Rise of the Argonauts (Xbox 360)

Graphics

It’s powered by the Unreal Engine and this iteration doesn’t provide as sharp as an experience as other UE games. Texture pop-in can be prevalent though not as nearly as bad as Mass Effect in certain places. Installing the game on the HDD actually eliminates a lot of this as well as providing decreased load times. There is a slight niggle with it however and sometimes the game hangs at first load until you reboot the console, this doesn’t happen when the game runs purely off the disk, however it will be sluggish at times and judder. The tradeoff is up to you.

For the most part though, it’s a nice looking game with a decent level of detail and some good lighting/special effects. The combat is visceral and there are gallons of blood as well as some nice slow motion special moments when you perform an Execution Attack.

Animations

The animations are decent enough, Jason when running does look though he’s a bit stiff and appears to float along the ground most of the time. It’s not a game breaker but they could have spent some more time on that part of Jason’s character. The characters are well animated in combat though and the death animations are good. In the various dialogue scenes there is some stiffness, characters don’t move their poses and they appear static with the occasional blink or slight motion. Again, this isn’t a game breaker but could have been done so much better.

Physics

The combat feels solid and the physics in general are fine. You can be staggered by a harder blow and so can your enemies. There’s very little in the way of environmental physics.

AI

A simple AI seems to drive the game. Boss AI is repetitive and pretty predictable, some of the bosses provide a decent level of challenge but for the most part it’s pretty simple to actually beat the various vanilla foes and most of the bosses using just Jason’s brute force and the right weapon.

Sound

The sound in Rise is extremely good, the weapon effects, the clash of sword and shield as well as blades slicing into your foes are all of a high quality. The ambient sounds when you’re exploring are excellent and each environment is well themed.

Music

Tyler Bates (of 300 fame) scored the game so the music is extremely good. It brings to life the epic tale of betrayal and revenge as you explore and battle to bring Alceme back from the dead.

Voice Acting and Dialogue

The strongest facet of the game along with its story is the voice work; it’s performed by some of my favourite actors such as the talented Simon (Kain) Templeman and Jennifer (Bastila Shan) Hale to name but two. They deliver their performances extremely well and the script is a high point of the game. If you love story and dialogue you should adore this one.

Final Voyage of the Argo

There’s no multiplayer so this is a definite single player experience and a game that I feel has been treated unfairly at times. It’s not the best game of its kind but it’s far from the worst and it has some nice moments in the story as well as pretty solid combat mechanics. Liquid Entertainment have certainly done a lot of good with this title, they just needed to polish a few aspects for it to be a truly worthy contender.