Prepare to be immersed in a gladiatorial adventure, set in a breathtakingly imagined vision of ancient Greece. With deep exploration and epic quests, players live a life of brutal combat as they lead a team of iconic warriors - including Jason, Hercules and Atalanta - through a world ruled by mythological gods...

Rise of the Argonauts is set around ancient legends, with the characters and environments based around Greek mythology.

There are four different gods in the game, Ares, Athena, Hermes and Apollo - each of them having there own impacts on the game such as special powers to use in combat and even affecting the power of each weapon depending on your choice of god.

The weapons that the god favours are affected by there image and personality. For example the god of Ares goes for the most brutal, i.e. the mace, whereas the more elegant god Athena prefers the sword, while Apollo prefers the spear and Hermes favours both the spear and the sword.

The game has an amazing combat system, which can put most similar games to shame. While at first it seems like a pretty basic combat system with only two different types of attack as well as a block and dodge move, there are many different combos that can be spectacular when you get them right, such as changing weapons half way through a combo to prolong the attack and do some major damage.

Arguably the best element in the combat segment of the game is the brutality of the finishing blows. Here you end up slicing your foes in half or bursting their heads open with a mace - all you can see is blood flying everywhere.

Each weapon handles differently and has its own unique style. The sword is fast and easy to use, whereas the spear is long range and can keep you out of trouble. The mace is the slow, solid hitter which does the most damage. Each weapon has two different types of special attack, which are unique to that weapon. For example The spear can be thrown at the enemy from a distance and the mace has an area affect that allows it to attack everything in the nearby area.

Another thing that comes into affect in combat is the gods powers, which can be obtained by using the aspect points on your favoured god. Each god has its own style of special powers. Ares, being the god of war, has extremely powerful abilities, Hermes special abilities are well balanced, which is fitting as he is the middle man in all of the gods negotiations.

Most of the story is based on the classic old Greek legend of Jason and the Golden Fleece. Here Jason and his crew sail around the world, in the famed Argos ship, searching for the fleece, doing various tasks along the way. Throughout the game you must recruit people to join you on your adventure, so when you go offshore you have a choice of people you can take with you.

The tasks that you have to tackle throughout the game can get a bit tedious. It doesn't take much to lose interest and this is mainly down to the lack of combat opportunities. Each tasks you complete gives you a reward that you can swap for aspect points. Some tasks you are forced to do, because they are part of the story, but there’s plenty of tasks there are optional. Most tasks involve running round a town talking to people maybe the occasional fight but most of the time it’s pretty boring stuff.

Apart from the boring tasks the game has an amazing story and brilliant combat and it also has the most amazing scenery I have ever seen. While the unique combos and insanely gory blood are major plus points, there are just not enough battles to keep the game interesting - seeing that most of the time you are running around like a headless chicken doing the most boring of tasks. If the developers had made more of the battle segments of the game, and included more fun tasks to tackle, this would have made an amazing game.

7

Carl Simpson