Rise of the Argonauts – Review

	Available On: Xbox 360, PS3, PC Format Reviewed: PC Publisher: Codemasters Developer: Liquid Entertainment Players: 1 Online: 0

Many times has it been said that video games are not the ideal media to tell an epic and emotional story. Sometimes I tend to agree with that theory, especially when a developer attempts to shoehorn a deep story into a game that would of been better without it. But every now and then along comes a developer, in this case Liquid Entertainment, who knows how to both tell a great story, and create a solid gaming experience. The question is, have Liquid Entertainment and Codemasters created a game worthy of the gods or one that should have been left to the annals of history? Well read on to fine out…

Rise of the Argonauts places you in the shoes of Jason, the legendary leader of the Argonauts, on the search for the mythic Golden Fleece. The game opens up on Jason’s wedding day as he prepares to marry his childhood sweetheart, Alceme, the princess of Mycenae. Proceedings soon take a turn for the worse when the Blacktongues, followers of the goddess Hecate, gatecrash the party and assassinate Alceme. Jason, distraught with his loss, is overcome with anger and a strong thirst for revenge, and against advice refuses to let Alceme pass over to the afterlife. So begins the epic journey to find the Golden Fleece and bring Alceme back to life.

As you can probably tell the story in Rise of the Argonauts is a very deep and emotional one, but more importantly it is one that keeps you wanting more. It has been crafted with a lot of love, care, and attention, from the opening moments to the very end it is a story that demands your attention. Throughout the game Jason is joined by a wealth of other mythical characters including Achilles, Hercules, King Lycomedes, Pan, Medussa, and many others. But no story based on Greek Mythology would be complete without the gods themselves, and in Rise of the Argonauts they are more than just plot devices.

Completing side-quests, conversations, and the main quest itself will see Jason earn favour with one of four gods; Apollo, God of healing and light; Hermes, God of cunning and trickery; Athena ,goddess of order, military, strategy and tactical thinking; Ares, god of battle and courage. Acquired favour can then be distributed between the gods which in return will grant Jason powers and assistance to aid him during his quest. So dedicating favour to Apollo for example would bless Jason with greater damage resistance and defense. As far as RPG style games go it is a very basic system but one that is so simple it works to fantastic effect.

As I already mentioned, another way to earn favour is through conversations. At points during dialogue with an NPC, like in most other RPG’s these days, you will be given the option of how you wish to reply. Each choice will grant you favour with a different god. Answering in an aggressive manner and Ares will grant you favour, respond in a more rational way will please Athena. Nothing really new in RPG’s these days but it certainly made a change from the oh so common good/evil choice of dialogue and a system that shapes your character in a more refined way.

With such a strong story there is obviously a lot of dialogue and talking during the game. In fact it would be fair to say that the combat side of Rise of the Argonauts plays second fiddle to the story and dialogue. But I don’t want you thinking that this is a bad thing, because it certainly isn’t. The dialogue, although it makes up most of the game, never becomes boring or tedious with every conversation moving along at a nice pace. I often find in some RPG’s that long streams of dialogue will have me hitting the ‘jog-on’ button to get things moving again. Never once did I feel the need to move things along during my time with Rise of the Argonauts. In fact the script has been written so well that I found myself wanting to talk to everyone I could.

Now although I mentioned that the combat plays second fiddle to the dialogue doesn’t mean it is shallow or even poorly executed. During the early stages of the game you would be forgiven for thinking that the combat all feels a little basic with just a couple of attack buttons used, one for a normal attack and another for a wounding attack. But it soon becomes obvious that combat is not just about charging in and bashing buttons. Rise of the Argonauts encourages tactical combat, to think about your actions rather than just mashing the buttons. Having these combat moments few and often far between makes the whole experience rather more believable than having reams of enemies constantly charging in like many games of this type would of done.

The problem is that this more tactile approach could be the game’s biggest downfall. The game opens to a nice combat training section followed shortly by a lot of exploring and walking around as you investigate just why those nasty Blacktongues assassinated your bride-to-be. One early side-quest tasks you with informing a warrior’s family that he fell in combat. Not exactly something many gamers will get excited about after saving the universe once again as yet another burly space marine. It is this that will see many gamers putting down the joypad and heading back to the shop and trading the game in, or even worse to avoid the game in the first place. But having played through it I would urge any gamer to stick with it. Rise of the Argonauts can feel a little slow burning at times but then if you like, or want, an intelligent game experience then this is it.

On the graphics side of things Rise of the Argonauts performs well, the environments of Ancient Greece look especially nice and the NPC characters that you meet along the way are all modeled to a high standard. The game uses the Unreal Engine 3 but Liquid Entertainment have done a great job in creating a unique look unlike many identikit games that some developers produce when using the Unreal Engine. However I also need to point out that the game does have on occasion a slight framerate issue, although these are few and far between and never more than a split second. So the main thing is that the odd graphical issue here and there are certainly not game-breaking in any way or form. In fact many of you will only notice them if you’re actively looking for issues.

Rise of the Argonauts features a soundtrack composed by Tyler Bates, more well known for his work on films like 300 and the upcoming Watchmen movie. The quality of his work really does show, with a full sweeping orchestral soundtrack playing throughout the game adds even more to an already highly produced package. With such a solid and well crafted script the voice acting is exactly what you would expect from an RPG game. With nice meaty sounding combat effects and soothing background ambiance anyone would be hard pressed to find fault with the audio in Rise of the Argonauts.

Overall Rise of the Argonauts will give you a lot of hours for your sterling, the replay value certainly comes in the bucket load category. Gamers looking for a mindless hack-and-slash experience should certainly look elsewhere. However those of you looking for an intelligent, well crafted, and engrossing RPG experience then this is the game to own. It is not often that Greek Mythology is used in games, but I can assure you that what Liquid Entertainment have created here is both compelling and a breath of fresh air. OK the game isn’t perfect and it does have a few technical hiccups, but then so did Knights of the Old Republic and look how popular that was!