Some great ideas held back by pacing and technical issues. If you can overlook them, ROTA can provide a fun experience.
Though many characters are used from mythology throughout the story including Jason, Hercules, Icarus, Achillies, medusa and the gods, almost none stay true to their original myths, however the tale is surprisingly well spun at adapting them to fit the purpose of the game and provide an entertaining narrative.
The problem is that while the story is great it's also one of the games main flaws in that the balance between talking and fighting is surprisingly one sided. Far too much of the title involves talking to characters, this would be fine in itself if the areas were larger and there was more combat but there is an awful lot of back tracking involved in these small areas just to talk.
Like most western created RPG's the dialogue is not there just to watch, choices must be made. Each answer you choose reflects upon one of Jason's 4 patron gods Ares, Athena, Hermes and Apollo. For example if you choose an aggressive response he will be leaning more towards Ares which in turn works towards leveling up skills but more on that later.
Rise of the Argonauts is a mix between an action RPG and a pure action game when it gets down to the combat. In battle up to 3 characters can be used, Jason who you the player controls and two other Argonauts of your choosing. Jason has 3 weapons at his disposal in the mace, sword and Spear all of which have different strengths against different types of enemies and can be switched on the fly even in mid combo. The weapons all have a light wounding and heavy execution attack. The execution strike when used to finish an enemy triggers a slow motion finish that looks surprisingly good as well as brutal (My favorite being the mace that literally bursts heads. Satisfying). On top of this there are also special attacks that can be used once again each different for each weapon from throwing the spear to hitting the ground for a mini earthquake.
Unlike most RPG's Jason does not gain experience or level up in a traditional way. As Jason completes either side quests or achieves certain things in battle he will acquire deeds: "A hero's worth is not measured in gold or trophies but by the greatness of what they accomplish". For example "kill 50 enemies with the Mace" is a rather basic one, or as mentioned earlier "choose 20 Ares dialogue choices". These Deeds can be offered to the 4 patron gods that have decided to aid Jason in his quest. Each of these gods offer various skills and damage upgrades Jason can learn including god powers which are akin to magic and can be used one at a time, with combat building up the bar to use them again.
As fun as the combat is as mentioned earlier there just isn't enough of it throughout the whole game and what there is is unfortunately harmed by a lack of variety in the enemies as well as quite a lot of technical issues with frame skips and clipping. This is a real shame because although the graphics are quite nice they don't exactly push the system so there should be no need for such issues.
The sound is surprisingly decent for what appears to be a fairly low budget title. All of the voice acting is adequately performed especially among the Argonauts with the Satyr Pan standing heads above the rest.
Jason's adventure does come up a bit on the short side however with minimal side quests and only about 6 areas to explore. I think i finished the game in about 10 hours though i wasn't timing and there isn't a whole lot to bring you back afterwards and ROTA doesn't support the new trophy system either making a second play through just not worth it.
In conclusion Rise of the Argonauts is a decent title but not an astounding one. It has some great ideas that are let down perhaps by budget and time, so it's short and has technical issues and too little combat. However the story, characters and excellent combat where there is any do make it worth playing if you are a fan of Greek mythology and would like to experience it with a twist. At worst rent it for a weekend, what have you got to lose?