Game Title - Rise of the Argonauts
Developer - Liquid Entertainment
Publisher - Codemasters
Genre - Action RPG
Rating - M
Release Date - December 16, 2008
Platforms - PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Game Overview
In Rise of the Argonauts, you assume the role of Jason, king of Iolcus. Your island is living in an era of prosperity, supposedly blessed by Zeus himself. You are to be wed today, as you gaze into your wife's eyes & utter your vows...an arrow pierces her heart. It seems Mrs. Redshirt is the vehicle to introduce our baddies, the Blacktongues. What follows is a somewhat epic tale of vengeance & redemption, & chasing the solution to death. The story is pretty predictable,
but the characters are genuinely likable. (Except for Achilles & Ms. Independent woman. We get it, you can stand without a man. And?) All in all, it's a fairly easy to follow, but well executed tale. Jason especially is shown to be a deeply layered character. Good stuff, all around. But the actual gameplay is...a bit of a mess. The combat is genuinely fun, it's a very visceral experience that makes you feel like a badass. In addition, the RPG element is fairly new, & hence, refreshing. During the game, every choice you make, everything you say, every objective you complete is either dedicated to a certain God, or becomes a deed. You dedicate deeds to Gods, & thus you are granted the ability to purchase skills with the Gods. These are really handy, & the system is nifty & works well. But movement is awkward, & the shield enemies can be very frustrating. Which leads to the graphics. Again, a mixed bag. I'm always complaining about how games nowadays are lacking in artistic direction, & as such fail miserably, graphically. What breaks my heart about this game is that it has an incredible style, & feels like someone took the time to craft the world these characters reside in. Too bad they had to go & ruin it by using the Unreal Engine, which is great for realism, but can't really pull off the style showcased in Argonauts. And maybe that's just what I'm seeing, but this game is just so inconsistent visually. Details put into characters & scenes generally show, (Bravo to the final armor, & of course, Jason's shield) but the facial animations are outright terrible, I've seen better crafted syncing in PS2 titles! And normally I wouldn't mind, but at certain parts in this game it just seems to fall apart visually. Sad to say, with such a great Art direction. Luckily, the sound is good. Not stupendous, but not bad in the least. Props to including Steve Blum in the cast. The pounding of steel & the bellowing of beasts is pretty convincing, as well. Thumbs up to the audio team. But now...THE SCORING.
1. Audio - 8
All around solid audio, with no real complaints,although I forgot to mention earlier, the score is simply phenomenal, it really drives the emotion of any particular scene home, bravo.
2. Graphics - 6
Unforgivably inconsistent. This game can't seem to stop flip-flopping between excellent & shoddy when it comes to the visual department.
3. Controls - 7
During combat, the controls are silky smooth & fun to use. The game, strangely enough, has inconsistent detection in the dialogue wheels. Someone should be flogged over such a stupid small error. The game also tends to have an unreal amount of invisible walls. Not in the traditional sense, but where the collide boundaries of an item extend beyond the item. So I can't get by a table, when I'M NOT EVEN FUCKING TOUCHING IT. This has plagued many games (Fable comes to mind), & I'd kindly ask that developers get off their fucking asses & fix it. It's annoying.
4. Content -3
You get your main campaign, then you get the fuck out. That's about it.
5. Replayability - 3
The combat was actually so fun, I played through the game again. I don't know what it is about the combat, it just has a charm to it. Obviously though, there's no real REASON to go through it again.
6. Multiplayer - 0
There is none, which is dissapointing. I would have enjoyed some split-screen co-op.
7. Story - 7
A predictable tale, but a well-told one, with a great cast. (Except for those two we talked about earlier. Fuck those two.)
8. Innovation - 6
It presents a unique mythos, & the combat doesn't seem derivative of any other game. (FUCK YOU, THIS IS NOT A GOD OF WAR CLONE)
9. Getting Into It - 5
It's the technical issues that plague this game & make it so hard to get into.
10. Game Length - 6
It's about 7-8 hours long, about as long as you'd expect from a current-gen game. (Which is complete & utter fucking BULLSHIT. FUCK YOU, LAZY DEVELOPERS, FUCK. YOU.)
OVERALL SCORE
5.8 out of 10
Final Comment
Rise of the Argonauts is not a great game. It is, however, an enjoyable tale that I highly recommend to anyone who will listen. Play this game. Take a chance. Pick up a game that doesn't have a number in the title. You might be surprised how much you like it, flawed though it may be.
Captain Scrambles
