Ryse: Son of Rome Gladiator multiplayer mode asks you to keep an audience entertained

A new trailer for Xbox One exclusive Ryse: Son of Rome shows off Gladiator Mode, a multiplayer mode where you have to rack spectacular kills to keep a baying audience entertained.

According to Crytek: "Ryse offers a large variety of armour, weapons, shields, and consumables to customize your own unique gladiator.

"These items are earned through gold rewarded from victories in combat and impact your stats by improving your focus, XP, crowd reaction, and health. Consumables are elixirs that have a temporary effect, such as improving health or allowing instant kills."

The idea seems to be that you and a few friends team up to enter an arena and slaughter waves of woes in order to fill an audience entertainment meter. In the trailer we see it go from 'bored' to 'amused' to 'entertained.' It's a neat gladiatorial twist on a horde mode.

Arenas feature "dynamic tile sets", movable tiles that make hidden obstacles and scenery rise from the floor. This allows for a variety of battle scenarios, such as strongholds, ruins, and naval arenas.

Ryse will ship with 11 multiplayer maps, with an additional map for anyone who picks up the Day One Edition of the game.

The trailer also gives us another look at Ryse's combat, which has raised eyebrows in the past due to its apparent reliance on QTEs. Those are in evidence here, but we also see combat that looks a lot more fluid and deep. It also looks absolutely brutal.

Ryse: Son of Rome is in development at Crytek and is an Xbox One launch exclusive.