Good game, but could have been so much more.
User Rating: 7.8 | Advent Rising XBOX
I bought Advent Rising on a whim while looking through the used games at Gamestop, and it was worth my 9 dollars. I was pleasantly surprised with the story and what your character can eventually be able to do. However, this game should have stayed in the oven for a little while longer. It had the serious potential to be one of the greats, but because of a strong lack of polish, it is just a mediocre game. Advent Rising is a 3rd person shooter(although, it can be played in 1st person) taking place in a sci-fi world. The story opens with the human race making first contact with an alien species, the Aurelieans. Your character, Gideon, is one of the diplomats to meet these visitors. However, the aliens worship humans, and have come just in time to warn them of an impending attack by another alien race, the Seekers. The Seekers then attack, and the human planet is ultimately destroyed. Gideon and a couple other humans survive, and go with the Aurelieans, who teach Gideon that humans are the originators of a hidden power that can do almost anything. Gideon learns this power, and helps the Aurelieans against the Seekers. The story is perhaps the strongest point of the game, and ends with a good cliffhanger as well. (The acting could be better though)
The gameplay is a pretty standard 3rd person shooter. The "flick-targeting" system works fairly well (you flick the right thumbstick towards the enemy you wish to target), but can mess things up from time to time. When Gideon learns new powers, the gameplay takes a turn for the better, and it makes combat pretty fun. The graphics are also pretty standard. They aren't anything spectacular, but aren't horrible either. However, the game lacks polish. With a great story like this and the potential for amazing gameplay with the varied weapons and powers, it's truly a shame that the developers did not make this as good as it could have been. Even from a graphical standpoint, blockbuster games tend to look amazing, and Advent Rising just looks average. The game glitches and the frame rate is unstable. It is a very fun game, but nothing outstanding, but it could have been something outstanding. I wish they would have spent more time with it, because I personally want to see the sequels, but that is not going to happen since it didn't fare too well. If the developers had added that needed polish, this wouldn't have been the case. Advent Rising is a good game, but could have been so much more.
