Rise of the Argonauts Review XBox 360

Rise of the Argonauts,
XBox 360
Codemasters
£39.99

A CROWD of bloodthirsty Argonauts on a rampaging mission for the golden fleece should make for a brilliant game - or at least you would think.

The basic idea is fine, following Jason's mission to find the fleece to save his wife who has been killed in an attack by mysterious magical enemies the black tongues.

Unfortunately as soon as you get into the first fight scenes it starts to go wrong. Initially there's no flow to the battles and it takes quite a long time before you're given the option to string together moves and get some fluid action.

The game camera also follows your character far too closely and it's incomprehensible why in a game where you have to search maps to find missions and characters to talk to, the makers have decided not to include a compass on the game screen.

The result is you have to keep going back into menus to access the game map, which is time consuming and irritating.

One of the saving graces is you the very satisfying way the camera slows when you finish off enemies and the ability to develop your player with god powers as the game goes on, but it can't make up for bad graphics, poor gameplay and boring interaction between characters.

55 per cent.

By Will Oliphant