Crytek’s Ryse: “Mashing To Mastery”

Crytek’s upcoming Xbox One exclusive title “Ryse” featured hack-and-slash gameplay mixed in with QTE cinematic execution kills when it was first shown off at E3. To what extent the combat would be was uncertain at the time, but more recently Gamereactor caught up with design director PJ Estevez to talk more about the game, including its battle system.

"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?”. 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.”"

So it seems like Ryse will be very accessible to newcomers to the game, but will require precise timing and mastery of the game to be able to pull off combinations and more advanced combat. Perhaps Crytek wants people who have little to no experience playing video games be able to enjoy their title without getting frustrated. But if Ryse will put off more seasoned gamers and have them frustrated instead remains to be seen.

Source: Gamereactor via Kotaku