The Xbox One is probably the most reviled console prior to its launch. There's never been such a massive media backlash against a console during the pre-console war launch the way it's been for Microsoft's next generation home entertainment device. Well, all that hate has boiled over into affecting public perception on the games for the Xbox One... including Crytek's Ryse: Son of Rome.
Crytek has had to play defense – along with every single Microsoft employee working on the Xbox brand – as the public has not warmed up to Ryse following its next-gen debut at E3. According to Crytek, however, the game is not the way it was shown at E3 and it's not just a QTE (or quick-time event) button mash-fest... there is substance to the style.
Gaming Bolt caught word from Crytek's Mike Read, who is the producer for Ryse: Son of Rome, where Read stated that...
“After E3, we took note of the response to it and felt that we could have done a better job in explaining where we were going with the combat systems. We feel that coming into Gamescom last month helped to dispel some of the negative views people had on what we presented with regards the ‘game playing itself’ or being ‘nothing but a series of QTE’s”.
For those of you unfamiliar with the term, Quick-Time Events refer to instances where a game has a cinematic sequence that requires button presses from the player to correspond with on-screen prompts. It's a little like a giant on-screen tutorial where they tell you what to press and when. The main problem with QTEs is that you're not really playing the game per se, given that failure to complete a QTE usually ends the sequence or requires a redo. In short, QTEs make gamers feel like control is being stripped away from them and the whole point of an interactive game is to exhibit some element of control over the play experience, hence the controversy over Beyond: Two Souls.
What's more, according to Read, Ryse is not a movie in disguise as a game; it's a game that's a game.
This isn't the first time Ryse has come under fire for its supposed reliance on QTEs as a game-reliant mechanic. While newer multiplayer videos of the action showcased a lot of QTE-less gameplay, it was still tough to tell how the single-player content would be by comparison.
Still, it feels as if a lot of the news and content revolving around Xbox One games and the system itself are always about downgrades and defense. Microsoft may just as well have named it the Xbox D&D Edition... the special limited collector's bundle could have arrived with a specially signed plaque from Don Mattrick on how to use reputation management to tarnish a brand name, as well as a Steve Ballmer ball cap that reads: Destroying the Xbox name... one reversal at a time.
Despite being signed on with the wrong console manufacturer this time around, Crytek is doing what they can to salvage what little they can for their game and their company's name. On the upside, they at least have the community project, Timesplitters: Rewind in the works that has garnered tons of positive press and a strong following of gamers who can't wait to play the game... on the PlayStation 4.
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