Greek mythology is a field of lore which game developers have foraged since Kid Icarus. It was no surprise when I found out that Jason and his Argonauts were going to appear in their own game. What did surprise me was that Codemasters was going to publish and Liquid Entertainment was going to develop. Skepticism welled up as I perused liquids recent outings, which consist of the Battle Realms RTS and, to my surprise, a Desperate Housewives PC game. Reminiscing of my days with God of War I put trust into Codemasters decision, hoping that Rise of the Argonauts (RoA) would deliver an excellent narrative to a wonderful story. Instead, they delivered an unpolished Action-Adventure containing a mediocre narrative hindered by little Action and no Adventure.
You play the role of Jason. After your wife’s murder you set out with a band of heroes to retrieve the Golden Fleece, the artifact capable of returning your wife to the mortal world. While this does not hold true to the “actual” story of Jason, it works well. The simplified version uses familiar names from the tale, Pelias, Medea, and Atalanta, and does a decent job of balancing its new take using common Greek mythology (satyrs, Minotaur). The story, while not enthralling, is the games strongest point. It is told through a conversation wheel akin to Mass Effect but instead of good, neutral, or evil each conversation choice is aligned with a patron god, Ares, Athena, Apollo, or Hermes. These choices don’t determine the outcome of the conversation; it just applies a different approach. Athena’s are wise, Ares’ are straight forward, Apollo’s are caring, and Hermes’ are sarcastic. You will spend a majority of your time talking (about 40%) and the rest split evenly between exploring and fighting. This works in the game’s favor. Although I began to read ahead and skipped some of the voice acting (for good reason) the plot has own twists and turns and I had more fun with oration than evisceration.
The first thing you will notice about RoA is the camera and the music. The camera is too close. By too close I mean your television will have sweat stains from Jason’s back. To further compound this issue it’s erratic during combat. It constantly swings around searching for Jason’s back and causes blind swings as enemies move in and out of view, akin to Kingdom Hearts. The camera is mapped to the right stick and while this does alleviate some of the issues, your right thumb must also dodge and activate special attacks. A tricky dichotomy. The game sounds great. It is composed by the same man that composed “300.” The opening and subsequent music throughout fits well. To its detriment, the music takes a back seat to the dialogue. It plays when you are close to death but after a couple of hours, I rarely noticed it any other time. It tends to glitch near the end of the game as well. Character voices fade in and out and the background music cuts out completely.
The camera’s close nature also hampers the graphics. The worlds are lush and provocative but the camera rises only a few inches from its stationary position. Coupled with the small tunnel-like paths you traverse in the game, the grand scale of the quest is lost. The Unreal Engine is capable of delivering attractive graphics but it seems only in Epic’s hands. Jason and his fellow Argonauts are represented in detail but everything remaining falls to the way side. Lackluster particle effects and facial expressions that don’t match the content plague RoA. At one point Jason was yelling with a somber look on his face at a man I had talked to on another Island. (Hint: he wasn’t the same fellow). Having a game that isn’t much to look at debilitates any desire to explore it.
