Ryse Promises "Mashing to Mastery"

[Andy Chalk]

Ryse Promises "Mashing to Mastery"

Crytek says the concept of "mashing to mastery" in its upcoming Roman game Ryse means that anyone will be able to play, but there will still be a challenge for those who want to take it on.

The Ryse presentation at E3 didn't exactly knock my socks off and my opinion didn't improve when it came to light that you don't even have to press the correct buttons in order to succeed: As long as you press one of the buttons on the controller in your hand, swords will swing, blood will flow and Roma Victor. It doesn't sound like much fun to me but according to Design Director P.J. Estevez, it's all about accessibility.

"We have this concept we call 'mashing to mastery.' The idea is that anyone can play it and they can mash the buttons and fight, but if you get the right timing you're able to actually master it. Master the reaction you get out of the AI. You worked on the AI, you get them to this executable state and you execute them, and we're like, 'Why does it have to stop there? Why do I have to stop and watch this movie play out?'" Estevez told Game Reactor. "Because we've all played games that have executions and like 30 minutes into them you're like, 'Really, I smash this guys head, then I stab, then I kick him.' So we're like, 'Well, let's continue the flow, let's make it open up a window and let's give guys who want to spend time learning it more of a reward bonus'."

The explanation appears to jibe with what we already know [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/previews/10380-Hands-On-Ryse-Son-of-Rome-Is-Xbox-One-Combat-Devolved] about Ryse, but I can't say that it does much to restore my faith in the property. I'm no fan of QTEs or "press X to murder," but if I can succeed at a videogame by getting my cat to bop the button while I go make a sandwich, it likely won't be long before I start to wonder why I'm bothering.

Ryse is being developed by Crytek as an Xbox One launch title.

Source: Game Reactor [http://www.gamereactor.eu/news/83084/Crytek+on+Ryse%27s+combat%3A+%22mashing+to+mastery%22/?sid=dc8466f30840b4926919916abbb6cfcf]


Permalink

 

[Blindrooster]

Im still a little confused by this. The gameplay made it look kind of awful, however, this kind of makes it sound like God of War. If it plays like God of War that's fine but a game with only scripted QTE's? no thanks.

 

[Phrozenflame500]

So basically they're catering their game to idiots who can only mash buttons.

Welp, I know which game I'm not spending my money on.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Yeah, trying to close the door after the horse has bolted. He can wax lyrical about changing the way games are played, but we already saw the video and it looked pretty rysible to me.

God of War perfected hack-stab-quick time event eight years ago now, this just looked like an awful phto realistic semi-interactive clone.

 

[TiberiusEsuriens]

I'm no fan of QTEs or "press X to murder," but if I can succeed at a videogame by getting my cat to bop the button while I go make a sandwich, it likely won't be long before I start to wonder why I'm bothering.

The key difference here is that there is a BIG difference between being "easy to play" and "impossible to lose."

If you don't want someone to fail a QTE, instead of removing all possible fail conditions try making the win condition super specific. Make it so that if you hit [Y] instead of [X] your character still swings, but the blade is deflected or misses and then the prompt is displayed again.

It sounds silly and may still be considered 'pandering to casuals' but the end result is entirely different. Instead of having the player feel cheated of death, or even cheated of a satisfying final blow, suddenly each and every QTE puts the player in a position where he's desperately trying to land that final blow. If the player sucks the QTE doesn't cheat him and they feel more satisfied after finishing it. As the player gets better the QTEs will become almost non-apparent, leaving a sense of player progression.

It might not be a perfect fix (as it's still a QTE) but it wouldn't require many deep changes to the gameplay engine and make the game itself at least marginally better.

 

[KOMega]

Im still a little confused by this. The gameplay made it look kind of awful, however, this kind of makes it sound like God of War. If it plays like God of War that's fine but a game with only scripted QTE's? no thanks.

Sounds to me like God of War + Heavy Rain.

Maybe if we mash the buttons juuuuuust right. We'll find the Origami Killer... with our murderous army of Roman soldiers.
Spoiler: Mars is the Origami Killer.

 

[TiberiusEsuriens]

Im still a little confused by this. The gameplay made it look kind of awful, however, this kind of makes it sound like God of War. If it plays like God of War that's fine but a game with only scripted QTE's? no thanks.

Sounds to me like God of War + Heavy Rain.

Maybe if we mash the buttons juuuuuust right. We'll find the Origami Killer... with our murderous army of Roman soldiers.
Spoiler: Mars is the Origami Killer.

I think the difference between GoW and Ryse is that GoW QTEs were only available to the biggest of enemies, and only as finishers after a long, grueling, satisfying fight. In many ways they were a reprieve, as they gave the player health back during a brief moment of invulnerability. In the Ryse demo EVERY weak soldierling after 1 or 2 melee hits was dispatched with a QTE.

They were highly tolerable in GoW, only being complained about when there were too many mandatory ones in quick succession. Our minds (and fingers) became numb. Ryse seems to have listened to these complaints and then done exactly that.

 

[rasputin0009]

So what's the point of mastering it if you already win by mashing? Just for a "cooler" kill? Ya, that wouldn't get old fast...

Honestly, when I first saw the beginning of the trailer, I was so fucking excited for it. But when I saw the hovering buttons, I was turned off pretty quick. Like, my penis shriveled up into my body, turned off.

What a waste of such a cool IP.

 

[BrotherRool]

Maybe they realised the genius of the FFX-2 levelling system and realised they needed to get in on that sweet action

Spoiler

Im still a little confused by this. The gameplay made it look kind of awful, however, this kind of makes it sound like God of War. If it plays like God of War that's fine but a game with only scripted QTE's? no thanks.

Sounds to me like God of War + Heavy Rain.

Maybe if we mash the buttons juuuuuust right. We'll find the Origami Killer... with our murderous army of Roman soldiers.
Spoiler: Mars is the Origami Killer.

EDIT: The following rant became something that totally didn't match up with your tone or comment, sorry =D I guess I trigger easy on people joking about Heavy Rain being a button masher. It's not as bad as dev's who think they can go to QTE's and don't realise you need to put a ton of thought and time into it to make even close to good when we've got Heavy Rain as a comparison

It sounds nothing like Heavy Rain =D Heavy Rain's innovations were that if you don't press the right buttons you don't gameover and the cutscene doesn't keep on going. Instead it changes and the story changes with it. You sucked at pressing that button so the thief clobbered you in the face and now you've got to desperately try to glass him with a bottle or it's all going to be over. You succeed at hitting him with the bottle but now you've got to try and choke him and you couldn't sustain the action for long enough and the fights back to level footing and then the thief pulls off all the stops and knocks you on the arse and now your character is dead and the story has to continue without that person being alive.

Also the dedication that went into selecting Heavy Rain button presses was incredible, I don't know how they did it, but they worked out exactly which buttons on the controller make your brain feel like you're trying to climb over a barbed wire fence, or how pressing square can feel like hyperventilating before trying to chop your finger off. Whereas the Ryse guys seem to be more on the level of 'X is a button right?'

From what I understand in Ryse your basically watching an animatin sequence of a guy fight soldiers for the entire game (with you getting to move with your analogue stick from sequence to sequence!) and if you don't press the right buttons you get slightly less XP at the end.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Ya all I've seen sofar from it is kinect bollocks and QTE horse shit, I'm sure the combo is super exciting and most of all challenging... ones sanity.

 

[Arslan Aladeen]

I just read the kotaku article about the writers experience playing the game. Talking about how he hit the button prompt late and got the kill execution, intentionally hit the wrong button, got the execution, and then put the controller down and got the execution. He asked the dev and he said it was all in the name of preventing the player from feeling frustrated.

Here's the link: http://www.kotaku.com.au/2013/06/why-ryse-is-the-most-frustrating-game-of-e3/

 

[mirage202]

Now I finally know what it takes to make a game featuring Romans a bad one. Crytek.

So many possibilities could have been explored when letting the player be a Legate but no, QTE's all the way folks that is after all what gamers want right?

 

[KOMega]

heavy rain snip

Heavy rain is not a button masher, but I would say it is a series of quick time events.
If you fail a quick time event, a different event happens, I get that. But it is mostly a series of quick time events.

Being the only one of it's kind I know of and it being widely acclaimed, just as god of war is for it's brutality and bloody murder gore fest, it fell victim to my attempt at light hearted humor.

I apologize if you feel strongly about Heavy Rain.

Fun Fact: I believe Mars is the Roman god of war.

I just read the kotaku article about the writers experience playing the game. Talking about how he hit the button prompt late and got the kill execution, intentionally hit the wrong button, got the execution, and then put the controller down and got the execution. He asked the dev and he said it was all in the name of preventing the player from feeling frustrated.

Here's the link: http://www.kotaku.com.au/2013/06/why-ryse-is-the-most-frustrating-game-of-e3/

That is hilarious XD
Perhaps Ryse will become a work of art, a satire on games built upon the buzzwords that are used to describe games.

 

[Grabehn]

Wait... "Mashing to mastery"? So it IS only QTEs! FUUUUUUUUUUCK YOU.

 

[kailus13]

"'Well, let's continue the flow, let's make it open up a window and let's give guys who want to spend time learning it more of a reward bonus'."

I have no idea what this is meant to mean. What window? And what "reward bonuses" does he mean, 'cause if it's just achievements then it doesn't really sound enticing.

 

[dalek sec]

I just read the kotaku article about the writers experience playing the game. Talking about how he hit the button prompt late and got the kill execution, intentionally hit the wrong button, got the execution, and then put the controller down and got the execution. He asked the dev and he said it was all in the name of preventing the player from feeling frustrated.

Here's the link: http://www.kotaku.com.au/2013/06/why-ryse-is-the-most-frustrating-game-of-e3/

So I could say fire the game up and have my sister's two pugs play it for me?

I'm just kidding of course, they'd be bored to tears and I wouldn't be buying an Xbone anyways. So what's the bloody point of buying this game? You don't even have to play it to win.

 

[Mr.Pandah]

Sounds like a fantastic movie.

 

[BrotherRool]

heavy rain snip

Heavy rain is not a button masher, but I would say it is a series of quick time events.
If you fail a quick time event, a different event happens, I get that. But it is mostly a series of quick time events.

Being the only one of it's kind I know of and it being widely acclaimed, just as god of war is for it's brutality and bloody murder gore fest, it fell victim to my attempt at light hearted humor.

I am sorry about that, the post got completely away with me. Did you see my edit, once I realised how irrelevant it was I wasn't sure if I should remove it or not and I think removing it would have been the better call

 

[RicoADF]

I just read the kotaku article about the writers experience playing the game. Talking about how he hit the button prompt late and got the kill execution, intentionally hit the wrong button, got the execution, and then put the controller down and got the execution. He asked the dev and he said it was all in the name of preventing the player from feeling frustrated.

Here's the link: http://www.kotaku.com.au/2013/06/why-ryse-is-the-most-frustrating-game-of-e3/

Thats quite bad, seriously whats the point then if they make it that easy...

OT: First thought "Ok.... I've seen some dumbed down games but that takes the cake...."
*notices its a XBone game*
Second thought "Well that explains it"