Website Breaks Review Embargo For Ryse: Son Of Rome, Praises The Game

[Update: Ryse review scores are in and reviewers have destroyed it]

“Rules, restrictions, NDAs and embargos be damned. The ad money calleth! Go forth and please the ad overlords, go forth now!!!” is the only thing I can come up with that explains why New Zealand-based site 3News decided to break embargo and print an unsurprisingly positive review of Ryse: Son of Rome for the Xbox One.

3News.co.nz went and did something worse than write a SJW piece, a fanboy article or a misinformed comparative op-ed about resolutions... they broke embargo.

Now some gamers think that there was a slip-up in the editorial room, and someone mistakenly activated the Ryse review a day earlier. It's possible. Others think it was 3News' attempt to join the Doritocracy, a sign of good will; breaking the administration rules to show that they can play by the ad rules. It's possible. Last but not least is the theory that 3News wanted massive hits over everyone else by breaking embargo with the review, and shotgunning ahead of the competition by captivating social media and news aggregates a day early. I don't think that one is likely at all.

Now if you click on the link at this point it'll bring you to an interview between 3News' Daniel Rutledge and Crytek producer Michael Read. However, the original review has already blasted across the great expanse of the interwebs and it cannot be taken back. The original headline is trending on N4G and Reddit right now, and being the upstanding citizen of the digital age that I am, I went ahead and copy and pasted the entire contents of the review so that you're able to read all of it right here on Pastebin. It's free, it's available... right here... on Pastebin. The entire 3News review that breaks embargo, a day before Microsoft's mandated time... right here... on Pastebin.

No worries, 3News, you can thank me later for sharing the review that broke embargo a day early.

Did I mention the review, in its entirety, is available for viewing on Pastebin? Well it is.

Majority of the review is positive and highlights a lot of what gamers are looking forward to from the ancient Rome hack-and-slash-title. Great facial animation. Lots of blood and gore. Plenty of violence. The reviewer even compares this to the PS3's Heavenly Sword, it's just that the ovaries are replaced with testes and there's a lot more mutilation to go around in Ryse.

The thing is, though, is that not all of the review is basked in lilies and strawberry shortcake. The reviewer notes that many of the enemies are samey, writing...

The review glosses over a few other issues that many casual reviewers do, such as bodies floating through objects and clipping (stuff most cores don't care too much about). However, the reviewer points to something in passing that is much more egregious than he gives it credit for.

A far scarier thing mentioned in the review has nothing to do with the technical or mechanical prowess of the game, but with the monetary setup. Apparently players can skip ahead of the actual playing experience to unlock moves and abilities by paying real money for the upgrades, fee-to-play style. Cheat codes are so two generations ago.

The review concludes that the minor technical blips are nothing compared to the overall product and proceeds to give the game a glowing four out of five stars.

Whether Microsoft is happy with the early positive press or not depends on if 3News gets anymore first party games to review. However, Xboners are happy that the very first review – despite breaking the embargo by an entire day – is at least “glowing”.