Advent Rising
Advent Rising is a game I recently played and really enjoyed. It’s a third-person action/adventure game. The gameplay is unique in its original targeting system which combines traditional weapons and special powers. The story/cinematics and sound are also great. The biggest drawback is the technical glitches throughout the game - such as the camera angle spinning out of control or flying off-angle, getting stuck in weird places, other characters not following you, etc.
Basic Plot
In the very distant future, humans on a small planet come in contact with an alien race. These visitors warns the humans that another malevolent race of aliens called the Seekers is coming to wipe out the humans. The Seekers arrive and proceed to attack and destroy the planet. Only 3 humans survive, one of which includes the main character Gideon Wyeth. Apparently, alien civilizations throughout the galaxy worship humans as gods. Humans are supposed to be an incredibly powerful and intelligent ancient race that will return and “deliver the universe.” However, the Seekers (who are technologically superior) have been secretly scouring the galaxy for thousands of years and wiping out humans while most of the galaxy doesn’t even know humans exist. Humans themselves are unaware of their own hidden potential.
Gameplay
Gideon learns many supernatural powers (much like the Force) as he fights the the Seekers. You can and often need to use these powers in conjunction with conventional weapons (guns). It’s a very fun game and it’s supposed to be the first of a trilogy. The cinematic format and great soundtrack immerses the player in an epic movie-like experience. Unfortunately, due largely to those glitches I mentioned, the game received bad reviews. Because of these reviews, sales of the game have been lackluster and it’s unclear whether the trilogy will be completed. I personally hope it is.
Here’s the website for the game: Advent Rising
10/23/2007 Update
Well this game franchise appears to be dead. Majesco fell into severe financial trouble but still owns the intellectual property on Advent Rising so the original creators of the game can’t do anything about it. Advent Rising did later go on sale on Valve’s Steam network but I don’t know how successful that was. All signs right now say there will be no sequels (including statements from the original game creators).
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HECK YEA! Those glitches sucked but at least for most of them just tapping the back button to goto first person mode and tapping again to leave it fixed any camera angle problems you’re having. As long as they tweak the jumping a tad and fix the camera glitches I’d say this game has an extremely solid chance at making a great trilogy. I mean come on who the crap can beat Orson Scott Card as a writer for the story?! For nothing else I want to play out the trilogy to just know the story, that’s how good it is! The things the game creators make your character go through somewhat traumatize you (choice of who dies scene), so that puts the entire game on another level. I’ve not been so attached to a character from a game since Aeris from FF7. Now I’m not exactly one of those that cried when she dies but that same level of character involvement starts to get at you during Advent. Due to a slow start some gamers might stick it out but the game makes it worthwhile! Slow-mo jump dodging while stealing an enemy’s weapon from their very hands with your right hand then blasting them in the fact with your left! NOTHING BEATS THAT! Except maybe freezing one guy amidst a mass of people then detonating him! OR! Slowing down time and breaking an alien’s neck or shoving your foot in it’s mouth and breaking it’s jaw! OR walking up to a giant mech shooting cannon fire at you with a spherical shield protecting you and then casually pulling a rocket launcher on it! OR! doing a slow-mo matrix style flip from hanging off of a ledge into the air where you throw exploding ice flechetes out into a group of baddies! The entire game oozes a John Woo meets Star Wars with a dash of The Matrix! BUY IT! BUY IT NOW AND MAKE IT SUCCESFULL SO THAT WE CAN HAVE TWO MORE LOVELY GAMES LIKE IT!!!