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Far Cry 3 And The Stranger In A Strange Land Codemasters is giving gamers a taste of the mythological stylings of their upcoming action RPG Rise of the Argonauts with a series of animated shorts featuring the trials of the game’s hero, the legendary Jason. In this short, Zeus tasks Jason with the retrieval of the Golden Bull, held captive by ancient warriors. While the animation is a bit crude, I really dig the atmosphere they’re setting up for the game.
Another Penny Arcade Expo come and gone and I find myself on my couch trying to remember the games I saw, the things I did and the people I talked over the last three days. I can sort out the panels from the events and the events from the experience – but beneath all of that is the most important part of PAX – the part that you want to hear about: the games.
Hit the jump for hazy, disjointed hands-on impressions for Infinite Undisovery, Animal Crossing: City Folk, Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, Damnation, Rise of the Argonauts, Lord of the Rings: Conquest, and Mirror’s Edge.
No health bar…no damage meters…just a man and his fellow heroes going toe to toe with fearsome enemies in one of the greatest stories ever told. This is Rise of the Argonauts, a game developed by Liquid Entertainment and to be published by Codemasters, and while it takes some liberties with the classic tale as Leigh explained in her impressions last month, it also takes liberties with the classic action RPG formula, creating an experience that could very well be the stuff of legends.
The main difference between Rise of the Argonauts and your standard action RPG is how you kill your enemies. As the devs on hand at the E3 2008 demo for the game pointed out, a spear through the chest isn’t just going to take off a few hitpoints. Not many creatures mythological or not are going to survive that sort of thing, so they won’t in this game either. Enemies will do their best to block your attacks, but a sword in the gut is a sword in the gut. They’ll take slashes and show damage, but when it looks like you are landing a killing blow you WILL be landing a killing blow.
I swung by Codemasters’ hotel suite when they were in New York City yesterday, and one of the games I had demoed for me was the Greek mythology-inspired Rise of the Argonauts, in development by Liquid Entertaiment for a Fall release on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.
I guess you’d call it a little bit action, a little bit RPG (but mostly action). The rep who showed me the game told me it’s based in good old Gods-and-heroes Greek myth, but takes a little liberty with the canonical facts. For example, the hero is Jason, he of Golden Fleece fame, and in the game, his wife has been killed and he’s seeking the fabled Fleece in order to resurrect her. If Kratos has learned us anything, it’s that dead wives plus mythology equals a recipe for high drama and pathos.
