Customer Reviews

Rise of the Argonauts

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Rise of the Argonauts is a strange game. The idea of creating a game around the saga of Jason and the Argonauts is a great one, and has lots of potential. The idea of creating a Mass Effect type game set in ancient Greece is a great one, with lots of potential. RPG-type power up system mixed with hack and slash gaming is a great idea too

The problems come in on the "but..." end of things. Great idea to use the Argonauts myth, BUT they basically wrecked that by making the game have absolutely zero to do with Greek mythology. All the character names are the same, but none of the characters are doing anything that they're supposed to be doing. The Argo is full of all new people, ie, NOT the actual Argonauts, and the quest for the golden fleece is still the same in name but they want it for a completely different purpose

None of the character relationships are the same either. People who are half-brothers in Greek myth are uncle and nephew in this game. People who are married in Greek myth are vague acquaintances in this game. People who live in completely different eras are united in the same time and place. No idea why they would do this, its completely unexplainable

One might as well have a Bible game that has Noah, Moses and Jesus wandering through the desert for 40 years together with the Jews, and at the end of it they fight the battle of Armageddon. That's the kind of hodgepodge you're faced with here

The dialogue trees are a good idea it seems, at first, until you realize that absolutely nothing you say makes any difference. Regardless of your choice, the people you're talking to will give you the same item or response. Occasionally you will talk to them and they will just repeat themselves over and over til you get to the part of the quest that causes them to change to a new set of selections

Tons of bugs too. Occasionally you'll talk to people who aren't there. People will appear and disappear for no reason. You select certain "god powers" which are basically just power up attacks from the D pad, and when you push down it gives you the power that's on the right, or you push up and get the down power. Just totally unexplainable things like that

Don't get me wrong, none of that makes the game unplayable. Its a pretty decent game, fun to play if a little unchallenging. I'm maybe 15 hours into it and plan on beating it before I put it down. Its by no means a 5 star game though, not another Mass Effect like some people here are claiming. Not a 1 star game either, like some people are saying

Basically if you want a game with lots of sword fighting and not much chance of actually dying, this is it. A game with lots of choices but no consequences if you make a bad one, this is it. A game that plays out like a movie, but not a movie you'd really want to see twice. Here it is

Hope that helps you make a decision on whether or not to give it a try

I agree, I don't understand how gaming review sites and magazines can condemn games so quickly, seemingly without being able to point out specific flaws. They tend to fall in step with each other in fear of writing a disagreeable review. This game should be a lot of fun and great for anyone with an inkling of Greek mythology. It provides a lot of new fun little features - like using achievements or combat feats instead of experience points to boost abilities - that set it apart, despite being too "streamlined in both action and RPG elements" for the boys over at IGN.

If you are in the mood for an RPG that changes the rules of Action RPG's then this is your game.

I've played the game for about 10 hours now, and I must say it has thrilled me and lured me in as much as Mass Effect did from last year.

This RPG comes highly recommended if you like great dialog, character relationships, story, simple yet elegant fighting systems, and logical game direction!

You will see some reviews giving this game a low score based on the fact that they think conservations are boring and that they think the pacing is too slow. You'll also see reviewers note that this game has too many technical flaws.

Both those claims are rubbish, there are frame rate issues, but what game doesn't have them, reviewers are spoiled and it shows when they dog on a terrifically neat title with no hype, such as this one.

Please give this one a try, I promise it is a hidden gem amongst the holiday crowd of guns and blood.

Thank for reading,

Mika'il

I thought this game was great. I am not the type for RPG games typically, as I usually lose interest too soon before finishing it. But for some reason I really got hooked on this one. The story line was fantastic, and game play was fun. Some say it is repetitive, but I don't see it that way. It WAS an easy game, and definitely NOT challenging. However, in the overall context of the game I think making some of the action scenes too difficult would drag the game on too long. I would guess it took about 12 hours or more to finish the game. (Not being a RPG gamer that is a long game for me).

Great story, great graphics, strong gameplay.

A big downfall of the game is it seems nearly impossible to level up your character in one pass-through of the game. In the game the leveling up is done by pleasing the gods and uncovering stars in constellations. I didn't see anyway to go back and replay areas to finish these side projects.

I spent a solid few hours playing this game and enjoyed every second of it. When I read the various reviews for it, I couldn't quite understand all the hate it was receiving. It seemed like people were judging it more for what they wanted it to be than what it was.

The story borrows liberally from the actual myth of Jason and the quest for the Golden Fleece and throws in a rather who's who of Greek mythology. It threw me off at first but I went with it, because I honestly felt that knowing what each twist and turn held in store by following the original source material verbatim would have been boring. I rather enjoyed having some of the big names from mythology on my side, rather than adhering strictly to the (incredibly long) list of actual argonauts. I'll take Achilles and Pan over Talaus and Zetes pretty much any day of the week. It made things feel a bit more epic, if slightly deviating from what the title might suggest.

The combat was by no means inadequate, it just wasn't anything particularly groundbreaking. Hack and slash from the moment you pull your weapon to the moment you put it away. I felt it was very reminiscent of the game Jade Empire in that you had multiple ways of approaching an opponent, some more effective on a given opponent than others, and ways to evade what they threw at you. Simple and effective, but by no means innovative.

The voice acting was suspect at times, particularly among the civilian extras. It didn't detract from the overall story though, and I think the story was actually very intriguing once you put aside the fact this wasn't the tale of the Golden Fleece you were immediately familiar with. I found some of it formulaic, but other bits did actually give me moments of surprise.

For those who felt there was far too much dialog, I can see your point to a limited degree but it IS a role playing game after all, what exactly did you expect? If all you want is to butcher things in a pseudo Greek mythological world with the occasional bit of story added in, the God of War series is that way -->.

Also to those of you who want to negatively hold this up to Mass Effect (one of my own personal favorite games of all time), I'd say you need to take a closer look at what Mass Effect really did that was incredibly innovative. And to that I would say: Not much. Mass Effect just did it better than others had before it. If you want to call quality "innovative", then that says more about the state of gaming than anything else.

To run the list:
1) Neither game had a particularly awesome combat setup. FPS was hardly something ME did first, nor best. Just like hack and slash melee wasn't a new trick RotA was attempting. Don't tell me that pointing targeting reticule at target was in anyway different than the other FPS games that came before. The biotics with the guns was no different than using a blaster and Force powers in Jedi Academy.
2) The visuals in both were less than stellar. ME made up for ridiculous looking humans with more well-done aliens, but I also though that Pan was particularly well done in RotA. Backgrounds and such I'll give the nod to Mass Effect.
3) As far as story, ME's was very enjoyable and I think THIS particular area was where RotA showed its flaws. Very little of what you say has any major impact in the outcome of the story. You can periodically choose to kill or not kill someone, to take or not take an item, but at the end of the day the destination remains the same whether you chose all Ares answers or all Apollo answers, and I think it could have been a lot better with more open choices, rather than 4 ways of saying the same thing to achieve the same outcome. ME beats it here, but I also thought the Knights of the Old Republic game did this better than even ME unfortunately. Both had lengthy dialog parts, the difference is that ME was (if you did the optional quests) just plain a longer game, so the talking seems more broken up.

I did like the fact that you had to actually remember (or properly guess) things said to you in order to make some of the dialog scenes go more smoothly. (The debate of the Golden Fleece, specifically) It gave everything a bit more cerebral tone than just having the right and wrong answers colored in blue and red. Gave you reason to pay attention to the dialog anyway.

Rise of the Argonauts is more like Jade Empire than it is Mass Effect. If you enjoyed Jade Empire, give this a look. You'll find a lot of it very familiar and it's a good way to kill a few evenings of casual play or 1-2 days at most of power-gaming through it.

Despite its faults, I found it to be an enjoyable game to sit through and it gave a unique new spin to material that had been beaten into the ground repeatedly by books, films and other games. A fun twist on classical material.

I read a bunch of reviews about this game before I bought it -- some of them so harsh that I almost passed on this title. I saw it on sale from a marketplace buyer for a good price, so I picked up.

At its heart, Rise of the Argonauts is a greek-themed role playing game with a solid combat mechanism for a RPG. Those who want it to be Mass Effect are on the right track. Compared to Mass Effect, the plot is not nearly as well developed and the side missions are more limited as are your choices. Jason is trying to bring his assassinated bride back to life with the help of his friends (especially a giant Hercules) and a handful of gods (Ares, Hermes, Apollo, and Athena).

The interface with the gods worked especially well. Every side mission and certain other accomplishments (such as killing enemies or certain dialog choices) give Jason awards that he may dedicate to one of the 4 patron gods. They, in turn allow him to buy special abilities and powers if Jason dedicates enough things to them. The bonuses work a lot leveling-up in traditional RPGs. Additionally, certain enemies have items that allow you acquire better equipment and weapons.

The weapons and the combat mode overall also works well. Rt and Lt bumpers switch between weapons (no cumbersome inventory wheel or screen YAY). the finishing moves are pretty good. I agree with other reviewers that for a combat system this well executed, there are not enough baddies.

There are some technical flaws (Jason cant jump and so open world is remarkably closed by rail fences or small stones across archway) and NO in-game mini-map which drives me a little nuts (you can find the map screen through start button).

No, it doesnt not recreate the ancient greek story, but Rise of the Argonauts tells its own story in an interesting enough way. I award this game for its setting and approach. And only fault it that it was not more fully developed.

I would rate this game 3.5 stars if I had that option. It is about a 7/10 game to me.

The one major problem with this game is that there is not enough action and too much walking around talking to people. It wouldn't be so bad doing all the walking if there was more combat to go along with it, but the game is lacking in this department.

The next point is that the game is too easy. I finished the game on the hardest difficulty in two days and never really had any problems with any of the enemies. All you have to do is set up your god powers and perks and everything is a little too easy. To be fair, I didn't get 1,000 gamerscore on this game (I actually got 620), so there were things that I didn't do. The big problem with the things I didn't do is that you can't go back and do them. If you leave a certain place you can never go back, so find all the herms and talk to all the people everywhere you go BEFORE you do whatever completes the level, or you won't get all the achievements.

Another thing... you won't be able to get 1,000 on this game without playing it multiple times, as you have to max out all the god powers/abilities for all gods for all the achievements and you cannot do that on one play.

The fighting system is fine, but it is sometimes hard to do weapon changes while doing combos. This didn't stop me from enjoying the game, but I did stop trying to do weapon swaps in combat. The god powers are a big help in combat; sometimes too helpful. It is easy to kill everything, even on the hardest difficulty.

The graphics on the game are good in places and extremely poor in others. The textures for grass, trees, weeds, etc. are some of the worst I have ever seen. You can walk beside a tree and see that it is just a flat object with no depth. It is like the trees and things were drawn on paper and then hung up as if they were trees. I thought it was pretty funny to see how little effort went into these things. The characters look fine, but there is nothing earth shattering there either.

Even with the problems noted, I still enjoyed the game and I think that a lot of others would too if they give it a chance.

Sometimes you have to reach for new gaming experiences. I play just about everything- even cross platform. To give you an idea I'm currently playing about 10 games off and on and will likely complete each of them. I give this information as a backdrop for why I like this game so much. I'm playing Oblivion, Reach, Infamous 2, Insect Armageddon, and a couple other games. It's hard not to move around with so many great options but sometimes you just have to try something with a story matter you like and you get pulled in.

Such was the case with Rise of the Argonauts by Codemasters. It is not a polished game. It has bugs equivilent to the bug scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Texture mapping issues, character dialog issues (characters not speaking with their lines), Graphics are not revolutionary by any means and look very dated- maybe not quite xbox outdated but not in line with todays' blockbusters. It has loading issues to a minor extent. This is no Oblivion. It is linear to a large extent with roaming within a framework so it is not a sandbox game nor is it purely a linear drudge.

What makes Rise of the Argonauts special and in my humble opinion a missed opportunity for most gamers is its passionate ability to craft storytelling and legend. Though surely not accurate legend but more fiction in parts it still manages to draw you in. On a quest with Hercules and assorted other characters you will use armor, a spear, mace and sword to progress through a tale of a husband who has lost his wife in the wars of his homeland. He refuses to accept this fate and launches his boat in the search for a way to bring his beloved wife back from Valhalla. Though noone believes this is plausable, he refuses to accept that as a viable answer and sets off. There are unknown lands with mythical creatures to explore. The character interaction is superb.

You will find yourself actually caring what happens in this story. Dialogue with other NPCs is morality based. You will choose between 4-5 responses which will change the story accordingly. I felt the desire to look around the next corner to see what may lie in wait. You can upgrade your character with powers from 4 Gods from Olympus, It is up to you which you upgrade and there are dozens of upgrades that effect your character in each Gods grace.
You will have the opportunity to upgrade all of your armor as well as your weapons. This also builds the pacing quite nicely. There are places within the world that you might call "points of interest" as you must walk up to various statues and learn of the mythology that supports it. The worlds are varied and different.

The fighting in the game is not revolutionary and though satisfying is not the main draw in this game. It is on par with most action RPGs in the battle department though this is certainly not the main draw. It is the story and the characters that make this game live. Despite it's shortcomings this is can't miss gaming with an emmersive story and it makes you forgive it for it's outdated aspects by spinning a rewarding and engrossing story. Try it with these thoughts in mind and not from a graphical standpoint and you will be well rewarded.

Some of the best games in history do not stand up to newer technology and graphics. But i believe it would be a waste to pass on this game which went under the radar to a large extent. If you like Greek Mythology and a well paced story you will find hours of enjoyment with Jason and his band of Argonauts! you would be remiss to discard this as just another discount game in the bargain bin. Enjoy!

while i admit the combat is creative, satisfying, and what you would expect in real life sword fighting, and the dialog is interesting, if not too drug out. Most of the time you are usually playing detective unless you talk to everybody! i think we should have got a tour, or a chance to take one, or say for example on Kythra, Pan could have say something like, "you are going in a cirle Jason, i was afraid to ask, but now that you have wasted a hour, and have not got anywhere, i had to say something." if you have a little patience and love a good action game and/or rpg, this is a definite buy. Game is rather short, and i can not get the corona concellation, i think it is impossible, there are not enough people to kill, or aspect points. (if anyone from liquid entertainment or codemasters reads this, correct Ed Del Castillo,he said "People don't want long games, they will stop in the middle and not finish it,"( just sell it i guess), i do not know about other rpg and action game fans out their, but i love long fulfulling games that are fun, like """"RISE OF THE ARGONAUTS"""", if you guys make a longer, just as fun sequel, i am definitly buying it and so will all others that get a chance to play it!)

This is one of the most complete games I have ever played with an adventure for the ages. It had a right mix of speaking portions with action. For anyone complaining about the amount of speaking parts, you will be amazed for the last two hors of the game is nothing but standing side by side with your fellow argonauts and taking out every enemy that crosses your path. This is a story of love, courage, and vengance. This is easily one of the best games of the year.