Rise of the Argonauts (Xbox 360)

Crap of the titans.
12/22/2008 6:08 PM | 0 Comments | Page 1 of 3

For Jason, the classic hero of Greek myth and the central figure in Rise of the Argonauts, "choice" is a core action. In order to search for the Golden Fleece, which may bring his wife back to life, Jason must make a raft of choices. Who will guide his kingdom in his absence? What route will he take to the possible mythical resting place of the Fleece? How will he curry favor with his four patron gods?

In reality, since the player is meant to see Jason succeed (in some manner), there are no truly bad choices. You can do more or less what you want, in whatever order seems appropriate, and let something stronger than the will of the gods -- the game's narrative drive -- see Jason through to the end. This illusion of choice is a gaming axiom (one dying to be more thoroughly explored). But it becomes an unfortunate metaphor for Rise of the Argonauts, through which Codemasters may learn that in game development, making good choices is actually of tremendous import.

Argonauts seeks to be many things at once -- foremost an action role-playing game, a brawler, and a deep portrait of mythical Greece -- and in doing so fails on almost all fronts. The basic design document is straightforward: Activate quests and side-quests, each of which is replete with sprawling dialogue trees, and fight many groups of enemies and the occasional boss, all while earning new skills and divine favor.

Combat almost feels incidental. This is strange for an action RPG, but a blessing given how spotty Argonauts' brawling turned out. Jason has three weapons (sword, spear, mace), each with slightly different combos, but the bottom line is that you'll get through much of the game by spamming the light attack button and making liberal use of the block and dodge functions. Other Argonauts (you can have two in your "party" at any time) can assist with context- and proximity-sensitive moves, but they mostly get in the way and soak up damage.

(One early power earns you the option to create an illusory Jason to attract enemies and absorb damage; this becomes superfluous as soon as you've got a couple Argonauts in tow, as they serve the exact same purpose.)

Dialogue, rather than combat, is your primary interaction with the game. This might have been refreshing, but Argonauts features reams of dialogue, almost all of which is delivered by nearly static characters in frequent cut scenes. The upside is that it's all rendered live, and you can button through the dialogue line-by-line. But the game is written so that the incidental details revealed in conversation are important -- they'll recur in later conversations, and may be needed to complete dialogue trees in which you can curry favor with the gods.