As the Steam page says, in this game you play as Argonus, a historian
and cartographer, who awakes to find himself lost on strange shores. The
Argo, famed ship of hero Jason and his Argonauts, has been pulled onto
sharp rocks by a siren’s song and now lies shattered in shallow
waters. When you discover the fate of your stalwart companions, you must
make a deal with a goddess - stop the blight that has taken untold lives
in return for passage from the shores or risk succumbing to the
bedevilment that stalks this isle.
It's a muted but detailed realm, and a free-ranging place to explore.
Go just about anywhere you want, using the WASD keys (or other controls
of your choosing) and "steer" with the mouse. Locations will
open up to you as you solve the various conundrums, and a map will keep
track of the places you have been. I found it useful in backtracking and
revisiting areas.
It pays to be patient, and to pay attention. You won't find
everything you need for various conundrums right there in front of you,
and clues can be subtle. So explore carefully, go back and look some
more, and listen and look with an attention to detail.
I did think it too often strayed into being a somewhat directionless
treasure hunt. Obviously if you have found the things you need, there is
no problem; if you haven’t, there is not often any indication as to
where or what it might be. Most things you need will be apparent with
careful exploration (you only have yourself to blame if you don’t look
in all the buildings for instance), but not always. The ingredients for
the potion were a case in point – I just had to keep looking all over
until I found the necessary plants – and the endgame is a particularly
frustrating example. Indeed, it almost caused me to give it away, but a
thread on the Steam community forum helped, and I was ultimately pleased
I finished.
As well, there are times you need more of something, so keep looking,
and there was one occasion when I didn’t know that was even the issue.
To be fair, perhaps I missed a clue or two, and there are many that
reward the diligent adventurer. There is also some redundancy built in;
for instance there are many more pieces of wood to find than you
actually need, and while I didn’t find all the mosaic pieces, I found
enough to suggest a way forward.
The openness is a big plus, although it will expand your
backtracking, whether that be a necessary part of a particular puzzle or
simply to look again for whatever it is you didn’t find. There were
many sessions of gameplay where I just enjoyed the relaxed exploration
itself, filling in areas in my map and taking in the sights and sounds.
In that regard, it looks good, sounds good, and is nicely narrated.
Almost all the story unfolds through the narration, so the fact that it
is top notch is another plus. Ambient sound and the musical score are
equally strong, and different areas have different environmental
conditions, further adding to the tapestry.
I mentioned being pleased I went on, which was mainly because I found
the end rather satisfying. It seemed more appropriate than many I had
imagined. The recently added post credit sequence is also positive.
The puzzling is primarily of the find and use items appropriately
type, but don’t leave your powers of deduction at home. Save at will,
and as many times as you like, and choose Continue from the main menu to
pick up where you left off. You can examine items in your inventory, and
drag them to be used in the game world. An array of hot spot icons
indicate actions that can be undertaken, although your proximity and
orientation can be a factor in the relevant icon activating. Tweak
settings to suit. You don’t die and there is no action that requires
anything from you.
You will come across more than a few characters from Greek mythology,
and petition more than one god. I am no expert in these things, but
enjoyed the steady mythological diet.
Notwithstanding my treasure hunt frustrations, over what was many
hours of searching and wandering (and wondering) I had a fundamentally
good time as Argonus.
I played on:
OS: Windows 10, 64 Bit
Processor: Intel i7-9700k 3.7 GHz
