Things aren't looking too hot for Ryse, the Roman Empire action game and Xbox One exclusive slated for later this year.
Our down-under buddies at Kotaku Australia panned the game when they saw it at E3 this year. And now... well, speaking to GameReactor, Ryse design director PJ Estevez paints a bleak picture of gameplay in Crytek's newest game.
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.
Does "mashing to mastery" sound appealing to you? Because to me it sounds less like a video game and more like a recipe for really good potatoes.