Ryse was a very good game, but people often expect too much from launch titles (Kameo was another victim of those heightened expectations), and it also came out at the time when it was fashionable to put down anything related to Xbox.
It didn't have the deepest combat system, but it was a compelling throwback to the simplicity of classic arcade brawlers, and on the highest difficulty setting it was no pushover.
I especially enjoyed the story, which is not something that I expected from Crytek. There were no monsters or any such fanciful stuff, just a touch of supernatural that made perfect sense in the context of the Roman mythology, along the lines of what we've also seen in Gladiator. The supporting characters were great, I've really come to like Vitallion and Boudica, and the ending was appropriately heroic. Despite of everything, Marius was never painted as a larger than life character, he was just a soldier who was wronged, and who cared more about Rome and what it represented than those ruling it.
A lovely game, and as much as I'd like to play a sequel, it doesn't need one.
