Rise of the Argonauts (Xbox 360)

Iolcos is a small island in the Aegean. Protected by those who worship Zeus, it is a idyllic place with not much to worry about. At least until the wedding day of King Jason and his future Queen Alcmene for which many dignitaries from all over the world arrived – including Jason’s longtime friend Hercules. But instead of celebrating the event with them, the Moriens had other plans, attacked the palace and killed Alcmene during the ceremony. Now Jason is really pissed and wants revenge. But the journey is long and at the end he has to face a dark prophecy.

The player slips into the sandals of Jason and watches over his back and controls him in a traditional Action-Adventure fashion similar to games like Rune (only without the jumping) as he roams the lands, speaks to the inhabitants and fulfills their requests while always having his main goal in mind. Of course Jason isn’t just all about walk and talk. He has many enemies that want his death but three different types of weapons (swords, maces and spears) as well as his trusty shield assure that he can defend himself. Jason can switch with one button press quickly between all weapons, allowing him to do powerful combos by combining both the normal attack with the stronger, more brutal, executioner move and some of them have special abilities like knocking down all of the surrounding enemies which are activated by a two-button combination.

But Jason also has many friends. Besides Hercules other mythical heroes will join him on his journey and aid him in battle. They will also gain strength if Jason is near them and unleash powerful special abilities. If a companion dies, Jason can resurrect him and if Jason is too badly damaged, he just needs to get out of the line of fire for a few seconds to regenerate.

Jason also doesn’t completely rely on his muscles but is in addition aided by the four gods: Apollo, Athene, Ares and Hermes. Each god gives Jason access to a different skill tree with many different types of buffs and abilities waiting to be unlocked. This is done two ways: One way to gain favor with the gods is by talking to people and choosing the corresponding responses for the god whose favor the player seeks. But at the same time Jason more or less automatically performs deeds like killing 35 people (Manslayer IV) during his journey which he can then attribute to a god of his choosing. Once a certain amount of favor amount has been acquired, an aspect point becomes available to distribute in the skill tree of that particular god.