Rise of the Argonauts
- Become a hero in a primal tale based on an epic legend cunningly re-imagined
- Fight alongside Hercules, Achilles and other fabled heroes, each with their own extraordinary powers
- Breakthrough real-time combat system with dynamic animations and visual hurt modeling
- Develop and upgrade multiple weapons, specialized killing techniques, finishing moves and more
- Travel to dozens of unique islands filled with richly researched, intricate detailing
Product Description
Rise of the Argonauts PS3Amazon.com Product Description
Go back in time to an era where the Gods themselves walked the earth, and where the battles that occurred brought such fame to their heroes that their tales still reverberate today. With Rise of the Argonauts for the PlayStation 3, gamers can immerse themselves in one of the grandest tales to be told in the history of modern civilization.
You can immerse yourself into the grand tale and mythology of Jason and the Argonauts. View larger. |
Rise of the Argonauts has a look that evokes Ancient Greece. View larger. |
The Tale Unfolds
As the King of Iolcus, Jason had everything: a prosperous kingdom, the respect of his peers and a gorgeous fiance, the princess Alceme. But when she was assassinated on their wedding day, Jason vowed to take revenge on her killers, and to restore her life. To accomplish this feat, you, as Jason, must seek out the Golden Fleece with the help of Greek mythology’s greatest
Jason gains new abilities and weapons as he progresses owing to the game. View larger. |
heroes. An epic-scale, action role-playing game (RPG), Rise of the Argonauts immerses gamers in a gladiatorial adventure engaged in brutal combat, with warriors such as Hercules, Pan and Achilles as they traverse a world ruled by mythological gods.
Incredibly Absorbing Play
Rise of the Argonauts immerses players completely in the world of ancient Greece. One way this is accomplished is by streamlining the RPG elements in exciting new ways. For example, rather than increasing arbitrary stats like ‘Intelligence plus one’, items and upgrades give Jason unique, tangible abilities like the Fist of Ares, which causes shields to explode, ripping apart nearby enemies. And individual battles aren’t dependant upon a hit-point and dice system. If you manage to get behind a shield and slice into your enemies’ neck, their head will be cleaved from their shoulders. The developers also spent time researching the look and feel of ancient Greek artwork, crafts and architecture for a richness of surrounding that is astonishing.
As in ancient Greece, in Rise of the Argonauts players must curry the favor of the Gods. As you realize deeds, you can dedicate them to different gods. A god’s favor will also be affected by choices you make in conversations with non-player characters. As your favor, or disfavor, with a particular god rises, your abilities will be affected in view of that. But be careful, because the gods like few things better than meddling in the lives of their human subjects.
Incredible Battles are Loads of Fun
The battle system in Rise of the Argonauts is unadorned enough to pick up quickly, but has more finesse than your typical button masher. In battling enemies you weaken their armor, then their limbs, eventually finishing them off. Weapons can be switched mid-battle to let loose devastating combos, while using god-contracted powers can also cause honest hurt. Players can also choose how to defeat their enemies, and in so doing find fascinating new allies. For example, in one of your battles you will fight Medusa herself. If you kill her, her brother Perseus will grieve for her but join you on your quest. If you save Medusa, but, Athena will command her to join your crew as a beginning to her penance for her misdeeds.
In Rise of the Argonauts gamers will find a deep, and enthralling tale that is matched only by the fun of playing it. With a wide range of upgradeable weapons, loads of different heroes to help you, gods to entreat, and an ever-changing tale that is constantly affected by the choices you make, the possibilities seem endless. Add to that stunning visuals, a musical score made by film composer Tyler Bates, and a charming blend of action and RPG that is new to the genre, and this is a game you simply must check out.
You’ll recognize characters from classic myths such as Medusa and her head of snakes.
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I’ve been looking forward to Rise of the Argonauts (ROTA) since I saw it previewed in Game Informer magazine way back in May 2007. It intrigued me with a dynamic combat system tied to a robust role-playing experience, complete with character-building owing to a unique and innovative still tree system.
Unfortunately, the final product is a sub-par, apparently rushed mess, and for most players, an utter dissipate of $60.
First, I was disappointed with the graphics, which compared to development shots, looked very “last-gen” when compared to other PS3 options — like The Force Unleashed, Dead Space, and Call of Duty: World at War. Although separate genres, these titles show the potential and potential of the system, which ROTA does not live up to. Although it boasts bright, plain colors, the by and large presentation is marred by muddy textures and stiff, unsatisfactory character models. Despite the lack of detail, combat causes the game to drop frames with normal audio pops, which smack of a sloppiness in the final phases of design and quality control.
Speaking of combat, the experience is ultimately unfulfilling. With three unique weapons –sword, mace, and spear — I expected fights to depend upon strategic use of these tools against particular enemies. Instead, I found all enemies to be virtually identical in offense and defense, and dispatching them simply requires pounding on and destroying their shield and then the undefended body. With the exception of the spear vs. mace battle, I found very small benefit in exploting the relationships between battles. The spear can bypass shields against mace-armed enemies, but with swords and maces, you just end up beating away on your opponents till they die. Though spectacular in appearance, special powers are impractically slow to use and charge up in combat and, in my estimation, not really needed as the enemies are strategically identical.
The role playing aspect of the game suffers as well. Though boosted by an intriguing tale, I reflect most players will eventually really not care how it ends. Problems with pacing (i.e., hours of errand-running and conversation rewarded with literally minutes of combat), lack of a heads-up map feature, and dull objectives made me quite unmotivated to continue. The skill-tree system is rewardingly complex, but the rewards of character development in combat are hard to see given the lack of opportunities for combat itself in the gameand the obvious lack of need for these godly powers for them as outlined above. Conversation with non-player characters (NPCs) is dull and unfulfilling as most of the side-quests involve mundane tasts such as delivering messages. Your fellow Argonauts are uninspiring and a pain in battle — mostly because they either stand around or steal kills from you!
All in all, the straw that broke the camel’s back for me was the design flaws. I was willing to deal with slow pacing and insipid tasks if rewarded by satisfactory combat, but having spend literally hours building up to the first real mission (once you have the Argo and have visited Delphi and get to “choose” the island to which you travel), I was met by game-breaking problems. After wandering around in the jungle, taking a branching path and finding naught but a dead end, I finally proceeded as scripted to find my first fight of the level. I was excited to face off against a mob of foes, but soon, the buggy gameplay had me turning the system off to never play ROTA again. The frame rate lagged, the audio popped, and my Argonauts (Hercules and Pan), stood around and got killed — most likely a bug. At that point, I couldn’t bear the game any farther.
My advice to players would be to rent it first and choose how they feel about it before buy. You certainly shoudn’t buy it at the $50-60 price point, but if someone feels strongly after a rental trial, it might be worth picking up from the bargain bin. I don’t reflect it will take long for this stinker to get there.
All in all, I see ROTA as a lost chance, a possibly innovative action/RPG experience that fell small of potential.
Rating: 1 / 5
This is a splendid game. The game play is fun and the tale line is brilliant. Most sports meeting get too much into the game play and forget having a truly intriguing storyline. This one is splendid on all aspects. Delight in!
Rating: 5 / 5
Wow I was super surprised by how much fun and how much this game sucked me into the tale line and game play. There are the common player setup choices you can make as to how terribly you want to die. The Graphics are splendid. Not to many glitches. My largest complaint is the save data system. I have still have yet to truly figure it out but I do know if you don’t save a lot can lose and entire time of your playtime and if that happens you will go nuts and rip your hair out. By the way I am bald.
The tale is cool and the way the ancient religion has been set up. I really like this game have only quit to sleep. Cool system of managing your special powers. You align yourself with the Gods. Athena, Apollo, Hermes, and Ares. You get to manage those God powers all over the place before battles markets etc but most vital on your ship as you make your journey to get the golden fleece. This is really a fun game and will give you a excellent time for the cash. It is rated M that is for sure as you get to slice humans, terrible guys, mythological monsters in half, loose heads, etc. and the babes are pretty cute too.
Rating: 5 / 5
If possible – I would have given 3.5/5
This game is better than the critics said!! I thought it could have been a splendid game, but fell small of that. The tale is splendid, I just wish the game around it was executed better.
Before I start with the gameplay, the graphics on this game are just above PS2 level, slightly better simply because the HD allows it to stay non-pixelated on my 50″ TV. The movement is not charming, and in fact found myself getting asinine when I played in certain areas.
The game combines the concepts of an action fighting game like a God of War, with that of a dialogue choice driven RPG like Nothingness. In person I have been waiting for such a game. I like Nothingness’s RPG stylishness, but the melee fighting system is so dull. If someone can take Nothingness and make the melee fighting fun, that would be my exact game. Unfortunately, Argonauts fails to deliver a solid game on both fronts, and gets caught in the middle. The main 2 complaints…(1) not enough enemies, and (2) No chance to re-explore.
RPG Aspects: The game kept too much long-winded dialogue with no real options, other than deciding which God you want to earn favor with, so the RPG element is not engaging, and burns many hours of gameplay time.
You do not level-up, but instead have set tasks that must be accomplished, many are optional. For each task you can complete, you can dedicate each to one of the Gods. You earn enough points and you get to brilliant a new enhancement from that guard…mostly stat boosts, but some are special attacks.
The main conundrum comes form the fighting issue…that is…there is sooo small fighting in this game. Plus you can only use the “god powers” once maybe twice in a fight, so the bonuses, weapons, and all the stuff you work hard to increase over these hours of dialogue parts is not taken advantage of.
You fight with a sword, shield, mace, and spear at all times, so you get copious weapons throughout and some cool attacks, and again, offered a cool aspect, but with the lack of fighting, not enough playing to be done with the various weapons.
Fighting: Not enough!! Some cool finishing moves, and by and large I thought the fighting was very fun!! The combo systems are excellent,but no where near the level of GOW or Heavenly Sword even, and certainly cannot even be compared to Ninja Gaiden Sigma…which is my personal favorite as far as fighting mechanics. Graphics would have helped with the impact of the killing moves.
Once you defeat enemies they are beat, forever. There is a few set spots on each penetrate that activate a battle sequence, and that’s it for the fighting. When you get to Tartarus you finally get to keep your weapon out the entire penetrate and practice some combos…unfortunately this is basically the end of the game.
Bottom-line: If you delight in mythology, and don’t mind a tale primarily told by going around towns collecting information/history, helping people out, and don’t mind stretches of 2-3 hours of gameplay w/o a fight, this game can be very fun. I loved it by and large, and played it all the way owing to. Just wish there was a few areas to explore where enemies either respawned…or they simply place way more enemy encounters in the game. A unadorned thing would have been to have some Blacktongue assassins randomly show up a few more times per level.
Rating: 4 / 5
NB: For those of you who like RPGs, this is DEFINITELY NOT an action rpg, so please, don’t be fooled. This is a substandard “God Of War” clone with only the thinnest spreading of charm to recommend it.
Boasting a paper-thin plot (wife killed, quest begun, allies recruited, baddies defeated – it is literally that linear) and a mawkish, awkward interface (there is no minimap and the secondary powers HUD is deeply unresponsive), “Rise Of The Argonauts” could have been so, so excellent, but lets both itself and you terribly down in all categories that make a videogame splendid.
GRAPHICS: 0/5
The PS2 could handle this game, and do it without all the (inexplicable) brake. Disgusting character modeling and texturing (witness Atalanta’s “floating arms” syndrome, sharp edges and abominable pixellation of EVERYTHING up-close) are matched only by the uninspired lighting, insipid backgrounds and frankly ridiculous level design. This game is UGLY with a capital UG, and does not belong on contemporary-gen consoles.
SOUND: 1/5
Poor voice acting is not helped by a time delay after each sentence is completed, and the much-touted score by Tyler Bates is castrated by some honest over-use (the repetition rate of the pieces of music played while accessing the Aspect screen, and during a State Of Grace cycle, is in fact ridiculous – try not to be infuriated by it. You will not succeed). The nicest thing one can say about the aural atmosphere in “Rise Of The Argonauts” is that it’s slightly better than having hardware issues with the sound chip in your PS3.
PLAYABILITY: 1/5
You run to one end of a convoluted jungle, witness a cutscene, then access two menu screens to see your map with updated objectives, only to be shown that you need to run all the way back to the beginning of the area… …to do again the same process again.
If that last sentence was hard to read, presume how hard it is to stay engaged with the game it’s describing.
“Rise Of The Argonauts” could have saved itself in this regard if Codemasters had bothered to make a fluid battle system we could delight in using, but no: it’s witless hack-n’-slash action requiring no attention to detail that gets dull after five minutes: luckily, the game is incredibly simple, too, so it won’t be long before you’re dispatching the game’s final boss and you get to place the disc back into its box, and play something decent instead.
Greek myths are cool – the legend of Jason and the tale of the Golden Fleece doubly so, and in one or two tiny areas “Rise Of The Argonauts” does manage to dredge up a small mythological charm, most notably around the island of Kythra. But pretty soon you’ll forget this, as you’re off to the Underworld to fight more glowing green baddies with pellet powers. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn.
OVERALL: 0/5
Epic, this is not. Epic Fail… …well, yeah. I am at a total loss to know why people like this game. For my cash, it’s technically redundant, unplayable and completely unoriginal.
You’re far better off buying the God Of War sports meeting and a cheap PS2, if you really need an action-driven tale-based game set in Ancient Greece. “Rise Of The Argonauts” is absolutely terrible.
Avoid.
Rating: 1 / 5