Rise of the Argonauts looks like an action game. It plays like an RPG. And it hoped to achieve a new level of immersion with interactive elements aimed at diminishing the plague of linearity. For those seeking an entertaining story, the game is quite compelling. It doesn’t compare to Mass Effect or Metal Gear Solid 4 (did anyone really expect it to?) but is solid competition for most RPGs. The dialogue and character interactions are vastly superior to the average action game, whose stories are rarely more intelligent than the haphazard scripts of Bad Dudes or modern “gems” like Haze. Most significantly, the voice acting is generally believable – not to the level of the new Prince of Persia but enough to convince players that these characters are worth caring about.

Most dialogue sequences can be skipped with the X button, a feature you’ll definitely take advantage of in the early parts of the game. Overall, Rise of the Argonauts is not a story you’ll want to skip. But it is not without some rocky moments, most notably the dialogue between NPCs that don’t advance the story. Interestingly, when dialogue is skipped, only the speech from one character will be bypassed (usually a few sentences). This puts the player in control of how much of the story they want to experience. It’s also helpful in dealing with the interactive story elements.

Now when I say interactive, it must be said that Rise of the Argonauts’ definition of interactivity is not very advanced. Whenever Jason has more than one response to another character’s question or comment, each response appears on the bottom of the screen. In between his comments – which are comprised of brief sentences indicating how Jason will respond but are not exactly what he will say – you’ll find the response circle. Push the left analog stick in the direction of the response you wish to give and tap the X button. Clearly, Mass Effect must have played a role in inspiring this feature.

Verbally, each response elicits a different reaction. Physically, however, the difference isn’t that great. Deciding to kill prisoners quickly or slowly (as you’ll have the option to do) will not change the outcome of the game. When speaking to an in-game friend, choosing the rude or snide response won’t negatively impact your relationship with that character.

In the beginning, this hardly matters. But once the story becomes interesting, you’ll wish that your actions had stronger effects, good or bad. Ultimately, they don’t. Ultimately, the gameplay is fully dedicated to hacking and slashing and not much more.

Tyler Bates, credited with bringing 300’s music to life, was smartly chosen to compose Rise of the Argonauts. During many of the missions, you’ll hear the same caliber of epic sounds produced for the big screen. It’s not catchy so much as it is surrounding; the kind of score that envelops the game, as well as the player, as the story unfolds or as battles progress.

But not all is well in the land of music. There is one whiny, recurring theme that seems to pop up in between most missions. Call it filler music or merely a track that was sorely misplaced (it may have worked one time in the background of a movie but should not be played to death in a video game). In either case, it doesn’t fit.

Rise of the Button-Masher

Rise of the Argonauts’ graphic style and rustic architecture will lead most players toward thoughts of Gods of War, but the gameplay actually has more in common with Devil May Cry. Harnessing the power of swords, spears and maces, Jason is one of those take-no-prisoners, can-crush-all kind of warriors. He's fast, but not Dante-fast, and powerful, but not Kratos powerful.

If the cloning factor didn’t turn you off, the controls just might. They’re stiff, choppy and well below the quality of what a PS3 game should deliver. The camera is fully controllable with the right stick, but it’s a feature you won’t want to use. Not only does the view move awkwardly, but when running, you can’t tilt the camera upward. When snapped back into place (push in the thumbstick), the view jilts back to something less stable and less accurate than what you anticipated.

The camera isn’t the only flaw. Load times are frequent and are always an interruption. In addition to the long load screens (which pull you right out of the game for several seconds, PSone-style), Rise of the Argonauts contains several mid-level loading areas. You’ll know them by the shield icon that appears on screen, spinning in circles. When the gameplay is unaffected, no one will care; when the frame rate tanks, however, you will be seriously annoyed.

Excluding weapon changes and character upgrades, the gameplay experience of the first 10 minutes is exactly the same as what you'll experience throughout the entire game. Enemies appear – your weapons become active (the sword, mace and spear cannot be drawn pre-battle) – you hack and slash them – they die – and the weapons become inactive again.

After that, the game goes back to its exploration phase. This phase is long and occasionally prosperous but most often arduous. Though the quests and levels are linear, some of the environments induce a bit of frustration. This is primarily due to the lousy map display, which is only accessible via the pause menu. Unlike most games, the pause menu does not appear the instant that the game is paused; you’ll have to wait 3-5 seconds before the menu commands are turned on. Once that happens, you may click on the map, try to decipher your location, and note the next objective point. That sounds simple enough, but given the number of minute objectives you’ll have to complete, and knowing the game’s emphasis on backtracking, you’ll be forced to access the map very frequently. And there isn’t a better way to do it – no single-button access as you might find in another game.

You won't know it by the intro, awkward facial expressions or low-budget CG animation, but the developers were successful in pulling the player into the story. Those who play Rise of the Argonauts will want to finish it for that reason alone. The gameplay, however, may not be what action or RPG fans were seeking.

Gameplay: 5.8
Another hack-n-slash Devil May Cry/God of War clone. The battles are decent but slow, the camera is movable but stiff, and the repetition levels are through the roof.

Graphics: 6.5
From certain camera angles (and in specific areas), Rise of the Argonauts is an attractive game. But on the whole, it's fairly bland.

Sound: 8.0
The good outweighs the bad, which is lucky considering Rise of the Argonauts has one of the most annoying recurring music themes ever composed for a game. Most of the music tracks are enjoyable though, and the voice work is definitely above the industry average. The same cannot be said for the sound effects, which aren't anything you haven't heard before.

Difficulty: Easy/Medium
Just barely medium. To give you an idea of how easy most of the battles are, Rise of the Argonauts couldn't have survived as an arcade brawler, simply because we would have beaten it before the machine took all our quarters.

Concept: 7.9
Rise of the Argonauts' gameplay is the same old thing, complete with an upgrade system that rewards you for accomplishing regular goals. The story, however, is much deeper, more engrossing, and more believable than the recent crop of action games (and most RPGs). The interactive elements lack the repercussions necessary to make players think twice about their actions but are still an intriguing side feature, if only to see how many ways Jason can react to a situation.

Overall: 6.3
This is not a game you should play for the gameplay. That sounds strange, doesn't it? But Rise of the Argonauts' developers wanted to create an RPG, a genre that used to put the story first. That's definitely the case here, and if you can endure the battle and exploration annoyances, Rise of the Argonauts is a story worth experiencing. Otherwise, wait for the next time the Argonauts rise.