Ryse: Microsoft addresses combat, ‘it’s not unlike Batman or Ninja Gaiden’

X360: Ryse: Son Of Rome drops Kinect in favour of the Xbox One’s control pad, but what about the heavy use of QTEs? We chat to Microsoft’s design director, Jake Epps to find out a bit more about Ryse.

[Xwow2008]

Is it me or this game was a QTE spam?

[Dailynch]

It's not you, that's exactly what it was.

[xHeavYx]

I wonder if there is a character named Jason, and you have to press X at some point to yell his name

[CaEsAr-]

Such a shame. It was good before I saw the QTE.

[SuperLupe]

Game looked fantastic, looking forward to it.

QTE or no QTE you guys would have bashed it anyway.

You're the same kind of people in that are the PS+ threads saying how genius it is of Sony for now making us pay to play online. In otherwords your opinion means sh!t.

[I_am_Batman]

The graphics are phenomenal. But I'm not a fan of Crytek cause all they want is to sell their engine. They aren't passionate about their games as many other devs are. I think it will be an ok game with great visuals as always.

[greenpowerz]

Rise is not a QTE game. The devs in a interview yesterday said thopse QTE were *finishing moves* and the dev played the game like that because of the time limitations.

They said you can play the game like a hack-n slash, so to speak.

There will be a skill system and perk system unlocking new fighting skills if you play the game without QTE.

They said they speeded up the gameplay and played it like that for time reasons. They said it takes a lot more effort and time to kill in the game normally.

This game is sick

That wasn't QTE, that was real time with the dev choosing to kill the enimies like that to kill them fast for the on stage demo allowed time.

It is no diferent if a fictional demo of Battelfield 4 demo were being shown running around behind bad guys Knifing them to speed up the demo(if that was being shown)Rise is just more dynamic that way.

[UnHoly_One]

They are execution moves, not QTE's.

If you actually pay attention to the gameplay video, you'll notice the button prompts only appeared over an enemy's head after he hit them a few times, not unlike every other game that has some sort of finishing move on weakened enemies. Take Darksiders for instance.

After the execution started, yes, some of the executions had an additional button press or two to finish it out, so that part does appear to be QTE.

There were also multiple enemy executions, as well.

If you watch, there are two points in the video where he weakens one guy, who then has a "B" button above his head, then weakens another one at the same time. You see two guys at once with a "B" floating above them, then he initiates the execution and kills both guys.

So no, the entire combat isn't QTE, just the executions.

[shutUpAndTakeMyMoney]

Looked good but then got boring to me.

I think it's still a kinect game but with controller options.

[marinelife9]

It looks shallow and the animations looked off. I don't think it's going to review well but I still thought it was pretty cool.

[ThatsGaming]

QTE's were just finishers. I'm sure you can just continue hacking and slashing with finishing in style.

[despair]

looked fun for a while, loved the shield and spear bit. But it will get boring fast if that's the core of the gameplay.

[RM-TatoTiburon]

the people bashing this game likes heavy rain?

[jetlian]

and you know they gonna praise beyond two souls lol. Sony got my money this time but I'll go on record and say XBO has the better exclusives so far

This looks cool I wish MS would get rid of the kinect having to be plugged in.

[Docknoss]

Its not QTE its execusions moves

[Gimmemorebubblez]

The premiss and graphics are great, but all that QTE....hopefully it plays better than it looked at MS's show.

[-Mika-]

Ya, hopefully their an option to turn it off or they atleast lessened it abit.

[SageHonor]

I think this is the first time I've ever seen you with more likes than dislikes. lol

[elhebbo16]

So its like Batman or Ninja Gaiden? was that hard to say?

[strigoi814]

Coz its a kinect game

[Foxgod]

Nope, you dont need to use kinect to play it.

[Foxgod]

They may be QTE's, but they do look pretty dynamic, not sure if this is my kind of game tho, but il follow it.

[Alos88]

What exactly makes a QTE "dynamic"? What would that even mean? There's not a lot of scope for quality for what basically comes down to "press x to not die".

[Baka-akaB]

Because batman and ninja gaiden are remotely similar maybe ? The game is interesting , despite the qte fest ,(hey i could play through asura's wrath and enjoy it , so i can deal with it) but lets tone down the PR

[EffectO]

They should ease up a little on QTE,otherwise it looks great.

[first1NFANTRY]

you can tell it was a kinnect game with the constant QTE's. They changed it at the last minute but the gameplay seems very on rails.

[sypher]

You could see it was a Kinect game a fair way into development. Because all the things they showed;
- Slow motion QTE's after every fight for the player to do movement on the sensor
- Linear path, most likely it was on rails before

It feels very much a Kinect game now using the controller and it shows. Also its Crytek, they aren't exactly not for stellar game play.

Pretty things yes, game play? no.

[forcefullpower]

You are bang on right. All they did was swap out the hand gestures for QTE event and make you able to move your character around with the joy pad. This game will get crap reviews when its release with comments of just on rail with lots of QTE.

[etownone]

Shame how people bashing this game...

Imo, it looked pretty effing epic.

Still not sure about Xbox One anymore

[jronj]

It did look epic until I saw the QTE, I'd still probably play it but QTE kills immersion in games...

[Hufandpuf]

What about God of war then?

[InTheLab]

@hufanpuf

God of War has actual combat and qte are mostly reserved for mini bosses or stage bosses....not EVERY enemy in the game.

[Morgue]

Watched the video last night and first off I'd like too say meh. Nice Saving Private Ryan rip off there and it seemed like it wanted to be Russell Crowe from Gladiator.

[Shane Kim]

Hehehe saving private ryan is exactly what popped into my mind when he was by the water and that armless dude was running around.

Anyway, it seems ok...but it will probably be a Lair or Haze.

[plaZeHD]

But it could have been better if the combat was like in the Arkham series.

[DragonPs4]

I like the game

[tarbis]

This game looks good. I can give them that.

[Veni Vidi Vici]

I personally can't stand QTE's. To me, they're a way for the dev to be lazy.

My question is, why didn't people say anything about Heavy Rain and it's use of QTE's? I'd seriously like to know. I've brought it up in the past and got bashed to oblivion for it.

[Zechs34]

IMO, the QTE's in Heavy Rain were within the context of the game, they never got mundane or repetitive, and they had both pressure and time based QTE's (Finger scene)which fit in perfectly.

This game kind of has the same kill animations over and over and you need the same QTE pattern for them all... :/

[Veni Vidi Vici]

IMO, QTE's are QTE's. You can spin them anyway you like but they are all essentially the same thing. They flash something on the screen that tells you what to press and you have to do it as quickly as you can. I find nothing about them to be entertaining. I couldn't last more than 45 minutes with Heavy Rain because of how much they used them. The story may have been great but that's all a moot point because of how boring and repetitive QTE's are to me. And yes, the QTE's in Heavy Rain were mundane and repetitive- at least to me they were.

[McScroggz]

It's hard to quantify, but for me the QTE's in Heavy Rain somehow managed to add a nice bit of tension. On paper it sounds terrible, but I found it to be kind of cool. More than understand those that hate the gameplay, however.

[Killustrious]

This is honestly the one game at Microsoft's conference I was like "Man, this looks pretty cool"...then I saw the gameplay. I feel like this is Microsoft's "answer" to God of War or something and that may be a reason for all the QTE's. If the fighting was more fluid and less scripted looking it would honestly look like a great game, I love warrior-esque games.

[green]

To be honest, I fail to see any resemblance between Ryse and God of War.

[Killustrious]

Besides the fact that they're both Greek/Roman warrior type games that are 3rd person action and seem to be gory......I guess not lol

But in a sense you're right. This is obviously going for more of a realistic approach then God of War because compared to the gameplay of God of War, this looks pretty bland.

[Zechs34]

Look good, but way too many QTE's just to see the same repeated animation over and over. Needs more variety, Looks like a game that will rinse and repeat the mission over and over.

[McScroggz]

If Ryse has combat similar to the Arkham games, they certainly didn't show it. The gameplay looked like a boring, QTE fest and the blocking arrows/spamming infinite spears looked weird juxtaposed to the pretty darn good looking, fairly realistic art style.

Overall Microsoft's press conference was pretty strong and streamlined, but Ryse looked very disappointing.

[urwifeminder]

Love the look of this game cant wait to see more troop interaction it was so cinematic just a joy really.

[r21]

Loved the Roman setting and having your own army to command but so many QTEs popping up everywhere during combat will get annoying very fast. Get rid of QTEs and it should be good.

[despair]

I actually liked how it looks, from what I've read its just single button prompt to kill people and if you mess up its still works just less xp gained. I like that approach but I hope they have an option to turn off some of the prompts. The game has potential but if its just funnelling you through automatic corridors (on rails basically) I will be disappointed as I get bored of those very quickly.

[SpinalRemains]

Looked like a glorified qte action game. Completely destroying the flow.

Every fight resembled a boss battle lol.

[RM-TatoTiburon]

i didn't see so much hate with heavy rain...why?

[InTheLab]

You actually do see a lot of hate with Heavy Rain. People are turned off by large amounts of QTEs but in HR's case, it was a new experience and not a Hack n Slash that's lite on the hack and slash.

[from the beach]

Looks awesome even with that spammy, God of War-ish combat. Definitely won't be like Ninja Gaiden though..

[AllThingsShining]

Jury's still out for me. I liked the setting and everything but yeah the constant QTEs were off-putting. I'll be interested to see how the command system works, or if there'll even be one and it's just script-based commands. Would be cool leading a legion through invasions of Britain, like here, and maybe Gaul.

[dcbronco]

Looks like it to me. I was completely turned off. I hate QTEs.

[Master of Unlocking]

Who's making that game? Crytek? Then it will only be a timed exclusive.

Looked kinda cool, I could do with more games based on ancient Rome. To me it was pretty much the only interesting game they had on MS's press conference (with MGS V of course, but that was never intended to be an exclusive)