Hey hey, y’all. I bet I can hear an echo in this empty blog, but for what it’s worth I thought I’d post my impressions on a game that’s received very little post-release coverage online at the moment: Rise of the Argonauts.
The gameplay style is simple: single-player, action-RPG. The developers appear to have spent more time on fine-tuning the “action” portions of the gameplay, as all combat is real-time and reminiscent of God of War (though, not as good as); however, you’ll spend a sizable amount of time on the very, very light RPG elements. As described by some, the dialogue trees use an interface that seems to have been lifted entirely from Mass Effect. Beyond talking to people, you’ll find yourself on simple fetch quests on the first 4 islands of the game, and all throughout you can level up your skills in an interesting way that’s consistent with the game’s Greek setting.
Storytelling
I’ll start with the RPG/narrative elements of the game, which are mostly executed well. Playing as Jason, king and warden of the island Iolcus, the game opens to your wedding to Alceme, princess to the Ares-worshiping people of Mycenae, and your childhood friend. She gets assassinated. You hunt down the killers, who are not a band, but a shadowy group thought to be long gone by your father-in-law’s hand, but they’re baaaaack. The rest of the game is of Jason’s quest to resurrect Alceme, a feat he hopes to achieve by acquiring the magical Golden Fleece. All the story’s told via in-game cutscenes, which look quite good at times (see the details on Jason’s shield, the texture on some of the weapons and armour), and a little sub-par at others (everyone’s hair is a solid clump of Gatsby-powered goodness). When speaking, character animations are a tad stiff, but the writing is good and delivered well, so that before game’s end you will likely admire Jason for his leadership, unwavering sense of purpose, and clear logical thinking. As expected, the tale takes some liberties with the actual lore of Jason and the Argonauts, but it’s for the best–I read up the Wiki on the Greek mythology, and the game’s characters are a lot more likable, plus the tale is far less convoluted. Yay.
Leveling up is quite interesting. As you seek to recruit members to your crew, you will perform deeds on 4 Greek isles (including your home of Iolcus). Completed deeds can be dedicated to either of Jason’s 4 patron gods–Ares, Hermes, Apollo and Athena–who govern Jason’s skill and powers in 4 weapons: mace, sword, shield and spear, respectively. You can dedicate deeds (and thus level up) at any time from the pause menu, although interacting with shrines will do just as well. When it’s stripped down, we’re looking at “deeds” as XP or skill points, and the gods as embodiments of skill trees, but all in it’s an admirable effort in immersing you within the game world. Sadly, some of the abilities you unlock become meaningless in the light of your equipment upgrades; certain weapons/armour have the same effect as some of the powers you obtain via leveling up, making one wonder why you should bother building up some skill trees at all.
Still, every piece of equipment you don or wield is visible, and it’s satisfying to see Jason proudly wear the new armour an in-game character gave you for saving their village. Some of these weapons are truly incredible, such as the Spear of Virtue you can acquire on Hythra, which spawns a lightning trap at the place where any enemy falls to the spear, plus auto-casting Brilliance, an Athena-aligned spell that both stuns foes and heals Jason. I to the M to the B to the A.
Jason keeps fit by running to and fro on Greek islands even though he’s in a race against time to find the fleece, and all the running’s manual, with Rise bereft of any fast-teleporting mechanic that’s come to be appreciated in recent RPG efforts such as Fallout 3 and Fable 2. It’s a shame, because it drags out the game unnecessarily. There were times, particularly on Mycenae, where you might talk to somebody deep within the palatial grounds, only to be sent on a quest to talk to someone nearly at the harbour. Along the way, you’ll wait for gates and doors to be opened by guards, which seem to be thinly-veiled loading screens. It’s probably the worst on Mycenae, though, if that helps.
Combat
The combat engine appears strong on paper: you have light and strong attacks, a shield bash (acts as a stun-parry if timed right) to open up guarding foes, a dodge-roll maneuver, guard, special attack modifier (right trigger), and the ability to swap weapons during a fight. Jason always carries a sword, spear and mace into every fight, along with his shield that’s been handed down for generations of Iolcan kings. That makes it disappointing that the camera often stays too far away from Jason to help you discern order from the bloody carnage of combat. Your view of Jason may even be blocked by enemies, and while you can swivel the camera freely, you cannot zoom. Thankfully, combat’s not particularly difficult for most of the time, but the game is clearly trying for a God of War-esque standard, and it does not come close. There’s an awful lot of shield-bearing enemies, which renders the sword quite useless as it doesn’t shatter shields as quickly as a mace, and it cannot follow up with an attack from a shield bash like the spear can. Holding the right trigger modifies your attacks based on the weapon being used, but the sword’s is a dashing slash, and the spears is a sideways sweep with an oddly short range, leaving only the mace’s ground stomp to be of any use, as it knocks down all opponents within the blast radius. Odd design choices like this make combat far less satisfying than it should and clearly could be. As a result, the engine is servicable, but fights often feel like they involve little skill, a lot of repetitious attack patterns (from YOU), and lack a clear sense of who’s being hit or not. Your teammates, which you carry 2 at a time into battle, sometimes block your path too.
Overall
Rise is a game that can be engaging if you stick with it, thanks to some very good scripting and voice acting. Perhaps as by-product of 300, certain scenes made me want to yell, “Spartaaaaa!!!” That fantasy is certainly helped by Jason’s passing resemblance to Gerard Butler’s Leonidas, goatee, spear, shield and impossible abs. Few gameplay sequences depart from the norm set early on: pick an isle, talk to lots of people, fetch quest fetch quest fetch quest, fight a little bit, talk a lot more. The ones that do are memorable, such as a public debate against a sophist of a villain, and resurrecting enemies very late in the game that give a glimpse of how fun combat could have been. The plot itself isn’t hard to predict, but ironically, the emphasis on dialogue may make you care about the characters more than you would have otherwise. Final word? Rent, or sell the game second-hand once you’re done, and then get back to some triple-A titles that deserve a more permanent place in your library.
–Eric.
