When comparing Ryse: Son of Rome vs Mad Max, the Slant community recommends Mad Max for most people. In the question“What are the best games with freeflow brawler combat on Steam?” Mad Max is ranked 3rd while Ryse: Son of Rome is ranked 4th. The most important reason people chose Mad Max is:
While there are fighting sections of the game where Max is on foot, the most exciting and fun to play sections are where Max is driving. Having a grappling hook to hook onto enemies while driving is a very fun thing to do as well as using it to pull down buildings and structures and this is just one of the elements of driving that makes all the driving parts stand out.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Superb graphics
Ryse: Son of Rome has fantastic, realistic looking graphics. It was ahead of the curve in 2013 and still is up there with the best today.
Pro Freeflow brawler combat
The combat system in Ryse: Son of Rome is very familiar to people who have played Arkham games, Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor or Mad Max. Usually, the player is outnumbered by enemies who take turns attacking. So the player has a basic attack, a parry/block move, a defense/shield breaking move and a combat roll that serves as a universal evade. Successful hits are counted in a hit chain, that after a certain number allows the player to reach an enraged buff state called "burning eagle". This freeflow brawler combat system, also often referred to as Arkham combat, makes it very suitable to play with a controller.
Pro Vehicle combat is the best part of the game
While there are fighting sections of the game where Max is on foot, the most exciting and fun to play sections are where Max is driving. Having a grappling hook to hook onto enemies while driving is a very fun thing to do as well as using it to pull down buildings and structures and this is just one of the elements of driving that makes all the driving parts stand out.
Pro Fun sandbox
The game is based around being an open world sandbox where the player is free to do anything they like.
Cons
Con Repetitive
Make sure you love the combat system, because that's pretty much all you'll be doing throughout the game. It's a linear game with nice cinematic sequences, but in the end, you just move from place to place slashing up a bunch of copy paste mobs. The variety in this game consists of things like throwing pilums at archers, operating a ballista, advancing in formation with troops (including quick time button presses for blocking arrows and throwing pilums) or trying not to walk on traps etcetera.
Con PC port is not well optimized
Even people who have a powerful gaming PC to today's standards experience some stuttering in the framerate at some points.
Con No sense of urgency
While all of the gameplay takes place in a wasteland, there is no real sense of immediacy as the player is not ever going to starve or run out of water. This can pull the player out of the game due to not being very realistic and is pretty much geared towards keeping the game easy for casual players. Surviving in a wasteland should be tough, sadly it is not that difficult to do here.
Con Simplistic combat
Just as in other WB games the combat is simple and easy where in the player hits buttons timed with what button ques are flashing above an enemies head. Realistically one could just bash two buttons and make it through the games fights pretty easily.