The pits are a cheap shot but the checkpoint system is fair.
That is, until your reach the peak. The Ares chase is terrible. Spears can get you easily and pits require precision platforming but you can't slow down. Even worse, sometimes jumping a pit/platform pushes you into the arc of a spear. Ducking into the cave and avoiding Ares kills you for no reason. I got pretty far only to reach a new checkpoint, die, then return to the peak. I gave up after that.
Also, the captions are hard to read as you encounter projectiles. They disappear too quickly.