Rise of the Argonauts

 PC
User Score
7.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 78 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 40 out of 78
  2. Mixed: 33 out of 78
  3. Negative: 5 out of 78
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  1. AaronGoodman
    Jan 21, 2009
    8
    Well, I have not yet finished this game, but it has been a very enjoyable game from my perspective. I'm not a huge RPG fan, but this game hits a nice balance between just enough RPG and Action to keep me hooked. Even though I have had my share of dialog related crashes with the game, it is still a very well done game and looks fantastic on my gaming rig at 1680x1050. I get around 85Well, I have not yet finished this game, but it has been a very enjoyable game from my perspective. I'm not a huge RPG fan, but this game hits a nice balance between just enough RPG and Action to keep me hooked. Even though I have had my share of dialog related crashes with the game, it is still a very well done game and looks fantastic on my gaming rig at 1680x1050. I get around 85 fps average for the whole game.… Expand
  2. ibitato
    Nov 5, 2014
    9
    from my steam acc:
    Rise of the Argonauts Review
    General Score : 9/10 Worth playing ? : Yes Replay value : Yes, but not for me. Be warned that I played the whole game using a gamepad, and I do not consider any other way to play such games if not with an xbox controller or game pad. On the combat part of the game, because of this, your mileage may vary in contrast to mine. Perfect    from my steam acc:
    Rise of the Argonauts Review
    General Score : 9/10
    Worth playing ? : Yes
    Replay value : Yes, but not for me.

    Be warned that I played the whole game using a gamepad, and I do not consider any other way to play such games if not with an xbox controller or game pad. On the combat part of the game, because of this, your mileage may vary in contrast to mine.

    Perfect example of one good game, that is a victim of it's own ambitions, but at least for me, this time, it is a positive thing.

    Sometimes you can use Metacritic as a external support for your own conclusions:
    Critic score:59
    User score:7.2

    You know why ??, because many of the players that reviewed the game on Metacritic and myself ,had the balls to hold up and finish the game, not like those "critics" that gave the game a 59.

    Let aside the "twists" developers did on Greek mythology to build up the game, it excels on the story itself, voice acting and companions.

    The message of humility, courage, wisdom, discipline and justice (Athena's virtues) spread all along the game's story, combined with other's Greek gods good and bad virtues, is just a great teaching for everyone.

    Hell,close to the ending of the game, developers even let you go over Greek mythology on the creation of the world and all living things.

    Through all the game, I was amazed how the selfish and particular desire of Jason (to revive his dead wife) was coped , mixed and contrasted with all this mythology, where serving the others and acting for the greater good above our own desires is the goal.

    The first 8 hours of the game, I must admit that there is too much of dialog and too little on action.

    The dialog system is smart, every dialog option you take is tied to a different god, so it's an alignment system. The way you think, the way you respond to dialogs, aligns you more with one of other Greek god(s).

    All the deeds you achieve, via combat, quests, achievements or dialogs can be praised to a different god,thus, giving you access to different buffs and abilities trees.

    First 8 hours of the game, this buffs and abilities might no seem much of a change, but later on, it is.

    I specialized on Athena's (my favorite deity, of all there are) and the lighting - powers I got where an amazing spectacle on combat.

    Combat pretty much is an arena combat, you get on a closed area, and fight your way out.

    There are puzzles to be solved both in combat situations, and in normal quest situations.

    3 different combat styles, really cool all of them. Sword, Mace and Spear.

    Amazing usage of the shield ,and the shield charge against enemies to open up defenses.

    The combat in general is really good, but at the second half of the game , it just rocks the boat.

    Gods powers on combat are just the ice on the cake.

    Companions are pretty useless on combat (unless you buff them al lot via skill trees), but all of them have great personality, characterizations and dialogs. You choose 2 of them to go with you , on different places.

    So first half of the game, gets you into the plot with a lot of dialog, backtracking,some lackluster quests an little combat...... This is where I think most of the people quit playing the game.

    Second part of the game, just gets better and better until there is no effort in continuing playing the game. I must admit, that I managed to pass the first 6 hours because I like a lot Greek and Roman mythology, and I was thrilled with the game's plot, twists on the Jason story overall and with the general message on the game. The scenarios are great and graphics are OK, besides some half ♥♥♥ job on some NPCs. The fact there is no direct access to the map (you have to navigate menus to it) just makes me want to punch someone on the face.    … Expand
  3. Deracial
    Oct 31, 2014
    9
    Really interesting game, if only for the progression mechanics. You dedicate feats to the a god and gain skill in that god's skill tree. Very well planned and implemented.

    The story is interesting if a little predictable. The voice acting is very good and the set pieces and locations are beautifully drawn and animated. I really got the sense I was in a much larger world. The game is    Really interesting game, if only for the progression mechanics. You dedicate feats to the a god and gain skill in that god's skill tree. Very well planned and implemented.

    The story is interesting if a little predictable. The voice acting is very good and the set pieces and locations are beautifully drawn and animated. I really got the sense I was in a much larger world.

    The game is very linear though you can choose in what order to do things, however this serves to keep the game moving towards its eventual destination.

    Boss fights are difficult and varied, though occasionally difficult to figure out. I found myself heading to Google a couple of times.

    Attention to detail is good and the game is mostly bug free. Some infrequent CTD's annoyed me towards the start of the game but they went away later.

    Overall I would reccomend this game to anyone who enjoys RPG's, Greek Mythology and tight, linear story telling.    … Expand
  4. TanerY?ld?r?m
    Dec 31, 2008
    9
    It's neighter a God of War nor any other RPGs.

    This is something like a movie whose director is just you. You make your own choices, you make your own history, you make your own story, you choose and follow your own fate. This game is absolutely fantastic. Yes, it has some bad flaws such as dated textures, stiffed animations expecially on characters' faces, no mini map, a    It's neighter a God of War nor any other RPGs.

    This is something like a movie whose director is just you.
    You make your own choices, you make your own history, you make your own story, you choose and follow your own fate.

    This game is absolutely fantastic. Yes, it has some bad flaws such as dated textures, stiffed animations expecially on characters' faces, no mini map, a little stuttering and frame drop. But the goods definately outnumber the bads.

    Excellent sound design, voice and music that suit the characters and whole story.
    Excellent story that sucks you in and provides you choices to direct your own movie.
    Excellent cut-scenes that suit the story.
    Excellent fighting system with lots of varieties and choices and finishing moves with a good use of slow-motion.
    Excellent, innonative skill tree and experience system.

    By the way, remember, strong stories in the games is the future of the gaming industry. I have been in PC gaming for 11 years. Now i can clearly see that how a strong story completely changes all of my feelings about a video game. I was almost crying in some parts of ROTA.

    A must buy.

    Eagerly anticipating the next Argonaouts story with a little more action and bug-free gameplay.    … Expand
  5. chatins
    Mar 6, 2014
    10
    This game was ahead of its time. Critics seemed to have taken the high production values for granted. This is an epic tale worth exploring for the story alone. The artwork is amazing. Very few bugs. Great voice acting. If anyone was to make a game to explore Greek mythology today the game would probably not make money.
  6. Oberrill
    Apr 21, 2014
    10
    Great voice acting. Meaningful conversations which produce semi-accurate to accurate glimpses of Greek mythology. Graphics are high quality for the time and better than a lot of games produced now. The game is quite linear when moving but that is common to this style of game. The combat, with a few exceptions, is pretty easy. I consider this a plus because it allows a larger audience toGreat voice acting. Meaningful conversations which produce semi-accurate to accurate glimpses of Greek mythology. Graphics are high quality for the time and better than a lot of games produced now. The game is quite linear when moving but that is common to this style of game. The combat, with a few exceptions, is pretty easy. I consider this a plus because it allows a larger audience to enjoy the game. For those who might complain about the lack of challenge it can be made more challenging simply by fighting as if Jason is really you and doing your best to avoid any injury. This will require the player to use strategy and all the moves available.
    The stories in the game are interesting and well-written. This would be a good game even without combat. Give this game a try.    … Expand
  7. AbeMC
    May 12, 2016
    7
    Rise of the Argonauts is a game that gets very little notice today. You play as Jason of Iolcus, king of ancient myth, whose wife Alceme is murdered by nefarious assassins. Instead of accepting her death, Jason sets out upon a journey across Greece in search of the one artifact that is reputedly able to reverse death: the Golden Fleece. Unique setting, fair graphics (Unreal 3), averageRise of the Argonauts is a game that gets very little notice today. You play as Jason of Iolcus, king of ancient myth, whose wife Alceme is murdered by nefarious assassins. Instead of accepting her death, Jason sets out upon a journey across Greece in search of the one artifact that is reputedly able to reverse death: the Golden Fleece. Unique setting, fair graphics (Unreal 3), average voice-acting, good combat, and a fabulous soundtrack make this a niche classic.

    After the death of Alceme at the beginning, Jason must venture to several places, looking for clues to the location of the Golden Fleece. Three of these locations – Mycenae, Kythra, and Saria - can be visited in any order, so there is the possibility to take different squad-mates with you depending on where you visit first (you can take two for a party size of three). After everyone has been gathered, you have the location of the Golden Fleece, and proceed linearly to the end of the game. The areas and levels themselves are large, but not very open. Not that there would have been anything gained by a sandbox design; but the levels generally feel narrow and restricted, save for the wide open arenas where the fighting occurs.

    Rise of the Argonauts takes a serious, dramatic approach to Jason's classic tale. If that sounds like there is a lot of dialog in Rise of the Argonauts, there is. Everyone has conversation – and frequently, after finishing one discussion, you'll proceed to the next checkpoint only to have another conversation. There are branching dialog trees, and a few differing outcomes. But one place where Rise of the Argonauts falls beneath the others is in the quality of the voice-acting. It is serviceable, but not much else.

    The combat is swift and fun, and will leave you wishing for more. Jason keeps his shield, and can choose from a sword, spear, or mace. Slow-motion finishing moves abound. Enemies tend to be easy once you've mastered dodge and block. Each of the upgrade trees “honors” a different Greek god, and your combat develops in the manner your favored god prefers. I choose Hermes for most of my upgrades, resulting in quick, active combat that favors the sword and allowed Jason to call down lightning strikes and great winds as he fought and dispatched enemies. Ares, Apollo and Athena each have their own styles, buffs and debuffs. Find the right balance, and combat can almost be too easy. Until you get to the boss battles, that is. Enjoy slicing and dicing the minor minions of the underworld while you can; there will come a time when you'll have to face six minotaurs at once – while fighting a boss...

    Usually the soundtrack gets a passing mention of whether it is good or bad, but the music is one of the strongest parts of Rise of the Argonauts. Composer Tyler Bates channeled Troy and Gladiator and crafted a moving and intense score.

    There is a lot of fun to be had with Rise of the Argonauts if a dialogue-driven hack 'n slash piques your interest (as it did mine). The use of Greek legend provides a great ambiance, and unique ways to upgrade and play give it some replay value, too. An easy game to recommend if you are looking for a change of pace.    … Expand
  8. SoullessPotato
    Jul 22, 2016
    8
    This game was released in 2008, wasn't very popular at the time. But it's still a good game. The voice acting and characters are great, everyone did a great job despite recycling a bunch of the same people. The conversation options don't normally have any effect on the game like games such as Mass Effect, Dragon Age or The Witcher do. But they do make you feel as though you are creatingThis game was released in 2008, wasn't very popular at the time. But it's still a good game. The voice acting and characters are great, everyone did a great job despite recycling a bunch of the same people. The conversation options don't normally have any effect on the game like games such as Mass Effect, Dragon Age or The Witcher do. But they do make you feel as though you are creating your version of Jason. If you choose all Aries options as Jason then you feel like you have an aggressive war driven Jason, Athena you feel like your Jason is wise etc. The combat is also fluent and fun, though it is a little too easy. I play on Legend all the time and I normally beat the game without dying. But the combat is still fun, especially when you're able to stab people and cut their heads off with a shield. But the combat against small enemies such as soldiers, bandits, satyr's and all that aren't really the main thing. The main thing are the harder boss battles. They're all unique and don't feel re-used in any way unlike all of the previous RPG's I've played. Each battle has their own weakness that you may have to exploit a few times before you get it right. Achilles, Docon, Medusa, Hepna'je (no spoilers here) all great boss battles that I died so many times on at first. ESPECIALLY Achilles, Docon was kind of easy. There is also semi bosses like the minotaurs or the weird Tartarus beings that are a slightly stronger and smarter than your standard soldier. But the combat in the game isn't what you focus on, the main thing is the story. The story is great, forget the original Jason and the Argonauts story you may or may not have read about as a child or an adult, this is how the story should have been. It's the same basic concept but a different drive. There are so many plot twists and turns that you can't keep it all together. You have to remember almost every detail of the conversations to get what everyone is saying. And aside from the main story, there is a bunch of side activities that you can do that not only might reward you with a weapon or a piece of armor but they also give you deeds in which you can turn into skills. And this game has so much replayability that after beating 12 times like I have, you still haven't seen it all. But that's just the thing, this game has flaws. Since it's a pretty short game and sometimes I feel like in order to actually get to experience even a fraction of what the game offers, you have to do EVERYTHING! Other RPG's let you go on playing the game and normally don't limit you to when you're about to encounter a battle, you can roam around the map and find a bandit camp to fight in. This game doesn't have that, the maps are pretty small (though detailed, give credit where credit due) and they don't have random encounters. If you've played them enough times you know exactly what's going to happen at a certain time. All battles are staged and sometimes after running around talking to people and activating things you get bored because you haven't mutilated an Ionian in forever. Your followers are also pretty much useless in combat -[{SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!}]-

    Scroll past this part for no spoilers
    Achilles was a hard boss to fight, but when you unlock him as a follower, he's just terrible. He dies easily

    Spoilers over. So the followers are bad the maps are small, the game is short. But the combat is fun, the story is amazing it has great voice acting, lovable characters, AMAZING soundtrack! Great weapon and armor design. Which brings me to another point - this game doesn't have leveling up or XP gain. Instead, when you do certain things like "Discover the Herms of Saria" or "Execute 50 soldiers", you gain a deed. These deeds can be spent in 4 different gods, Aries, Hermes, Apollo and Athena. They grant you specific passives that are useful and will give you god powers that will save your life. The gear in this game is awesome, I don't know why more games don't do this. No gear has a higher armor or damage rating than another. Instead, they each have their own enchants and effects added on them and sometimes those effects can be god powers themselves. The armors come in different sets, the customization is limited there. And your shield can't be swapped out, there is some lore behind that. But the equipment is so detailed in its own right, nothing is just a reskin and everything has it's uses. But, all together, this game is a great game. It's an 8/10, meaning it's still a good thing. It's missing 2 things that it needs to be 10/10. Random encounters, bigger maps. If you like RPG's - You'll like this game, If you like Hack n Slash's - You'll like this game. Some of my friends even prefer shooters and they still like this game. You should try it out, no matter what type of gamer you are. It's on every platform except for next-gen consoles. And I hope to god that it will get a remaster in 2018 or so. OH, and, the graphics aren't amazing. So you can play this on a laptop. gg :)    … Expand
  9. Brake
    Aug 2, 2019
    7
    Buen juego... Hombre no es God of War, pero sta bien excepto por esos gráficos tan muertos y el combate ese raro... Pero es una buena historia y una buena iddisea xd
  10. Genek13
    Nov 20, 2019
    8
    Overall experience with this game I can explain in one word - enjoyable :)
    Of course it's not an epic game but still very good as and adventure title.
  11. dontlike911
    Feb 25, 2020
    7
    Well, I have not yet finished this game, but it has been a very enjoyable game from my perspective. I'm not a huge RPG fan, but this game hits a nice balance between just enough RPG and Action to keep me hooked. Even though I have had my share of dialog related crashes with the game, it is still a very well done game and looks fanta
  12. SewAwOw
    Aug 30, 2022
    7
    В целом, недурная игра. Да, некоторые анимации деревянные, да, графика средняя (даже по меркам 2008 года) и с мыльцом, да, локации хоть и разнообразные, но бедные на летализацию и пустые, да, видов противников немного и убиваются они одинаково, да, да..... Однако игра цепляет. Цепляет интересным сеттингом, историей про аргонавтов и мифическое золотое Руно, персонажами и их историями, аВ целом, недурная игра. Да, некоторые анимации деревянные, да, графика средняя (даже по меркам 2008 года) и с мыльцом, да, локации хоть и разнообразные, но бедные на летализацию и пустые, да, видов противников немного и убиваются они одинаково, да, да..... Однако игра цепляет. Цепляет интересным сеттингом, историей про аргонавтов и мифическое золотое Руно, персонажами и их историями, а также боевкой. Боевка в игре хорошо поставлена, зрелищная и вариативная (особенно нравятся сочные добивания), а прокачка, помимо банального усиления статов, позволяет открывать силы Богов, что тоже вносит разнообразие в геймплей. Я прокачивал Ареса и Аполлона, любимым оружием был меч. Боссы в игре несложные, больше всего заставил попотеть Ахилл, ну и финальный босс тоже потрепал нервы. Технически игра более-менее стабильная, багов не заметил, но несколько раз вылетала. Поначалу пробовал играть на клаве, но оказалось, что с геймпада играть удобнее. Музыка в игре понравилась.
    Игра на разок, увлекает.    … Expand
  13. PaddysPub
    Feb 5, 2023
    7
    I played the game when it was released on XBOX and i decided to play it again on PC a couple of years ago. The game still feels very good to play, i was surprised. A beautiful game - even if from another era. I would recommend it for sure.
  14. hydroquaqua
    Mar 19, 2022
    10
    _вне зависимости от времени люди всегда требовали хлеба и зрелищ, это выражение оправдывает Rise of the Argonauts, компактное приключение за золотым руном в эпичной древнегреческой мифологии. Конечно не Mass Effect, точно не Too Human

    _regardless of time, people have always demanded bread and circuses, this expression justifies Rise of the Argonauts, a compact adventure for the Golden    _вне зависимости от времени люди всегда требовали хлеба и зрелищ, это выражение оправдывает Rise of the Argonauts, компактное приключение за золотым руном в эпичной древнегреческой мифологии. Конечно не Mass Effect, точно не Too Human

    _regardless of time, people have always demanded bread and circuses, this expression justifies Rise of the Argonauts, a compact adventure for the Golden Fleece in epic ancient Greek mythology. Definitely not Mass Effect, definitely not Too Human    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

64
#64 Most Discussed PC Game of 2008
40
#40 Most Shared PC Game of 2008

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
59

Mixed or average reviews - based on 19 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 19
  2. Mixed: 18 out of 19
  3. Negative: 1 out of 19
  1. PC Games
    71
    A solid and yet pointless action-rpg that is missing almost everything what made God of War a blast: spectacular bossfights, a thrilling plot, charismatic characters, impressive architecture and design, a fluid combat system and an epic orchestral soundtrack - you won't find any of that in Rise of the Argonauts.
    Read full review
  2. IGN
    65
    The problem is how the game's put together – so much has been stripped from what we traditionally think of as an RPG and an action game that the result feels like an awkward, neutered hybrid bloated by hours and hours of static dialogue sequences.
    Read full review
  3. 3DJuegos
    59
    Innovation in Rise of Argonauts goes in the wrong direction. Although the story is not bad and the epic and mythic world remains interesting, it's gameplay mechanics and technical flaws make the game boring and uninteresting.
    Read full review
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