Whenever a game treads the waters of Greek mythology, I immediately get excited.

There's just something about the Homeric scope and majestic scale to those history-fused fantasy tales that never gets old and if the 'God of War' franchise is anything to go by, I'm not alone.

'Rise of the Argonauts' is an RPG developed by Liquid Entertainment and, while it has every reason to be a runaway success considering its source material, the game falls flat for several reasons.

Based loosely on the Jason and the Argonauts mythology, the story is certainly there, even though its telling is a soulless affair, devoid of character development and filled with an uneven pacing that does little justice to the epic scale the story so richly deserves.

The game starts off immediately with the assassination of Jason's wife, Alceme. Your mission then, is to track down the Golden Fleece, the item needed to revive Alceme from the dead.

One of the few pleasures of the game is meeting the various larger-than-life characters that inhabit the world, from playful satyrs to vengeful gods. Forming part of your party are the Argonauts, and together you start your journey to redeem a lost love from beyond the grave.

But despite having such a grand tale as a backbone for the game, it never gets close to fulfilling its potential and is stuck with a less-than-mediocre fleshing out of events.

Another, and to an extent larger, problem the game suffers from is the heavy-handed focus on action to the detriment of the game's proffered moniker. While it's marketed as an RPG, an action game with slight upgrading abilities would have better suited the game's structure.

No intricate skill or item management is present, making way for a simpler approach that sees you choosing abilities and dedicating them to any of the four gods in the game. These upgrades do little to nothing to enhance what is a very poor and simplified combat system. Attack, dodge, combo. These will remain the same throughout the game, and even though the attacks are very violent, most enemies can be dispatched using the same methods over and over and over and... well, you get the point.

A good deal of your time with the game will be spent with long pieces of dialogue, and your conversations with NPC's have various outcomes depending on your choices. These dialogue choices though are merely for face value and has no real influence on the outcome of the game, which makes it pretty much pointless.

From a visual perspective the game is, for the most part, a big bundle of giant average, with little glimmers of potential shining through now and again. The gods and mythical creatures are mostly very well designed, but Jason and his Argonauts are dull and uninteresting with facial expressions that come off as downright goofy at times.

There are some stutters and screen tears throughout the game, but mostly the visuals suffer from unimaginative level design, with one area contending with the next for a "Best in Simularity" title.

'Rise of the Argonauts' then is an RPG that's not an RPG — an action game with poor combat mechanics. It's this confused fusion of genres that ultimately hamper the game from being an enjoyable experience, as neither offers excellence and both bring on frustration.

6.1/10

Buy this game: PS3 | Xbox 360 | PC

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