There’s no mistaking it, as time goes on we remember less and less of the events that happened in our past. Video game developer Crytek has just recently released a brand new video game called Ryse: Son of Rome, which tells the story of young Roman soldier Marius Titus as he hunts for the barbarians who took his family away from him. While a quest for vengeance kind of video game is nothing really new, it’s worth mentioning that a good majority of the game takes place in Rome, Italy. A place not often seen in most adventure video games, unless one counts the Assassin’s Creed series.
Nevertheless, the amount of violence in Ryse is incredibly high, despite the fact that most Roman gladiator matches were pretty brutal to say the least. But on a lighter note, perhaps this glimpse into the past is what more video games these days should do to get children and adult’s more interested about a culture of a past civilization. Think about, when we’re driving a car out of a parking spot we can’t move forward without first backing up to see what’s behind us. In hindsight, the game teaches you that there can be no hope in seeking revenge against those who’ve harmed you. Especially since all it will do in the long run is trigger a vicious cycle of hatred. But perhaps something as trivial as revenge can be channeled into something more constructive-such as justice or redemption-which is basically the story Crytek is trying to tell us with their latest video game. Whether or not we ryse to the occasion-pun intend-is up to us.