The combat being fast isn’t always a good thing. You see, by default there’s no HUD display, and you’re supposed to look for visual cues as to Jason’s health like his clothing being torn, looking weaker and tired. Easier said than done, it’s hard to look for these small visual aspects when you’re surrounded by an angry crowd of enemies and you’re busy pulling off combo after combo. When you do get low on health, you don’t die (you ARE Jason, Greek king after all), the screen goes blurry ala Gears of War and you enter an “altered state of being” where the screen goes blurry and you have ten seconds to run around frantically and not get hit by any more enemies. Yeah, really.
Jason and his Argonauts are able to level up their weapons and abilities by gaining favor with the Gods.Each deity has a skill tree with more than twenty unlockable upgrades. To gain “points” to use in this system, you must dedicate achievements to whatever God’s skill tree you’re looking to upgrade on. The amount of skill points you get to upgrade your skills is proportionate to the size of the deed you do in the God’s name. For example, doing small tasks around a town will net you less than defeating a large number of enemies in battle. You can also earn favor by choosing dialogue choices that make said God happy, but again – you’ll tune yourself out of most conversations and more than likely avoid this option.
Aesthetically, Argonauts is far from God like – in fact, it would better be described as a peasant. While some of the facial animations are quite good, the rest of the visuals rival that of a latter generation Xbox, GameCube or PS2 game. More often than not, environments look like flat jumbles of color rather than anything noticeable – a huge letdown when you think of the imagination that could have gone into areas like Mount Olympus or each God’s respective island. Frame rate and clipping issues, mixed with a few absurdly funny animations (stairs seem to be a problem for Greek Kings) will have you cringing more often than not.
Fans of Greek mythology may get a kick out of Rise of the Argonauts, but will be turned off once they see the amount of liberties taken with the title’s story. Most other gamers won’t find much to enjoy here either, as the dialogue, which takes up the majority of the game is painfully boring and unimportant, and though the combat is decent – there’s just not enough it. If you’re looking for a game dealing with Greek mythology – do yourself a favor and stick to God of War.
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