Ryse combat designed around 'rhythm and flow,' says Crytek

Crytek's shift from first-person to third-person for Ryse: Son of Rome led the studio to build a timing-based combat system, the studio wrote in an Xbox Wire blog post today.

Marius Titus, the protagonist of Ryse, is a skilled Roman warrior, and Crytek wanted to make him look like one. "Flow was important to us; we wanted the player to be able to set up his opponents and viscously plow through them one after another with limited to no beats in between," wrote senior producer Brian Chambers and design director Patrick Esteves. "The better the flow the player can pull off, the higher the rewards."

If you maintain your timing with each strike or block, Titus will move and kill enemies more quickly. In a group of enemies, one kill will end with Titus facing toward the next foe, ready to attack. This culminates in Ryse's vicious execution moves, which will give you rewards such as experience points and damage boosts. Titus can also use a special ability, focus, to slow down time for executions.

You can check out more details on Ryse's combat in the developer diary below and in our Gamescom video preview. Ryse: Son of Rome will be an Xbox One launch title.