Rise of the Argonauts

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[Story:]

Rise of the Argonauts takes place in Ancietn Greece, when the gods walked among humans and all manners of beasts roamed the lands. A place where the line between reality and dream seem to blur together and make anything possible. And that is, in fact, the premise of this entire game: Doing the impossible.

You play as the mythic figure, Jason. King of Iolcus and Warden of Zeus, it is Jason's task to defend his island home from all threat. But when his wife, Alceme, is assassinated by a mysterious figure, grief overwhelms him and he decides to cast his duty aside for a greater purpose: to bring his wife back from the dead.

He denies his wife her last rites, the one thing that will grant her safe passage to the sacred fields of Elysium (Ancient Greece's Heaven). After receiving the blessing of his four patron gods, (Ares, God of War; Hermes, God of Wit and Literature; Apollo, God of the Sun and Athena, Goddess of Justice and Virtue), he sets sail with his friend and son of Zeus, Hercules, aboard the Argo, a revolutionary ship made by master craftsman Argos. Through these four gods Jason draws his strength throughout the adventure.

Jason needs answers, and the one person that he can think of that deals in answers is the one and only Oracle of Delphi. After finding his way and reaching the Oracle he discovers that in order to get the Golden Fleece, he would need the blood of gods, Ares, Hermes and Athena in the mortal realm. Three islands have the mortal representatives of the gods, Mycenae (Ares), Saria (Hermes) and Kythra (Athena).

So, Jason continues the journey to the three islands and, in the meantime, discovers a plot by the dark titaness Hecate's followers, the Blacktongues, to raise their fallen queen and retake Greece back from the gods of Olympus, and Jason has to find a way to stop them, along with obtaining the Fleece.

[Combat:]

Rise of the Argonauts' combat varies. The system itself is solid. You have four weapons to use: Mace, Sword, Spear and Shield and each weapon corresponds with a certain god. Mace Ares, Sword Hermes, Spear Athena and Shield Apollo. Each weapon, excluding the Shield, has a set of both standard moves and special moves. The mace can smash the ground and create a shockwave to knock back enemies, the sword can perform a dash attack where you close the distance between an enemy instantly, and the spear can be thrown for ranged kills. Those are only an example of the special moves.

But the system's execution is somewhat flawed. It might not be as elegant as the new Prince of Persia's system, but it is in no means a button-masher. You can string together wounding attacks and execution attacks to varying effects, as well as being able to swap between weapons mid-combo for extra damage.

(Ex. You're fighting an opponent with a spear and shield. You draw your mace and begin hammering away at his shield. The shield holds for the first two attacks, then the enemy seizes the opening and attacks with his spear. You block with your shield, then bash it forward into him, knocking him back. You swing your mace once more and the shield breaks, then, with the push of a button, switch to your sword, where you take advantage of the enemy not having a shield and decapitate him with a single spinning stroke.)

It takes some time to learn to string together attacks, but once you learn, it becomes pretty fun. But, in the beginning, it is a button-masher.

[Deed System:]

The major draw of Rise of the Argonauts, aside from the new take on a classic myth and the action fighting, is the new 'Deed System.' When traveling on your journey and speaking with different people, you will be able to respond any of four ways that follow the paths of the gods that watch over you. You can respond aggressive and head-strong for Ares, sly and witty for Hermes, compassionate and caring for Apollo, and virtuous and just for Athena.

Every response directed in the gods' path give you a little more favor with them and every thing you do can be dedicated to each of the gods for different skills and powers. Let's say you kill 25 men/soldiers, you might see something to the effect of 'Manslayer II' run across the bottom left of the screen. Then, when at a shrine, you can take that deed and give it to any of the gods, no matter the type of deed, in exchange of favor for new skills and powers.

One of the good things about this system is that it doesn't restrict you to choosing one way if you only want to follow a single god. Like answering a question in the response of Ares when you try to mainly follow Hermes. The only thing that happens is that you get points for Ares instead of Hermes for that response, no harm done. I would actually encourage responding how you actually would to the situation. Back-talking mercenaries getting on your nerves? Choose Ares and punch them in the face. Or, choose against your nature and go with Apollo and try to solve the problem without hostility.

All the system wants from you is to choose, and be comforted in the fact that no choice is the wrong choice.

[Overview:]

Rise of the Argonauts, though flawed in minor ways, is still a solid and fun experience that I would recommend to anyone that loves: a)Ancient Greece and Greek Mythology, b)a good action-RPG, c)a harrowing tale of love and heroism, or d) all of the above.

Enjoy.

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Ever wonder what God of War would have been like if Nintendo made it?

You'd get something like Rise of the Argonauts. This game feels like 70 percent The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and 30 percent is a PG-13-rated version of God of War. There is some blood and dismemberment. This is not a bad thing. It is just how I perceive the overall feeling of this game.

I was very excited to play this game when screen captures started showing up in gaming magazines in the months leading up to its release. Those pics prove the art design is great. But, seeing the game in motion is another story. The game lacks a lot of polish. Animations are clunky and frequent slow downs give the game a "still in beta testing" vibe. This sucks some of the life out of what should have been a "can't miss" adventure game.

The back of the box claims the game is an RPG adventure. It would be more accurate to say it is an RPG lite adventure. You earn experience through how you react to various situations. Your reactions will earn you favor with one of four different gods to power up your character. Each area in the game is divided into combat and a bunch of RPG-style fetch quests. I found myself running around doing said fetch quests, more often than fighting off monsters. The story is interesting enough to tie it all together.

The game takes rather uncreative liberties with Greece myths. The basic framework of the myths you are familiar with is there. It is just that the designers flattened out the details to make the background myths feel bland.

None the less. If you like greek mythology, then give Rise of the Argonauts a try. It is easy to overlook the game's shortcomings. It is a great game with some sub-par production value issues. I suggest renting this game more than buying it.

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Before I say anything about the game, I must warn everyone.. If you don't like a long story, and lots of reading, than this game will seem tedious to you. As for me, I thought the story and the game as a whole was extremely well done and very refreshing.

Rise of the Argonauts is based on the story of King Jason and his quest for the Golden Fleece. His kingdom of Iolcus is infiltrated, and his wife is assassinated. With this, he sets out for the Golden Fleece with his friend Hercules, to try and bring his wife back from the dead. With many plot twists and choice options, I found this game to be captivating and engaging. You get to make choices, and depending on which choice you make, you are aligned with a certain God: Ares, Apollo, Hermes, and Athena. Codemasters has put in a lot of work in researchging the background story, making a few changes here and there, making it hard to put the controller down. The game itself is about 15-20 hours, and although the action is sparse, I thought it was a lot of fun.

This game is a MUST have for greek mythology lovers, but once again, if you don't like reading, because you will have to run around and talk to many villagers etc., then this game is not for you. But they usually all tie into the story so you get the whole picture, so that's the way I played it. But in the end, I gave it a 5.... out of 5.

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The camera angle and gameplay will take some getting used to. But once you figure out how to use the maps and orient yourself, it's a highly-rewarding game. Set in Ancient Greece, the storyline of course borrows heavily from Greek mythology which is alot of fun if you have background with the source material. The combat is pretty straightforward. You have a few moves and combos that you use during fights and there's the usual determination of the enemy's weaknesses during boss battles. However, the real strength of this game is the gorgeous graphics: it's a pleasure to look at. Much of the adventuring involves meeting important characters, making key decision, and completing side quests. Slow-paced, almost like an RPG. But pretty much playable for anyone, as my wife has been playing it quite a bit in the last week. Not for you if you want a hack-and-slash God of War clone. Definitely it's own thing here, but recommended.

Want Rise of the Argonauts Discount?

I'm not an experienced gamer (to be honest, all I have played during the last 20 years I'm 35 is Chess, on the computer). Before that, between ages 11-15, I played some Battle Chess, Elite (space simulator) and Test Drive on the computer, and some of the old games of the late 80's, like the first Super Mario on Nintendo. On the previous Atari-like consoles, I never played nothing more elaborated than River Raid or Enduro. That's it! I bought my first 21st century video-game console (Playstation 3) less than a month ago, thinking more about my 5-year old son. So, my opinions and standards will probably differ from those of more experienced gamers, but I think they're legitimate too. So, here's what I think:

Last night I beat the game, after playing it over a little more than 2 weeks, almost every night. I guess now I am entitled to opine on its qualities and faults. Right away, I must say that I was hooked from the beginning, remain a fan after beating it and will certainly play it again soon. The graphics are very, very good, the reconstruction of ancient mythological times is perfect, specially temples and statues. It's a visually beautiful game. I felt like I was there! For instance, one night I was playing alone in the living-room, I was on Kythra, and at some time it actually got kind of creepy, so realistic was the combination of the desolate scenery of Kythra with the eerie background music by Tyler Bates, which, by the way, is awesome!

I've seen that many of the complaints are against the fights, which are said to be very easy and also scarce. I don't agree with that. First, if you're more of a hack-and-slash gamer, than this game is actually not for you. You have a bit of it in this game too, but you gotta remember that this is a role-playing game, a quest-game. So, the fights must make sense and fit into the storyline, not overwhelm it. After all, it's not about fighting only, which is cool, but it's about recreating a mythical adventure and atmosphere. It's about making decisions, about strategy. In that sense, the game is very smart, because it stresses on the usages and on the way of living of the characters of that mythological time. Secondly, you have three levels in the game: human (easy), hero (medium) and legend (difficult), so if you want an extra challenge, just turn to legend mode. I played the beginning of the game on the hero level up until the fight against Phaedon on Kythra (I decided to go to Kythra first, then Saria and Mycenae). But that fight was so annoying and difficult, that I had to turn to human mode, and even then, I only won after I consulted a walkthrough on the internet that provided me with the best combat strategy to beat Phaedon. After that I remained on human (easy) mode till the end of the game and am not ashamed to say that I consulted again the walkthrough for the fights against Medusa (on Kythra), Nessus (on Saria), Achilles (on Mycenae) and Pelias (on Iolcus). On Tartarus, you get to fight so much that you actually get tired, then when I saw that the fight against the spirits of Nessus and Hep'Naje (whom I had fought and defeated previously on Saria) was optional, I simply let them get away and went on my way.

I have only two complaints, which do not, in my opinion, harm the gameplay or your ability to enjoy it, though I admit are kind of a nuisance: first, the background music, despite being so beautiful and enthralling, is very loud. Many times during the game it gets a little hard to hear dialogues (or maybe I have listening problems and don't know about it!). And secondly, which I admit can be such a pain, is the fact that when you die or want to quit the game, you can only save it up until your last checkpoint. That is the only lame thing in this game, the only one! Because of that, for example, when I was trying to battle Phaedon on Kythra, and that made me die countless times(!), because for me it was a difficult fight, I always had to go back to the previous checkpoint which meant that I had to endure over and over again the time-consuming interactive debate that takes place between Jason and Phaedon before the latter bursts into anger and the fight begins. Other than these two aspects, I found no bugs or any other faults in the game.

In conclusion, it's a great game and well deserving of five stars! I also bought the official strategy guide, in order to prepare myself to play the game all over again, this time on legend mode.