Pros: Eh, it's a quasi-historical fighting game that will introduce you to some names you might otherwise be unfamiliar with. The graphics aren't bad for a game seven, eight years old.

Cons: Camera controls suck. They're hardly there and the camera will bounce around on you without warning and for no perceptible reason, sometimes causing your combat cues to be missed, like during an execution. Bosses have specific patterns for beating that as soon as you figure them out you just repeat endlessly until the boss is dead. The story isn't great.

Other thoughts: I quit playing this for years because I reached a spot where I could no longer progress. Traps were repeatedly killing me in one specific spot. I figured it was a bugged trap and researched it but found nothing. Ragequit and left.

After a few years at this point of trying to get through my Steam backlog, I'm at the point of going through games based on install size and Ryse finally came up. Not really wanting to replay it but wanting to finish the story, I gave it a try, but I had to relearn the controls.

Turns out the problem before was my controls got changed on me MID GAME SESSION. Specifically, the button that destroys the traps when they spring so they don't insta-kill me. After realizing this the game was a breeze to finish.

Further con, though: I don't remember what I played the game on before or how well it ran but I'm using a GTX 2060, with 32 GB of DDR4 and it's on an NVMe SSD. Framerates are janky as hell when I've got it on MINIMUM settings, anywhere from 27-60 FPS (capped) while the camera is not moving and I'm looking at soldiers standing at attention. Compare that to the same system running Max Max, which came out two years later: 60 FPS solid, max everything. Old games shouldn't run worse on new hardware that's years beyond what was available at launch.

Pros: Eh, it's a quasi-historical fighting game that will introduce you to some names you might otherwise be unfamiliar with. The graphics aren't bad for a game seven, eight years old. Cons: Camera controls suck. They're hardly there and the camera will bounce around on you without warning and for no perceptible reason, sometimes causing your combat cues to be missed, like during an execution. Bosses have specific patterns for beating that as soon as you figure them out you just repeat endlessly until the boss is dead. The story isn't great. Other thoughts: I quit playing this for years because I reached a spot where I could no longer progress. Traps were repeatedly killing me in one specific spot. I figured it was a bugged trap and researched it but found nothing. Ragequit and left. After a few years at this point of trying to get through my Steam backlog, I'm at the point of going through games based on install size and Ryse finally came up. Not really wanting to replay it but wanting to finish the story, I gave it a try, but I had to relearn the controls. Turns out the problem before was my controls got changed on me MID GAME SESSION. Specifically, the button that destroys the traps when they spring so they don't insta-kill me. After realizing this the game was a breeze to finish. Further con, though: I don't remember what I played the game on before or how well it ran but I'm using a GTX 2060, with 32 GB of DDR4 and it's on an NVMe SSD. Framerates are janky as hell when I've got it on MINIMUM settings, anywhere from 27-60 FPS (capped) while the camera is not moving and I'm looking at soldiers standing at attention. Compare that to the same system running Max Max, which came out two years later: 60 FPS solid, max everything. Old games shouldn't run worse on new hardware that's years beyond what was available at launch.