Rise of the Argonauts Review

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Written by BuckGB on March 27th, 2009

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Action-RPG's are typically single-path: you get a scenario at the beginning that makes it pretty clear how the rest of the game will proceed. Occasionally you will get to choose to play a 'good' or 'bad' character, though that choice usually comes at the beginning or is of a fairly superficial nature (I always come back to the 'Press 1 for the Dark Side' choice in Jedi Academy!). As you can likely predict from my earlier description, the entirety of the game is about your quest to resurrect your love. Unlike the intrigue in the actual mythology, there is no possibility to explore things with Medea or Pelius or abandon Alceme completely. That isn't a problem, but the issue I have is the way the game tries to make you feel that you have actual choices along the way.

Very early on you get a choice through dialogue about what weapon to grab. But by the end of the first string of battles you will have all three weapon types (sword, mace, and spear). So much for that choice. Then later on you get some dialogue choices. These seem to matter, but as you quickly find out the impact is like taking a toy away from a puppy: it has an immediate impact but is gone as quickly as it arrived. There is an entirely different purpose for these 'choices' that I will get to in just a bit.

So the story is linear and you get very few choices of any impact, what about exploration? Well, once again the 'tutorial' area tells the tale. You feel from the start like you have some ability to go wherever you want - but quickly discover that isn't the case. The areas you encounter as you make your journey are all required, and the progression is entirely linear as you complete quests on each island and each area. Each area has plenty of running back and forth just to accomplish the core tasks to progress through the game, but you can engage in side-quests given out by various folks you meet along the way ... if you are willing to trade off even more pointless backtracking for a few more 'deed' points.

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