There seems to be little consensus as to similar titles to compare scores. From the sounds of it, Ryse plays like the PS2 LOTR games. Is this accurate?
I've never played PS2 LOTR games, but I suppose the primary difference -technology aside- is that the controls are kind of QTE events in Ryse, at times.... for finishing moves. You are attacking using several buttons and when the guy has low health an icon with a button press (A, B, X, Y... whatever) appears. If you fail no finishing move is performed.
Other than that you play it like any other hack and slash, beat'em up most of the time, no QTEs.
Once you gain skills you can perform a lot of combos -using skills mapped to the LB and RB buttons, which you gain when you level up- without quick time events and stuff like that, and it's where the game shines.
.Meanwhile, you know what major eighth-gen launch game Eurogamer ACTUALLY rated lower than the expected value based on their tendencies and on the game's general reviews? Knack. It got a 54 on Metacritic. Thus you'd expect Eurogamer to give it a 5/10. But the actual Eurogamer score was 4/10.
I guess the primary difference between Ryse and Knack is the intention of both games.
Knack was mainly made on the cheap, just designed to be a simple, family friendly game that people can add to their collection. It is mostly a secondary purchase next to Driveclub and Killzone, etc.
Ryse has had shit-tonnes of cash poured into the development process and also was shown off as a Xbox One system seller for the core fans.
So the fact that Knack is objectively a worse game, given the fact that the PS4 library of games is as lacklustre as it can be, it is also a far smaller loss.
The game might be fun to play but the textures aren't Pixar magic either.
It's not an AAA game, but neither it is a Titan flop -the Blizzard project-. :smile2:
So I consider Knack reviews fair --and Ryse reviews unfair (the DF article being the main offender).