The name Advent Rising is enough to inspire blind rage in many gamers. It has a lot of very negative publicity about it, ranging from bad reviews to their botched contest. Knowing all of this, I figured that I would buy the game and give it a chance. At eight bucks I figured that even if it were a bad game, it would still be worth the money I paid. It’s pretty sad that I feel that my eight dollars was a seriously wasted investment. Advent Rising follows the adventures of Gideon Wyeth, younger brother of the ace pilot, Ethan Wyeth and all around cool guy. The game opens with humanity about to make first contact with an alien species, the Aurelians, and Gideon and his brother get to be on the entourage. From here, what started as peaceful first contact spells the doom for the entire planet when a foul alien race called the Seekers follow the Aurelians to this planet and commence wiping out every vestige of humanity. They also seem to be scanning humans, seeking something that remains unknown to our hero for some time. What follows is a tale of tragic and epic proportions that takes Gideon all over space to seek his destiny. Well this is what we are supposed to feel for the story. The reality of it is much less interesting. This game tries to draw you into its story, but it falls flat on its face every time. There is a point early on where you must choose whom to save out of your two loved ones, but this choice has little effect on the game, being only superficial. There is also a very forced feeling love interest to be had. Overall, the entire story of the game feels rushed and forced, which leaves you feeling highly bored with it. For a game that is supposed to have been written by Orson Scott Card, a very talented sci-fi writer, this is pretty disheartening and makes me wonder if he actually did this or if it is part of the games PR engine. Then again, rushed does seem to represent most aspects of this game and that’s perhaps why it is so horrible. Every portion of this game has something wrong with it that seriously puts a damper on it. I’ll explain this in depth a bit more below in the individual sections but I’ll start with the gameplay first. The control scheme for this game is very reminiscent of a Halo 2-esque setup and as such it feels very comfortable. You can use your two weapons with ease or use your powers or some mixture of powers and guns and it all controls very well. Dodging around enemy gunfire, leaping over obstacles and delivering melee beat downs to the enemies are all fun and they respond fairly well. Also, there is a very nice experience system in which the more you use a weapon or power the better it gets, unlocking alternate fire abilities and making the weapons more powerful. Its especially useful with the psychic powers you get because it makes them take less energy and thus you can use them more often. But that’s really all there is nice to be said about the gameplay. The psychic powers are so powerful as to make the game feel broken. I died a few times before I got them, but once I got the very first power that stopped. I was able to mix and match powers with guns I was good with and simply go through the stage like a walking chainsaw. The enemies had no challenge anymore, even in large hordes. Also, when controlling your character, he moves very stiffly at times and adding that to his poor jumping abilities and the occasional platforming that crops up can get incredibly frustrating to get past. The enemies were a very sore spot as they were fun to look at, but the glitches I ran into that dealt with them made them laughable. Sometimes they wouldn’t even acknowledge me, letting me kill them easily and others they would leap off ledges to their death as they try to dodge my gunfire, great AI that is right there, or simply glitch through the floor and die. The graphics in Advent Rising are nothing special to look at and were it not for the glitches that occur, they would be perfectly passable. However, they are not so it is not passable. There is plenty of graphical slowdown to be had when you are playing, be it in a cutscene or when meandering about the levels. I have experienced slowdown when running through a canyon area with no enemies about and it boggles my mind why this even happens on the X-Box. There are also a lot of graphical glitches to be had and they are frustrating beyond measure. Falling through the floor, driving my vehicle through walls, these are all part and parcel of the Advent Rising experience. Sadly, the audio didn’t fare all that much better than the graphics did. Let me just say that I really liked the music to this game. It has a sweeping orchestral feel to it that felt a bit too similar to Halo’s, but I really liked it. That’s the last nice thing to be said about the audio in this game. All of the voice acting is lame and unconvincing, even if it doesn’t glitch horribly as you’re listening to it, that is if it doesn’t cut out entirely. This is especially annoying as there are no subtitles anywhere, so if it cuts out you wont have any idea what is being said. Although they are considerate enough to allow you to replay cutscenes in their entirely by pausing in the middle of them and pressing the appropriate button. However with how poor the qualities of these cutscenes are, you will likely not be missing anything or wanting to repeat them. Many of them are plagued by grainy views and shaky camera angles, almost like an amateur filmed it. That is to say nothing of how bland these cutscenes are, mostly consisting of showing the “chaos” of battle between the humans and the Seekers. While it seems like this is what they were going for, in reality it doesn’t show much beyond a crappy cutscene made using in-game graphics where lots of humans and Seekers get blown up. Oh yay… Advent Rising could have been a passable enough game were it not marred by bad… well just about everything. The worst part of it is that the game ends with a “To Be Continued” and it was supposed to be a trilogy. So what could have been a mediocre trilogy that got better with each game, we instead got this rushed turd of a game that likely ended any chance of any sequels. I’m torn as to whether this is a good or bad thing, but I know I never want to have to play this game again. So if the sequel is just going to be another horrible game like this one, then I’m happy to see it go. Pros: Cool psychic powers, the aliens are cool and the music is great.
Cons: Graphical and audio glitches are everywhere you look, the story is bland, the powers are ridiculously overpowered and the game is way too short and easy.
Score: 4
Recommendation: There is no reason to buy this game, or waste money renting it. Pass on this one and do yourself a favor.
Advent Rising... when I first heard of this game, I was hoping it wasn't going to disappoint, especially since my favorite writer of all time (Orson Scott Card) was helping write it (I loved Ender's Game and the sequels.... Read Full Review
Advent Rising has been knocked on by gamespot for a time, which is probabley one of the reasons it didn't do too well in sales. Although i thought the game looked really, really good, i've held off of the game because of... Read Full Review
