bad, to whip our wallet too.

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The PC version of Ryse: Son of Rome has not betrayed expectations, both positively and negatively. Playing it we had confirmation of the absolute goodness of the conversion and optimization work done by Crytek, as well as the presence of those ancestral problems that made us turn up our noses at the launch on Xbox One almost a year ago. The combat system is confirmed as dull and uninvolving, as well as a barely sketched narrative that stands up only thanks to the majesty of epic scenarios and brutal fights masterfully made with the portentous CryEngine. If you have never played Ryse, the reduced launch price and the presence of all the DLCs are a great reason to think about it. Similarly, if you have the means to be able to enjoy it in 4K, make it yours without too many second thoughts: after all, the eye always wants its part.