Liquid Entertainment's latest offering, Rise of the Argonauts, borrows heavily from Greek mythology, placing the player into the legendary shoes of Jason, the central character in the tale of the Golden Fleece. Whilst the typical recounting of the narrative has been modernised somewhat and other characters introduced, the ancient Grecian myth of Jason and his ship's crew is well presented in the form of an action RPG.

Rise of the Argonauts begins with a wedding ceremony, where Jason's wife to be, Alceme is assassinated. Once the assassin and his lackeys have been purged from his Palace of Iolcus, where he reigns, Jason consults his trusted advisers, before deciding upon what to do – seek the Golden Fleece, a powerful artefact with the ability to restore life, and bind the spirit back to the body.

Thus, Jason is catapulted onto a path of vengeance to undo what has been done. While the plot shows promise, it tends to be poorly communicated during the opening moments of the game, with one line dialogue and an incredibly linear path present at the outset. This leads to a poor initial reaction to Rise of the Argonauts, but this quickly changes as you progress through the tutorial-esque early stages of the game.


With the approval of his patron gods, Athena, Ares, Apollo and Hermes, Jason embarks on a quest to attain the Golden Fleece, so that he can restore Alceme and achieve justice, destroying all those who choose to stand in his way.

The game truly begins when Jason boards his new ship, fashioned as a wedding gift by the legendary engineer, Argos. Accompanied by Hercules, who is a close friend of Jason, they journey in search of the Oracle of Delphi, to seek guidance as to where the Golden Fleece lies. From there, the game grants an illusion of being non-linear, with Jason instructed that he must seek those the divine blood of his patron Gods who will in time reveal where the golden fleece lies, with the assistance of the Oracle.

As Jason, you must then explore the islands near Iolcus, with a clear objective – to find those of the divine blood of Ares, Athena and Hermes. The descendents inhabiting each island will offer a number of quests, and each can be completed in a certain way, designed to please a specific patron god who guides Jason. This means that there is potential replay value in this title for those torn between certain dialogue decisions, but the consequences of your actions are generally limited to the short-term.

The plot of Rise of the Argonauts is well paced, with a healthy dosage of conversational sequences in which the mythological tale of the Golden Fleece is re-imagined through what can be considered to be some of the most persistent archetypes of fantasy – Hercules, Medusa and Athena are well illustrated throughout various aspects of the quest – with punchy one liners delivering small measures of comedic relief throughout the otherwise sombre and engrossing tale.



The completion of quests does not result in a typical reward of experience points, but instead you are given the ability to dedicate your heroic deeds to a particular god at shrines and temples throughout the game world in order to gain their favour. When this occurs, the powers of the gods themselves are lent to Jason in small measure, providing him with “God Powers”, which vary depending on the god chosen. This forms the basis of specialising Jason's combat abilities, with each god promoting the use of a particular weapon and fighting style.

Deeds can be dedicated to any god throughout the course of the game, which allows the player to become either highly specialised in certain types of combat, or become an “all-rounder”, who tries to please each of the gods in equal measure.

Of the gods, Ares and Hermes offer players who enjoy direct combat the best possible avenues, moulding Jason into a close-combat specialist. As you dedicate deeds to Ares, the god of battle and courage, your strength in combat with the mace is improved, which also happens to be the weapon that causes the most damage. If you choose to be faithful to Hermes, god of cunning and trickery, the way of the sword is the word of law, allowing quick attacks and the opportunity to use God Powers more regularly.

For players who are slightly more defensive, deeds dedicated to Apollo, the god of healing, light, knowledge and prophecy will enhance their defensive capabilities, while also enabling them to be more resolute when faced against unfavourable odds. Finally, if you choose to dedicate a number of deeds to Athena, the goddess of order, military, strategy, and wisdom, she will grant the limited use of lightning based attacks, which in conjunction with the spear, lead to brutally efficient tactics and the exploitation of enemy weaknesses.


God Powers from each of the patron gods appear in both passive and active forms, with the player able to assign any of these to the d-pad, where they can be activated with ease throughout the heat of battle, which features throughout the course of the game.

At first, Jason is fairly weak, and the battle system seems a bit shallow – you're able to switch between weapons, and execute either a “normal” attack, or a “powerful” attack. As you progress through the game, gaining God Powers and favours of the divine themselves, the real-time battle system reveals some more depth, resulting in a unique character development mechanics and combat system, which is best manifested in each of the boss fights.

Boss fights in the game are a truly gratifying experience, with a real sense of accomplishment left with you once their often dismembered corpse is abandoned on the battlefield behind you. Boss battle difficulty ranges from incredibly easy to challenging – nothing is exceptionally difficult to accomplish in combat, but the use of tactics and strategy is favourable over mindless button mashing.


Rise of the Argonauts is a good game, and can be considered very good if you're a fan of the RPG genre – but it is not without flaw. Small imperfections are littered throughout the title, which detract from it being a potentially exceptional production. These are important to note, as they are frustrating given the generally good quality of the plot, role-playing elements, and everything else throughout the game.

The foremost of these faults are tiny nuances in the combat system which can lead to moments of uncanny death and anger, where character hit boxes can collide with game props and other level geometry, sometimes making what would otherwise be easy battles exceptionally difficult due to no fault of the player.

Other things which lessen the lasting appeal of Rise of the Argonauts are incredibly lengthy dialogue sequences, and moments whereby the auto save will often force you to sit through a lengthy exchange of words, and several loading screens before allowing you to try once more to smite someone who stands in your way.

An issue which marred my enjoyment of the PlayStation 3 version of the game was a peculiar issue in regards to the game's audio – which would lead to the Dolby Digital track included with the game to skip at times during combat. In parts, some frame rate issues are also present, but these are not as common as stuttering sound during combat. To my dismay, one particularly intense moment of the game failed to deliver critical dialogue at all, which was annoying.

These flaws, coupled with a number of crashes that occurred during an early boss fight tarnish the very obvious blood, sweat and tears that Liquid Entertainment have attempted to polish their title with. While I'm on a path of cliché, I think that with a little more polish, Rise of the Argonauts could have aspired to be a genre defining title that attempts to fuse the line between action game play and RPG but so many shortcomings hold it back from entering the fray and emerging drenched in the blood of its competitors. Instead, what remains is a scared and docile title, clinging to hope like its strong-willed protagonist, who knows what he wants, but struggles to acquire it.


In essence, Rise of the Argonauts can be seen as a metaphor for the struggle of Jason – what could have been an incredibly epic journey is marred by some technical flaws and unfavourable game mechanics. Don't get me wrong, Rise of the Argonauts is definitely worth a look if you love the action RPG genre, as it does so many things right. It is a competent effort, but by no means redefinition of the genre.

One thing is for sure though – the game, in spite of its flaws, cannot be condemned to the hellish underworld of Tartarus, but instead deserves a place due to its merit in the sun-bathed, green fields of Elysium.