Rise of the Argonauts (PC)
Crap of the titans.
12/22/2008 6:08 PM | 0 Comments | Page 3 of 3
What's Hot: Some interesting takes on mythology; Great concept for skill trees
What's Not: Endless dull dialogue; Placeholder combat; Feels quite unfinished
New weapons and armor feel like heavy, deadly window dressing.
With all the storytelling going on, you'd think that dedicating Deeds would be more interwoven into the story at large. But it's all too easy to just dedicate Deeds to any old gods -- you might not earn as much Favor that way, but eventually you'll unlock almost all of the skill prizes, anyway. What could have been the most interesting and myth-appropriate aspect of the game becomes just another half-done "feature" among many others.
There is enough narrative ambition here that I hovered over a "Try It" rating for a long time. But the more I played, the more the game just felt like work. It's not just the script that feels unpolished; the entire game feels as if it was rushed to get out the door in time for the holidays. Twenty years ago, this would have been a killer title from SSI. Now it feels all too much like shovelware. That's anything but mythic.
This review is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.
