Rise of the Argonauts Preview

The editors at Next Generation bring us the latest hands-on preview of Liquid Entertainment’s mythology-based action RPG, Rise of the Argonauts.

Argonauts’ action RPG credentials are lent by the fact that the plot and player attributes are advanced by victory in battle; it’s a genre-bender because there are still no stats. No trading of numbers. No default onscreen furniture HUD, life bar, lock-on circles.

No experience points, even. In their place, Jason completes ‘˜deeds’, which he can then redeem with his chosen deity for new attributes. Arguing that the BioWare/Fable model of selecting a good or evil path penalizes the less partisan adventurer with lesser rewards, and that such dualistic extremes don’t fit the nuanced, humanistic morality of ancient Greece, Liquid is instead offering a choice of four gods. Allegiance to each develops a particular fighting style and weapon specialism, and the developer claims its weapon-balancing and fair distribution of spoils means players can roleplay without having to remove themselves from the story to manage the math. The game’s rethinking of action-RPG convention is loving but also blasphemous, and may be its defining feature. It seeks to both honor and improve upon the core components of the genre.