Rise of the Argonauts Review
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Graphics, Sound, Technical Polish The graphics are decent, but they don't stand out compared to other games released in the past several months. The game is powered by Unreal Engine 3, and I've certainly seen prettier games running on this widely used game engine, such as BioShock and Mass Effect. The world design is quite good if a bit uneven, but where the bottom kind of drops out is in the character modeling and animations, which range from acceptable to just plain weird, accompanied by a bevy of graphical glitches.
The music supports the mood per location well enough, and the various weapons and sound effects are all fair to above average. The voice acting suffers a bit under occasionally stiff writing and sounds slightly disinterested at times, but is pretty good overall.
The technical polish is poor in more ways than one. Stability issues aside the game crashed to my desktop more than once the biggest issue this game has is a very poorly thought-out interface for the PC, smelling strongly of (consolitis). The game has poor menu functions, such as having to go through the pause menu to get to the map or aspect screens. Other interface issues include the double use of the third mouse button as a weapon selection and shield attack button, the absence of an option to freely remap keys and the wonky mouse sensitivity setting that cannot be adapted. This game screams (not made for PC) throughout.
Gameplay
Rise of the Argonauts tries to copy Mass Effect. I can't stress enough how much of the game is described by this statement, and not just in defining its overall gameplay approach as in stressing the word (tries). Some examples of this can be seen in your ability to carry a steady set of three interchangeable weapons, the dialogue system that is based on four different (attitudes), the fact that you have no choice in who goes along with you in your journey but can pick who goes along on individual adventures, the linear isolated (islands) where you play, and, to a lesser extent, the fact that you can only fight when the game allows you to. This isn't a unique hack 'n slash - it's Mass Effect with swords, in mythological Ancient Greece.
The basic setup of the game is that you follow its linear introduction and ending areas, and in between you can choose between three major areas that you need to get through. The game varies heavily in how much it asks you to fight, as many locations - a good chunk of Iolcus (the starting location) and Mycanae, or Saria - are combat-free.
Combat itself is enjoyable but doesn't really shine in any meaningful way. Interface issues tend to discourage you from experimenting too much, not to mention most of the standard fights are fairly easy, meaning there is nothing to stop you from just click-click-clicking your way through them. The use of executing moves (when you finish off a shield-less opponent with a powerful right-mouse button attack) and God Powers (special powers granted by character progression that can be used in intervals) do offer some respite. More importantly, the game features a handful of boss fights which are occasionally quite interesting, like the fight with Achilles or Isisyphus, but sometimes it's kind of unclear what the game wants you to do, or the fight is just plain boring, like the battle with Medusa or the game's final confrontation.
Inventory and character systems are simplified about as far as they can go. Inventory essentially doesn't exist, with the game only handing you new items when it feels like it. There is never any freedom to loot items from your dead foes or buy them from a merchant. You can switch your armor and your three types of weapons (spear, club, sword) aboard the Argo (your ship), but there is no inventory system outside of that point. Why an action RPG would be missing a core element like this is a head-scratcher.
