Rise of the Argonauts

Damn you, Zeus!

The ancient Greece portrayed by mythology has to be one of the most natural settings for a game. Full of grand quests, meddling Gods and fantastical monsters, there's no shortage of narrative and thematic hooks to hang a plot on, just ask the God of War series. One of the most enduring of these ancient tales is the story of Jason, his band of heroic Argonauts and their quest to recover the famous Golden Fleece and it's right here we find the inspiration behind the latest Xbox 360 action RPG Rise of the Argonauts.

As the game kicks off we find Jason, already king of Iolcus, having something of a bad day when his new bride Alceme is murdered by the evil Blacktongues on their wedding day. Understandably upset its not long before Jason resolves to set out in search of the fabled Golden Fleece in the hope it will help him raise his wife from the dead.

Anyone with a passing knowledge of the original mythology will probably be left scratching their head a little at this point and I can't say I blame them since RotA does take a fairly liberal view of the facts (if you can have facts about a myth) when it comes to the story of Jason and the Fleece. Such Hollywoodesque tweaking is a bit of a shame since there's nothing at all wrong with the version that's been told for the last few thousand years in which Jason's quest revolves around reclaiming his rightful position on the throne from his evil Uncle Pelias. But, who are we mere mortals to question the wisdom of such things, and if you can ignore the inaccuracies the game gets good value from its well-trodden source material.

My pedantic moans about the plot aside the game sets itself up firmly in the action RPG end of the camp. You know the score by now, talk to people, receive missions, kill lots of baddies to complete said mission, boost your stats, repeat until end of story. Despite this familiarity things start off slowly with a hefty chunk of your first hour or so focused on little more than wandering the hallways of your palace and surrounding villages acting as a glorified messenger in-between a lot of conversations with fortune tellers, servants, guards and friends. Eventually however you're given your ship, The Argo, and off you go in search of the descendants of the Gods in the hope of recruiting them to your quest for the Fleece.

This being an RPG of sorts, conversations with characters you meet along the way play a big part in things (possibly too big a part) and these conversations are handled via a series of Mass Effect style dialogue choices. Unfortunately that's when the similarity with Bioware's epic ends because there's no similarity in the standard of writing or acting. In fact RotA boasts possibly the worst vocal work seen in a game since the days when budgets were measured in hundreds rather than millions of pounds. To be fair the lines the cast are asked to deliver don't help and often the story is bundled along with all the subtlety of a stampeding elephant. There is one bright point to all the conversations you're forced to endure however and that's the fact that certain dialogue choices represent small tributes to one of the game's four gods (Ares, Hermes, Apollo and Athena). This notion of worshiping your gods is followed through in the rest of the game too. As you play you can offer up any your successful deeds to whichever of the gods you wish. The more you flatter a god the more he or she will reward you with increased power, bonuses and even some rather funky 'god powers' to use against your foes. It's a novel idea, and one of the game's few genuinely interesting features.

This talk of special powers brings us neatly to the combat itself. Armed with sword, spear, mace and shield Jason must battle his ways through hordes of monsters on his quest. The action itself is almost surprisingly entertaining, controls are responsive and everything flows well enough with the ability to switch between any of the three weapons on the fly giving some scope for combos and tactics. Enemies aren't too bright however and despite an admirable variety of them its not that hard to find a repetitive strategy that will handle most of the cannon fodder the game throws at you. As you play you'll receive upgraded version of your basic weapons to liven things up a little although for reasons best know to the developers these upgrades are unlocked at pre-set story points rather than as a reward for skill in combat. For all the pretence of complexity given by the worship-style upgrade system and multiple weapons the game never allows the combat to ever really evolve into much more than basic button bashing with the odd weapon swap or special move thrown in if the need arises.

It is not only the combat that's more limited than it appears either. While the game world may look like it's ripe for exploration upon first glance its not long before you discover a distinct 'corridor' feel to the levels not helped by their often confusing nature. It's not a good sign when you have to keep referring to the map to find your way out of something that's essentially linear in the first place.

Visually things aren't wonderful either. Despite using the Unreal 3 engine the animation, particularly in cut-scenes, is often horrible and the frame-rate has a nasty habit of stuttering badly when you least expect it. The art design is impressive though with the Greek myths lovingly mined to give the game an authentic look.

There's so much potential in the source material it is unfortunate that when push comes to shove the best thing that can be said for Rise of the Argonauts is that it's not completely dreadful. The myriad of possibilities offered by the world of Ancient Greece are largely wasted by a title let down by some of the more basic elements of game craft. Zero budget voice acting and wonky animations go out of their way to spoil the atmosphere while the linear nature of both the exploration and conversations soon make it less of an adventure and more of a slog.

The combat fails to shine despite getting so many of the basics right and the game almost completely wastes the interesting worship-based progression system. There is fun to be had here, at least initially, if you're not looking for anything special, it is just not sufficient to make you want to keep playing long enough to get any sense of value from the game. This kind of thing has been done so much better so many times before there's no reason to invest your time and money here, even if you've a hankering for ancient Greece.

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By Paul Newcombe