Game Review: Rise of the Argonauts

I'm really enjoying this game. It's called a fantasy action role-playing game but really it's a hack-n-slasher with some minor variations with the speed and gratuity of said hacking and slashing.

The game loosely follows the story of Jason, of the Golden Fleece fame, as he attempts to undo the murder of his bride and literally travels to hell and back to do it.

The story is your typical multi-part search quest where you have to find three enchanted McGuffins to help you do the Jesus thing on your sexy dead wife.

The love:

This game is getting a little old at this point - one of the earlier releases for the Xbox 360 - it's nearly three years old. Despite this, it's aging very well - the graphics are still pretty, and while they'll never WOW you, the characters are all well drawn and the battle animations are all very satisfying to watch.

There are two things that I really love about this game.

The first is the music. Each location is made vastly different by the usage of horns, low-tone vocals and woodwind instruments. Each piece of music sets the scene perfectly and conveys a true sense of being in ancient Greece. The reason why I mention the musically specifcally is that quite a few games fail in this regard; Halo has adequate music but it doesn't really make you feel like you're on an alien planet fighting a whole bunch of pantsless blue bipedal creatures. Argonaut's music just feels right.


The second part that is remarkable is the characterisation of the gods in the game; as you embark on your quest, four of the ancient Greek deities bless you directly with their strength, power and wisdom.
What's enjoyable about this is that they are excellent representations of the mythology - Ares, god of war, is bloodthirsty, direct and respects only courage and determination; Hermes, messenger of the gods, is a magnificent trickster whose every line is a witticism or a jest; Athena, goddess of wisdom, is as stuffy and pompous as you'd expect from a deity who cares for nothing but virtue.
Jason himself gets well characterised - his speech is proud, defiant, and filled with grief at his loss. It's also a welcome change for the primary protagonist to be a fully-developed King, rather than a noble-in-training like in the Prince of Persia trilogy.



The hate:


There are a few quibbles that I have with this game. For starters, it's fairly buggy at times, especially in combat; oftentimes I will execute a flashy and entertaining whirlwind of death only to have the finishing blow ruin the effect because the man on the receiving end of my blade is now lying a half metre above the ground while clipping out of a rock.


Most of the NPCs tend to be unexpressive and blandly voiced, which is disappointing when compared to the quality and expressiveness of Jason.
I'd really expect Grandma Erudite to be a little more upset than simply "oh dear, that's terrible news. I need to sit down" after I just bifurcated her son for gambling.


Which brings me to my biggest complaint - the moral choice system. All of your choices fit into one of four categories - based on your four patron deities. The choices are
(1) Apollo - adherence to duty and most likely for "canonical" decisions
(2) Athena - wise and fair; justice will be done but it won't nearly be as satisfying as
(3) Hermes - perpetually smart-arse; and finally my favourite
(4) Ares - almost always violent. How do you get your wife back from the dead? Killing motherfuckers. That guy just called your wife a whore and your homeland filled with loose women. Are you going to ignore it as a king should, or are you going to stab that dickhead through the eye socket with your spear?


Herein lies my complaint with the moral choice system. I inevitably will pick the Ares choice every time because every other choice makes Jason look like a complete wuss. What kind of king waxes philosophical with the murderer of his queen when there's a flaming mace in his hand that would look so much cooler adorned with man-brains?
The choices have an impact on the game but there's just no way that anyone would want to do any of the other choices. I don't want the non-violent solution to a problem in a hack and slash game. I want the asshole option, the dickhead option, the bastard option and maybe even the "GOD NO! MY EYE! YOU STABBED ME IN THE EYE AFTER I SURRENDERED!" option.


It's fun without being all consuming - the playtime is probably about 12 hours total; so it's a relatively short game for a single-player only experience. But there is nothing quite as satisfying as watching Jason go slow-mo as he chops an Ionian mercenary into halves.