You guys have to read this because Crytek made one of those games that could've been absolutely everything — it wasn't just a hack-and-slash, it was titled Kingdoms as working title and built by Patr Tichy plus 13 others who all lost their jobs when the studio dissolved. The plan was for Ryse to be Microsoft's Assassin's Creed counter on Xbox One with era-hopping campaigns across feudal Japan and Viking Iceland — literally years before anyone else got there, with Crytek researching period weapons and building a full Samurai chapter in Japan and an Icelandic Viking campaign that they had actual historical researchers on. They even built Kinect 'Xbox Dance' features ahead of their time! Then Microsoft marketed it as their big launch exclusive around 6 hours of content and cut everything at chapter one — all they left was the infamous ambiguous teaser trailer that just asked people to wait for more, which is probably why Metacritic is an 89 but nobody actually played past Chapter One.
The irony goes deeper than you'd think because while Crytek fell apart by late 2016 Ubisoft dropped Assassin's Creed Valhalla in the same year and became another franchise juggernaut — two different companies now operating what was supposed to be one epic project! Before it folded, Crytek had built actual side quests like 'The Baker's Daughter,' a stealth level called Ghost of Rome with an assassined skin inspired by Assassin's Creed, even a Shadow mission, and the Samurai gear was period-accurate. Then Deep Silver bought Ryse later for PC and ported it to Steam Deck where it's now Verified — so here we are, the only way you can play what remains is on handheld while the original vision became two entirely different franchises. It's one of those rare moments in gaming history that makes every playable minute feel like a mini-tragedy because Crytek built something genuinely beautiful and Microsoft turned it into an infamous case study about overpromising.
Source: https://www.ign.com/articles/ryse-son-of-rome-had-plans-to-be-xboxs-assassins-creed
The irony goes deeper than you'd think because while Crytek fell apart by late 2016 Ubisoft dropped Assassin's Creed Valhalla in the same year and became another franchise juggernaut — two different companies now operating what was supposed to be one epic project! Before it folded, Crytek had built actual side quests like 'The Baker's Daughter,' a stealth level called Ghost of Rome with an assassined skin inspired by Assassin's Creed, even a Shadow mission, and the Samurai gear was period-accurate. Then Deep Silver bought Ryse later for PC and ported it to Steam Deck where it's now Verified — so here we are, the only way you can play what remains is on handheld while the original vision became two entirely different franchises. It's one of those rare moments in gaming history that makes every playable minute feel like a mini-tragedy because Crytek built something genuinely beautiful and Microsoft turned it into an infamous case study about overpromising.
Source: https://www.ign.com/articles/ryse-son-of-rome-had-plans-to-be-xboxs-assassins-creed