Ryse: Son of Rome Benchmarked

For the original German article, see here.

Graphics

After creating the stunning visuals that sweep through Crysis 3, Crytek went the extra mile once again for their PC version of Ryse: Son of Rome. Whether the topic of discussion is texture sharpness, polygon count or the quality of effects,  the third-person title is definitely one of the most impressive PC games of all time. With all its exemplary graphics-related features, we would even call it a new gold standard. Even though the levels are programmed rather narrowly and linearly, the scenery often feels spacious.

As well as the pretty and attractively illuminated panoramas, the characters' rich physical detail is also very appealing. Yes, here and there the animations could be a little more believable (in the action genre, Battlefield 4 takes the lead); but it would hardly be possible to find fault with the facial expressions and finishing moves. In general, whether in the well-executed video sequences or in the game scenes, the incredibly realistic nature of the faces is captivating. A veritable torrent of effects (smoke, explosions, falling objects, etc.) intensifies the atmosphere of the battles.

Speaking of battles: Just in terms of gameplay, Ryse failed to sweep us off our feet. Like in the olden days, back when hack-and-slash was popular, the player simply slaughters hordes of dim-witted clones to reach the next mission. Ryse almost never offers any variety. True, depending on the level of difficulty, the combat can certainly be challenging, but in the long run it just is not exciting. The stylistic choreography fails to help much here. The same goes for the unlockable upgrades. Overall, the game feels very repetitive, and except in the Roman settings, somewhat discouraging. It is not without reason that Ryse has been mockingly referred to as a "graphics demo" in the past.

Regardless of that shortcoming, Crytek did a good job converting the game for PC. Overlooking the relatively high load times (HDD) and the not quite perfect controls, there remains little room for criticism. The only thing we do not quite comprehend is the fact that (currently) the texture resolution nearly fills up the video memory - think Watch Dogs, Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor and Wolfenstein: The New Order. While Ryse chooses to use 1024 MB for low details, medium texture settings already hit 1536 MB. High settings here require 2.0 GB VRAM, and the game can only function at maximum details with 3.0 GB.

At least in theory, this is true. Using a cheat, it is possible to set the game to a manual texture quality. Those who wish to make their own decision can open the system.cfg with the editor (Steam\SteamApps\common\Ryse Son of Rome) and add the line sys_spec_TextureResolution = X. The X represents the texture quality level (1 for "Low", 2 for "Medium", 3 for "High" and 4 for "Very High"). The changes were correctly applied in our tests.

Fortunately, Crytek lets the user make his or her own decisions everywhere else. Via the "Graphics Quality" menu item, advanced graphics options can be altered in one go. Since the game is already activated on "Low", temporal anti-aliasing, we modified the presets a little (we deactivated AA for every setting except "Ultra"). Ryse also offers SSAA anti-aliasing, but this option demands an awful lot from the graphics card and brings most notebooks to their knees.