In House Content: Rise of the Argonauts Review

[Virtuoso]

Title: Rise of the Argonauts
Platform: PC, Xbox 360, PS3
Platform Reviewed: PS3
Genre: Action-Adventure
Publisher: Codemasters
Developer: Liquid Entertainment
MSRP: $59.99, £39.99, €59.99
Writer: Keia "Virtuoso" Atkinson

Liquid Entertainment is a company that is responsible for Desperate Housewives: The Game.

Let us let that sink in for a second.

Rise of the Argonauts Review

Alright, now that we’ve got that out of the way we can move along to the review of their most current project, an action-adventure romp set in mythical ancient Greece. Here the player encounters Gods, Titans, and many other mythical creatures, but for those of you expecting a God of War knockoff you couldn’t be more wrong. Once you get past the similarities in setting the differences are far more prominent.

The game begins with a wedding between our hero, Jason the King of Iolcus (the Isle of Zeus), and his bride-to-be Alseme. Just before the exchanging of vows is completed an assassin launches an arrow through her chest, killing her. From there he seeks to bring her back to life, and get revenge on the Blacktoungues, a tribe of pagans whose matron God is Hecate. He and his band of companions board the Argos (hence Rise of Argonauts) to sail the seas in order to eliminate the threat they face. Along the way they face death, betrayal, and an ancient evil.

Ok, so it isn’t exactly the most original story that has been written, but it’s also not a bad place to start. As the Oscars has proven time and time again the stories we encounter are often unoriginal, but it is the way in which it is told that matters. Aside from the sometimes predictable plot twists, the dialogue is well written and the voice acting is more often than not good. Not amazing by any stretch of the imagination, but it doesn’t detract from the overall experience.

The nicest part about the plot is the (admittedly small) ways in which the player can affect it through their dialogue options. For example, depending on what the player choose to say to a character before they kill him, the weapon they use and the method of execution changes. While the plot does not significantly differ between the various speech paths it is nice to feel as though the decisions you make actually change the actions of your character.

There are three main weapons to choose from during a battle: a short sword, a mace, and a spear. Using these weapons the player can string together devastating combinations of attacks that are both fun to execute and extremely cool to watch. In addition to the melee weapons at your disposal you also have your trusty shield and a variety of “God Powers” that do everything from heal yourself and your compatriots as well as rain down lighting from the gods. The combat is very enjoyable, although it is at times basic.

This game also has a number of light RPG aspects to it. Whenever a “deed” is completed (basically a quest) the player can dedicate it to one of four Greek Gods: Apollo, Athena, Hermes, or Ares. Once enough deeds are dedicated an aspect point is received that can be spent on either passive buffs or the aforementioned God Powers. In this way the game effectively offers four different skill trees that lend a fair amount of customization to the play style of the player’s choosing. In addition there are multiple weapons and armors, all of which offer different buffs and powers as well.

All in all the amount of variation in gameplay is enough to keep it both interesting and fun.

Like all games based on the Unreal 3.0 engine there are some odd issues that pop up from time to time. The game has a number of bugs that can be quite frustrating. After completing a battle area your hero must sheath his weapon in order to move on to the next area, but for some reason Jason will occasionally leave his weapon out and preventing the player from moving on. This can be very problematic, and can sometimes force the player to save and load from the last checkpoint, which sometimes requires them to repeat boss fights.

One other minor problem is the loading times that the miserably tries to hide. Like Mass Effect’s slowest elevators ever, the guards in this game must tiptoe to open gates between different areas.

The presentation of the cut scenes ranges from good to absolutely awful. Once in a while the voices will not sync up with the character’s lips, and even when they do the expressions rapidly switch from angry to neutral in an almost comical (and more often sad) manner. This being said, these issues do not affect to a large extent from the quality of the game.

Score: 4 out of 5

The Good:

• Gamplay is fun and interesting
• Environments differ significantly, keeping the scenery changing
• Customization options tailor the gameplay to what the player is comfortable with

The Bad:

• Facial expressions look ridiculous
• Loading times can be frustrating

The Ugly:

• The sometimes game-breaking bugs

[Exodus]

This game is a diamond in the rough. I loved its style and I'm a big fan of anything mythological. The moves could have used a bit more allowance in terms of combining to add more depth to the game play but other than that and adding more animations and finishers this game is a winner in my book. Great review it's spot on!

This game is like... if you combined god of war with knights of the old republic interaction. You can't go wrong.

[Flatulus]

Originally Posted by Exodus

This game is like... if you combined god of war with knights of the old republic interaction. You can't go wrong.

I loved both series, GoW and KOTOR. I'll definitely give Rise of the Argonauts a try then!

[Exodus]

Originally Posted by Flatulus

I loved both series, GoW and KOTOR. I'll definitely give Rise of the Argonauts a try then!

It's a lot of fun. A few things to let you know, the fighting is kind of like devil may cry where you get into an area and then you get waves and can't move on til you have finished them. And the main character is more akin to king leonidis(?spelling?).

I was surprised about this game for sure and played it from beginning to end. Yeah.... I actually visited all of the statues and listened/read every damned bit. I wonder if they will go on to make a sequel on the iliad I think it's called, I know... if i mis spell it I have commited sin but I hope those who know, know what I mean. ;D

[Froggy]

Originally Posted by Exodus

This game is like... if you combined god of war with knights of the old republic interaction. You can't go wrong.

With one exception: this game's developers looked at a book or two about ancient Greece before production. GOW, not so much. Fucking elevators.

[riposte101]

Thanks for the review. I had forgotten about this game. I love Greek Mythology and will be renting this.

[ElPresidente]

I think you could have been harsher and still ended up with a similar result. My review hits newstands this week and I mark this as one of the hardest games I've had to put a score on. There is so much wrong with this game but I couldn't stop playing it from start to finish.

Glad to see others out there were able to look past its numerous faults and enjoy what was behind them.

Oh and screw Depserate Housewives.

Liquid Entertainment made Battle Realms which is still my favourite RTS of all time... would appear to be Blizzard's too since most of the ideas in Warcraft III were pinched directly from Battle Realms.

[Virtuoso]

Originally Posted by ElPresidente

I think you could have been harsher and still ended up with a similar result. My review hits newstands this week and I mark this as one of the hardest games I've had to put a score on. There is so much wrong with this game but I couldn't stop playing it from start to finish.

Glad to see others out there were able to look past its numerous faults and enjoy what was behind them.

Oh and screw Depserate Housewives.

Liquid Entertainment made Battle Realms which is still my favourite RTS of all time... would appear to be Blizzard's too since most of the ideas in Warcraft III were pinched directly from Battle Realms.

I'm too young for Battle Realms, heh.

Regardless, the game - with all of its faults - is still really quite good. If you liked the flavor of God of War and let RoA fly under your radar then pick this up, because you won't regret it.

[ElPresidente]

Originally Posted by Virtuoso

I'm too young for Battle Realms, heh.

30s... that horrible age where you realise most of the stuff you talk about is unknown by anyone younger than you. :P

I think I realised it a month or so ago when a girl I worked with was whinging about Kid Rock saying the only reason he was famous was because of Pamela.

[Tremorlor]

Originally Posted by Froggy

With one exception: this game's developers looked at a book or two about ancient Greece before production. GOW, not so much. Fucking elevators.

Look they possibly did, read it they didn't.
This game dropped off my radar the second I read who is in the team: Ed del Castillo. Anybody remembers his *bright* ideas that shaped UIX?

[ElPresidente]

Forget everything else... just remember Battle Realms... err... even if you... uh... don't.