Rise of the Argonauts Review
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Character progression is wrapped into the game's aspect system. Four Diablo-like skill trees are available, one for each god: Athena, Apollo, Hermes, and Ares. Each god represents a certain combat style and favored weapons, Ares being brutish and favoring the club while Hermes specializes in dodging, speed, and using the sword. You can gain points to invest in these trees by making the appropriate dialogue choices or by attributing personal achievements to the god of your choice whether it be finishing a quest or killing 10 soldiers. This is one of the few elements of Rise of the Argonauts that could have conceivably been interesting. However, you can't lose favor with gods and the dialogue choices rarely lead to different outcomes, meaning they're just (select your favorite) options. Equally, you can dedicate any deed to any god, so Ares will be just as pleased with you dedicating (found boy a happy family to be adopted into) to him as he is when you dedicate (knocked down 20 opponents) to him. Rather than a linear XP scale, this favor system could present you with difficult choices in winning or losing favor, and in-game decisions actually pleasing one god and displeasing another. Instead, a potentially unique system ends up being nothing more than an XP-and-skill tree system disguised as something else.
You spend quite a bit of time outside of combat. A good chunk of this game is spent in dialogue, which either gets you information or quests, or it serves to gain favor with the gods. The lack of actual consequences to most of the dialogue choices means the dialogue becomes functionally equivalent to monologue. Coupled with the fact that it is often not particularly evocative or well-written, this makes dialogue a chore rather than a positive part of gameplay.
The rest of your non-combat time is spent walking. The game is designed to be linear and the world is designed around that linearity, giving it a constricted, claustrophobic feel even when you're outside. The wonky camera and overly sensitive collision detection mean the walking back and forth over tracks you already covered is yet another chore to deal with.
Conclusion
The odd thing about Rise of the Argonauts is that it is not really a badly executed game. It does what it was designed to do fairly well. The problem lies a step below that; what it was designed to do doesn't really work in the first place. Take the basic design of Mass Effect, put in a functional but not particular inspired combat system and make the rest of the gameplay uninteresting, without offering enough narrative strength to make up for any of it. No doubt it wasn't planned like that, but it doesn't seem set up to focus on making any one part of the game particularly enjoyable.
As a result, not a single element of design is strong enough to carry the game. However, switching between normal fights, boss fights, dialogue, and walking alleviates some of the tedium and the handful of boss fights and gameplay moments mentioned above help to redeem the game a bit more. But even so, I lost interest in the game long before I reached the end, and I have a hard time imagining that many people will enjoy this game all the way through to the finish without getting bored.
