Rise of the Argonauts

"Is Rise of the Argonauts worth playing?"

Hi, this is my first review ever, but I'll try to do the best I can in analyzing this game. I'll follow several GameFaqs guidelines in my approach, including Score parameters, and its standard formatting style. I'll also try to grade some of the topics, since everyone likes to see how much each thing scores. :) However, the final score is not going to be an average, since it shall reflect my overall feeling on the game. If you don't like or for whatever reason don't want to read the entire thing, read the Introduction at least, it will give a good sight of what you'll read.



Introduction

Rise of the Argonauts is an Action RPG game by Liquid Entertainment where you play as a version of the mythological Jason and his quest for the Golden Fleece. With notable graphics and audio quality, the game also has an enjoyable narrative, characters and dialogues. Game play-wise, you have three weapons to play: a spear, a sword and a mace, which you can swap anytime, even during a combo. Also, the featuring RPG part in the game is not the common level and experience, and yes, a serie of "Aspects" you can gain from the Gods (Ares, Athena, Hermes and Apollo) by dedicating your Deeds or by choosing your dialogue options aligned to them. These Deeds are many, from "Killing 5 Soldiers" to the completion of a certain part of the story.

However, the game biggest flaws are in its main focuses: the combat and the rpg aspects. Oversimplified, the combat becomes repetitive after a while, and the many powers you can acquire don't change that. While I didn't miss it, some may don't like the fact you cannot control your allies, and since their A.I. isn't that much brilliant, you will be doing the combat almost on your own. Also, if you're expecting a dialogue tree that affects the storyline as in Mass Effect, Knights of the Old Republic, etc. you will be disappointed, since your choices rarely will affect anything, and just express your attitude (bitter, lawful, etc.). As commented above, your dialogue choices will also give you points in the Aspect System, though not much as the Deeds.

On another note about the negative sides, we should talk about the game's presentation too. Fist, some of you will be annoyed as I was to know that control configuration is very limited, and you can't navigate the dialogue and save options with mouse only, as the game forces or at least almost forces you to use the keyboard. Also, the saving feature is just plain bad. You don't save your progress, you save your "checkpoint" progress, in other words: if you do a lot of side quests, buy a lot of Aspects, but don't change of checkpoint (which aren't very clear: you have to find where the game starts auto saving), you'll have to do everything again. In my case, I was in determined point, before a boss, and haven't bought aspects for a long time, so I decide to do it: I lose my time dedicating Deeds, choosing the best powers, then I lost to the boss, and I have to do all over again: if you lose many times, this many times you have to do it all over again (ok, it's not THAT bad, since the enemies and bosses you're going to have trouble are not many, but you got what I mean). Another thing: the save slots are limited, for I don't know what reason, so forget about having a save in everything you want to see again, it's not going to happen.

We also have to speak about the good points too. Besides these negative sides, the game is solid, the dialogue and the story are good, and above all things, the game compels you into it. If you don't get annoyed by these bad things, you'll care about Jason's quest, and sympathize with most characters, and in my opinion, if you aren't a skip-dialogue kind of person, this is something of utmost importance: even games that don't NEED a story, if they have, it makes the play much more enjoyable, if the narrative is good, it makes you play even if its flawed, and this is exactly what this game is. Now, don't expect a Oscar-winning script, a super complex plot, or mega charismatic characters, its about the overall charm, and that's something you will have to play to see if it hits you or not. Although flawed, this is a good game, don't let the low scores scare you. By the way, in my opinion, reviews are good to give you a guide, an insight on the game so you can decide if you want to play it or not, they're no good as the ultimate reviewing experience in a game. Each person experiences something entirely different: you probably already hated a movie/game that everyone loved, and liked a movie/game that everyone hated.



Gameplay (7/10)

Rise of the Argonauts is an Action RPG, this means that it is an action game with rpg elements. So, what are the action and the RPG elements, and how well do they merge? First, by no means this is a conventional Action RPG like Kingdom Hearts, Diablo and many others, no, this is an action-combat game that features power acquisition and side quests like a RPG, but the combat doesn't have stats, or anything that resembles a RPG.

The RPG part is not conventional, you don't have stats, hit points (you have a health and a God Power bar and that's it), or anything that can be upgraded: even the weapons and armor that you can trade are a matter of style of play (choose between a sword that steals health or that hits better in the back of the enemy). Also, you have dialogue options and many side quests, though they barely have any effect on the story or too much consequence. Although this is not a "be good or evil" game like KOTOR and Mass Effect, the lack of interactivity on a game that let you choose your dialogue may disappoint some. Through dialogue option choice, and the earning of Deeds, you gain points to acquire God Powers through the option Aspects. This is your "level up menu": there are as mentioned, four gods that you can dedicate your choices and Deeds to: Ares, Athena, Hermes and Apollo. Each have specific powers to give you, and you are free to dedicate to all of them, not just one.

The combat, as commented in the Introduction, is almost shallow, even though you have three weapons to choose from. In truth, what happens is that you barely need to use more than one weapon (save in a combat or two), so you can stick to a weapon of your choice and that's it. I did it, with the mace. While some may find that attractive, as you're not obliged to use a weapon you don't like to beat a determined enemy ( Imagine: "Oh man, I Hate the Spear, but if I don't use it, this enemy CANNOT be killed. But man, how I hate the spear."), what I see is a not explored concept. The combat consists of two types of attack (normal and strong), God Powers, a dodge roll, block and, not less important, a shield bash.

The God Powers also doesn't add too much, since they are barely needed, and aren't decisive too, unless you are being smacked by a determined boss or a swarm of enemies, and need to use them, but that's rare. Their variety is nonetheless good; you have power and resistance enhancing powers, as well as many other types, as healing powers, "explosion" powers, slowing time, etc. To activate the powers you must set them on a "control" and activate them through pressing and holding 1, 2, 3 or 4 (standard), also, you need to have "God Power" left, that is, your magic points, which can be recovered by hitting enemies. On God Powers, you also have passive abilities that don't need activation, and work as more power, resistance, etc. to Jason.

The problem of this game's game play is that it is SIMPLE, at least for today standards. Would this game be released before God of War or Knights of the Old Republic, I think people would enjoy it more, and feel less disappointed. But in an age of "ultimate combat experience", and KOTOR/Mass Effect-like story intervention, this game provides none. It is a good game, but it doesn't take any of its aspects to a higher degree. The game isn't very challenging too, not that it is a complete wall in the park, but only very feel times you will feel specially threatened.



STORY (8/10)

*I am an anti-spoiler freak, if you are like me, you won't want to read anything this next section, as it may spoil you, even though I tried to do it in a minimum*

The game tells its own version of Jason and the Argonauts, and merges well the ancient myth stories with a narrative fit to the game. Keeping Spoilers to a minimum, in the weeding between King Jason of Iolcus and his loved Alceme, the bride is murdered by a group known as Blackthongues. Feeling victim to a injustice, Jason will board the legendary ship Argo, and search for the Golden Fleece, which supposedly can undo the evil done. In his quest he will visit many places, encounter many people, fight many enemies, and ally with legendary heroes, as Hercules.

The story is simple and good. A story has no need to be overcomplex if the writers have no competence of doing so, and leave a thousand of plotholes or turn into a plain bad storytelling. Happy the day when we were satisfied with a heroic tale of good versus evil, with no plot twists and a prince slaying the dragon and marrying the princess. Rise of the Argonauts doesn't have an oversimplified narrative like those, but don't expect plot twists at every corner and the complexity that makes your head spin: it is a solid and linear narrative, that does it job, and that's a good thing, even more because we're talking about a redoing of a myth. It's not Star Wars and it's not any modern novel or movie: it's the tale of Jason redone.

Talking to people and reading some boards, I saw many people annoyed that the game isn't really mythological Jason's story, as they changed it a lot. To those who agree to this, and are disappointed, let me tell two things: first, the game has no intention of being a pure remake of a old myth, it takes artistic license of the tale, as any piece of work you may find about any story, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Take Frank Miller's 300 for example: The artist saw in the Battle of Thermopylae a good story to be rewrite with his own narrative and vision of things. In no way 300 is pure and tells the exact story, and it doesn't have the pretension to do it: it only wants to tell a good story, and for this, Frank Miller took all the artistic license he could to do it. Rise of the Argonauts is the same. It doesn't WANT to be the re-tale of the original Jason's story, and yes, a new one. Nonetheless, it merges well the artistic license with the myths, and in the end, it's a good mix. Second, you will never find any piece of work faithful to a myth, everyone take their licenses, and even the myths themselves are not something given out the blue, they were changed and invented anew by their ancient authors. Do not be naive to think that Homer told as they were, if you ask any historian, they will tell you how legends and myths are changed and constructed over time. So, in other words, even the original authors took their own artistic licenses in a sense, this games does the same. Do not be over concerned with this. The story merges very well with the myth. Besides, even if you insist in arguing the story has nothing to do with the original myth, and all I said was nonsense, at least face the story as a fictional and original work, there's no need to be angry or anything for not being true to the myth.



GRAPHICS/SOUND (8/10)

For better understanding, I'm playing this game on a Intel Core 2 Quad 2400 4GB Ram and GeForce 8600.

Well, first, I'm not a graphics expert or enthusiast, I don't understand, mind or care about specific technical superiority or how many types of graphic enhancing features one game has, I only see if the game is pretty or ugly. If the game looks fine, ok, if the game looks crap, bad. ROTA is a pretty game, character modeling in the cutscenes is well done, and while it doesn't reach a high degree of detail, it does its job just fine. It isn't a game that will be remembered for its breathtaking scenarios, but they're good, especially, in my opinion, Mycenae. On other hand, a few scenarios seemed bland, but nothing that hurts the eye. I didn't have too much of a problem with graphical bugs or slowdowns either. While the game is pretty, it also isn't very special, and in my opinion, in-game characters are not as well done as in cutscenes, and enemies are bland with a lot of "pallet swap".

I'm also not a sound expert or enthusiast, I can only say if I like it or not. Well, while the game doesn't have memorable music (actually, I like the opening menu song very much), it bends well with the surrounding, and the dialogues are very well acted. Eventually you can even stop in a location and hear people or your allies talking between then, and some of their talks are very entertaining. I liked this since it was a casual conversation between people without you, the hero, around them, which is both a rare thing in videogames, and adds to the game's overall feeling.

Graphics and Sound should do the job of creating an environment that fits the game and makes the gamer feel immersed in that universe. Should one of them fail to do so, the player will be outright annoyed, and the experience will be damaged. One can find many flaws and annoyances in Rise of the Argonauts, but none will have to do with a bad experience in its universe. Only once I was annoyed at how Jason run down the stairs, but wasn't anything too big.

Conclusively, both Sound and Graphics do their job nicely, while not being examples of what the "next-gen" can do at its maximum capacity.



Play Time/Replayability (5/10)

I think while all factors are a matter of opinion, at least in my opinion, this is the factor that depends the most on the gamer playing. What do you look into a game? A GTA-like world, sandbox, where you can spend thousands of hours, and can extend your length of play until you are tired, or you prefer a game which size it's limited, and doesn't take too long to finish? Are you completionist, or just want to finish the game? Myself, it depends on my mood, and if the game attract me. If the game hits me, I will play until I'm tired, if the game hits me, but not so well, I will just play it to the ending. Of course, the game must provide you reasons to replay it (even if the only reason it's because it is damn good: the game I finished the most was Grim Fandango, a point-and-click adventure game that once you played it, you played everything).

Well, in my opinion, Rise of the Argonauts does not provide enough reasons for you to keep playing after finishing it.

If you are a completionist, the game has some things you can do, as you can verify in the "Stars" option of the menu. There, you visualize what you must do to get all Deeds, from completing a part of the story, to decapitating enemies a number of times. These Deeds are grouped in Constellations (Lion, Centaur, etc.), and once you complete all tasks-Deeds from a Constellation, you also obtain a Deed for this constellation. The bad point in this, is that once you leave an island, you can't return to it, so you have to do all tasks-Deeds from a place on only a go. I don't understand why, even storyline-wise, didn't they let you go to wherever island you wanted to go whenever you wanted. The result is that, even if you are a completionist, and forgot to complete something in an island, you are done for, there's no going back, and there's no New Game+ too. Note that not all tasks-Deeds are one-island only, but many are.

And what I just said was for completionists, for non-completionists or casual gamers, you can do many side-quests on the many locations you go, but the same problem is due: once you leave it, there's no going back, if you forgot one, if you didn't find one, if you just wanted to go on with the main quest and left the island, you don't have how to do it anymore. Also, the side quests are not that much of a challenge, and most of them are in you way on the main quest, so you have only to take a small detour at most.

Once you finish a game, there's almost nothing new to it. You don't carry anything to a new game, and as said before, most dialogue options are just a matter of attitude, so no Light Side or Dark Side path in here. The only reason you would play again is if you liked the game and want to do it in a harder mode or if you want to complete everything and haven't done it yet.

The game isn't very lengthy either, which isn't a bad thing. I think that each game has a different needed length size to it, and when it passes it, it's when you tires completely and wants to get to the ending soon enough. The problem is that the game limits too much exploration, which shrinks even more its playing time. Would you be able to explore all the islands while not in the main quest, at least you'd be less in a linear path of going almost strictly to the end.

I finished it doing almost all side quests in about 11-12 hours.


Final Recommendation

I think this game is at least worth a play. But play it until you get to the first island, give it a chance, do not stick to a first bad impression, if you have one. Actually I didn't like the beginning, but as I progressed, I found the game to be quite enjoyable. I don't love it, but I like it. And that's why I recommend it.


Overall Score: 7/10 - Good, a few problems, but worth the time to play.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/21/09

Game Release: Rise of the Argonauts (US, 12/16/08)