For the slightly older, the word Argonauts should conjure up images of the brilliant 1963 movie featuring the creations of the recently departed Stan Winston, including a giant bronze golem and a skeleton army, threatening Jason and his warriors on their quest for the Golden Fleece. Unfortunately the game Rise of the Argonauts by Codemasters pays little service to the film, probably the most familiar telling of the classic story. The afore named monster menaces don’t even appear in the game.

In fact Rise of the Argonauts bares very little resemblance to the original epic Greek poem either. In Rise of the Argonauts the noble warrior king Jason is just about to enjoy some wedding night nuptials with his scantily dressed bride Alceme when she is assassinated by a warrior from a tribe known as the Black Tongues, a kind of black magic practicing band of ninjas. In his grief Jason travels to the Oracle at Delphi with his BFF Hercules to find a way to bring Alceme back from the dead. He learns of the magical Golden Fleece that may be able to restore her life. But first he has to travel around Greece and pick up a crew for his ship the Argo to fullfill a prophecy involving the mortal descendants of the gods. It is a weeping shame the story deviates so completely from the source because the original story of Jason and the Argonauts (which incidentally features no magic ninjas at all) was actually pretty damn good and would have leant itself well to a game.

The Jason and the Argonauts legend was the Greek Myth All Stars story and featured a crew of around fifty hero’s, all notable characters in Greek history and mythology. The game only features a paltry dozen Argonauts with many notable omissions. Hercules has obviously made the cut, as have hottie female characters Medea and Atalanta. But some weird additions to the story are Achilles (who wouldn’t have been born at the time, his father Peleus was an Argonaut) and the fawn god Pan; likely added due to the recent appearance of these characters in film. Other famous hero’s like Orpheus, Bellerephon and brothers Castor and Polleux are all missing, just to name a few.

But then again you might not care a toss about the senseless story butchering, you want to know if the game is worth playing right? The gameplay in Rise of the Argonauts is an interesting blend of Mass Effects quest and conversation systems, minus the sweet graphics, and the gory melee action of last years Viking: Battle for Asgard, minus the huge battles. You can play only as Jason and in combat and you have a shield and the choice of mace, sword or spear. Despite the fact at least one member of the Argonauts follows you almost any where but you can’t direct them in any way. Attacks are executed between two buttons for a standard and ‘execute’ attack and holding down the right trigger while hitting these allows for a special attack. A third button can be used for a shield bash to knock back opponents and it’s also possible to hurl your spear at advancing enemies. You’ll gain ‘god powers’, essentially buffs to improve your attack speed and defence power and such, which are mapped to your D pad. Some of them are more helpful than others, such as the long range attacks of Pan and Atlanta. Overall the action is the best executed part of the game, fast paced and exciting. If you’re still not tired of crushing skulls and cutting of limbs after completing God of War and Viking then Rise of the Argonauts will appeal to your inner sadist.

Unfortunately the terrific action only makes up roughly a third of the game, if that. The other two thirds is a lot of walking and a lot of talking. Mass Effects conversation system was fun; especially with those gorgeous facial animations and textures, but after a while it got just a little tedious. Rise of the Argonauts conversation system is the same, but gets boring before you even set sail on the Argo. In Mass Effect when you got bored of the dialogue you could still gaze longingly and inappropriately at those blue alien girls, but Argonauts just doesn’t have that graphical eye candy to fall back on. It wouldn’t be so bad if you could just skip all the minor quests and head straight for the main story missions, but unfortunately your character advancement is tied into the number of completed quests. Oh there’s no fast travelling either, you have to back track through the same areas dozens of times. God of War this ain’t, closer to God of Diplomatic Resolution, and a lot of the time it’s about as fun as that sounds.

Rise of the Argonauts claims to be an ‘Action RPG’ but the RPG elements are pretty light. Jason is the only character who can be levelled and he does so through four channels equating to four gods: Ares, Hermes, Apollo and Athena. Rather than experience points you pledge your completed quests and achievements, such as beheading twenty enemies, to one of the four gods and after enough pledging you get to select one of their blessings. These range from overall health increases and improved skill with certain weapons (each god represents a weapon with the fourth representing your shield for block skill), to specific skills such as reviving your team mates when they get knocked out. Most of these blessings are passive skills and buffs, but a few are the aforementioned god powers that must be mapped to your D pad. Only four can be mapped at one time and, annoyingly, if you purchase an upgrade of an existing mapped ability you need to remember to replace it.

The character designs are generally very nice. Jason looks every bit the Greek hero, part Leonidas from 300 and part Maximus from Gladiator. You’re more than happy to play as him. Most of the Argonauts are interesting and unique but Hercules bulk is unfortunately borderline ridiculous, he looks like a sack boy stuffed with walnuts and given a tiny head. The graphics themselves are a letdown. It hasn’t been confirmed but I’d be unsurprised if Rise of the Argonauts started out as an Xbox or PS2 title that was upgraded for next gen. Movements outside of combat are jerky and awkward and the characters just don’t compare to other games. They’re not terrible, but they they’re not what you’d expect on a next gen console. Elements we’ve come to expect in next gen games, like decent light effects and animated clothing, are absent. General movement can be a bit of a trial as well, just getting through doors can be a pain as failing to walk exactly through the middle of a doorway can result in Jason getting stuck on a variety of invisible barriers. Your palace and a number of other locations feature a guard to open the door for you, nice considering you are supposed to be a king, except when the canned animation doesn’t work and the guard just stands there. This happened several times for me and the fact you can’t even draw your weapon outside of combat, let alone ram your spear into that damn door guards face, is very frustrating. There are several times like this where the game just feels broken. It was delayed prior to release and rather than ironing out bugs like this, it seems like a delay just confirms there will be problems and you should get used to the idea.

Rise of the Argonauts is more than a transparent attempt to cash in on the popularity of 300 and God of War. It really wants to be its own game and do its own thing. You can feel it with all the dialogue and history lectures every time you enter a new area, some real world building went into creating the characters and locations. The game wants to immerse you in this ancient world that never was and at the same time give you the opportunity to dice up bad guys with your mad sword skills. But the balance between the two is just about as bad as you could imagine. There are just far too many of the worst elements of an RPG game and not nearly enough of the best elements of an action brawler game. Personally I really want to recommend Rise of the Argonauts, there are things to like in there. The characters, the action, the music and voice effects are all great. I’ve read translations of several ancient epics, I grew up memorising Hercules twelve tasks, I am completely the demographic for Rise of the Argonauts. But a game with so much boring dialogue in it that I fell asleep while playing in the middle of the day, only to awake and find I had a new party member (and an achievement, I got an achievement in my sleep!) is not one I can whole heartedly endorse.