Xbox One’s Ryse features combat with ‘rhythm and flow’

Developer Ctrytek is nearing completion of its Xbox One launch game Ryse: Son of Rome, and the studio is taking some time to explain the development path it took for the historical action game.

Ryse senior producer Brian Chambers and design director Patrick Esteves wrote a post for Microsoft’s Xbox Wire news service that explains how the company prototypes the game and ended up shifting it from first-person for Xbox 360 to third-person for Xbox One. The developers also explained the “rhythm and flow” of its combat system.

“Combat in Ryse was built to feel good,” Chambers and Esteves wrote. “Each action flows seamlessly in an out of each other. [The hero] is not some brute that hacks his way through combat. He is a virtuoso with his sword and shield, moving from enemy to enemy with precise and calculated blows.”

Ryse, which is due in November alongside the Xbox One, follows the adventures of highly skilled Roman general Marius Titus. As Titus, players face enemies on his own and with squads of legionaries. Crytek wants Marius to feel like a trained and organized fighter.

“Flow [is] important to us,” the developers wrote. “We wanted the player to be able to set up his opponents and viciously plow through them one after another with limited to no beats in between. The better the flow the player can pull off, the higher the rewards.”

It’s all about timing in the real-time combat as well as Ryse’s quick-time events that prompt the player to press certain buttons at precise moments.

Crytek also released the following video that shows it developing the combat system: