Original Article

I've copied and pasted some of the interesting bits here:

quote

It looks quite a bit like an action game because the combat takes place entirely in real-time and features an extremely minimal heads-up display (HUD) in an effort to maximize the player's immersion into the game world. Without a multitude of on-screen bars and gauges, you'll instead have to pay attention to your character's posture and wounds, which will show up on the character model wherever they're hit.

quote

But we're getting away from the basic setup stuff here. In Rise of the Argonauts, you control Jason and his crew (which includes Hercules, Perseus, Atalanta, and others) aboard the Argos. Basically, Jason's trying to resurrect his wife, and will need to find the means to do so. With your ship it's possible to sail all across the game world, giving you the ability to select which path you choose to advance through the game. When you land on islands, you'll talk to villagers, power-up Jason through shrines, and recruit others to work on your ship.

While Liquid wasn't willing to give us the whole story on who can be recruited onto your ship and what services they can provide, the developers did mention that Daedalus of Crete could be brought on board to modify equipment. As you go from island to island, he'll pick up new alloys and be able to craft new gear for you. For example, he can reinforce armor to make it more protective or adjust it to make Jason more mobile, and you'll be able to see the changes made on Jason's character model.

quote

Dialogue trees function sort of like they do in Mass Effect, where you select a general mood or tone of response, not the actual text of the response. So you'll see something like "You're crazy," as an option for response and instead of Jason simply saying "you're crazy," he'll perform an action or spew forth words that correspond to the general emotion of the response. In addition, each dialogue response is aligned one of four gods (Ares, Apollo, Athena, and Hermes) who watch over Jason. The choices usually correspond with the personality of the gods, so, for instance, picking an Ares conversation response will sometimes result in Jason planting his fist in an NPC's cheek. Choices made will also work to increase your favor with that particular god.

These gods factor prominently in the character development system as well, as Jason will be able to go to each of their specific shrines and trade deeds for abilities. What are deeds, you ask? They're sort of like Xbox Live achievements. If you perform a deed (killing 10 enemies in under one minute, slaying specific monsters), you'll get a little notification through a pop-up screen. Each deed turned in at the gods' shrines strengthens Jason's favor with them and grants access to godly powers and passive abilities in line with the gods' personalities.