You can tell Rise of the Argonauts is a labor of love. Painstakingly researched (if dry and academic) mythological details nestle in every nook and cranny. The modest ambition of the bloody your dear wife Alceme is shot down with a poison arrow on your weeding day, and you immediately spring into brutal action, chasing down her killer – but then falls into the RPG trap of meandering side-quests and overlong chatty bits that, although interesting in snippets, add up to a whole lot of nothing.

It reminds me of an eight grade book report: packed with unnecessary details to prove you completed your assignment, but it never really goes anywhere, and it sure takes time getting around to the point. The combat is likewise problematic, suffering from legacy gameplay nuisances like uninterruptible animations. Start a special attack and a mob of miserable satyrs might wallop you while you whirl off in the wrong direction – or worse, you’ll get smacked to pieces while you’re stuck waiting for some spell to kick in. but perhaps the biggest problem with combat is that there’s just enough of it.

Despite the issues I had with the glitchy system, I still enjoyed the brutality of Jason’s mace and swiftness of his sword (he also carriers a spear and a shield) enough that I craved more combat, if only to get back to the action. After all, combat is the ‘G’ in RPG – and it sure beats the heck out of doing mindless fetch quests for the citizenry of ancient Greece, trudging back and forth across various islands simply to increase the length of the game.
[via IGN]