"This trilogy's off to a good start."

Advent Rising is an ambitious undertaking by rookie developer, GlyphX. It's their baby, if you will. They made sure that they didn't do anything half-way in this game. They tried their hardest to put out a great sci-fi story wrapped up in an action-packed superhero-esqe game. The best way to describe this game is The Matrix + Halo + Jak + Psi-Ops + Devil May Cry = Advent Rising. (All sections of the game are rated as if you meet the recommended requirements)

Story: 9/10

The story is pure genius. You play as Gideon Wyeth. He is a pilot who is on an embassador mission with an alien race. This race regards all humans as gods of their religion. What really makes the story interesting is that you can make several different choices throughout it. This will effect the rest of the game as you go along. The only problem is that they give you a little taste of interactivity with the story and they don't expand on it. They could have taken it a little further. But what's really cool is that this is the first in a trilogy of Advent games. The second and third games' stories will depend on what you did in the previous story. Just make sure that when you buy the sequel, that you have your old save file for this game on the same hard drive.

Graphics: 8/10

Considering this is using the Unreal 2.0 Engine, it looks very good. But that's the thing; it uses the Unreal 2.0 Engine. Water looks nice. I also have to credit GlyphX for some great animations on the characters and the objects governed by the in-game physics. However, the engine really limits what can be done with the detail on all the characters. Hopefully the sequels will use Unreal Engine 3, which is the God of all game engines (along with the Source engine). Unlike the Xbox version, the framerates are consistent and the game moves fluidly. Also, the effects on the guns and powers in the game look great, ESPECIALLY considering the technology used.

Sound: 9/10

This flawless score, composed by Tommy Tallarico, joins the ranks of Halo as a series with TERRIFIC music. A beautiful orchestral and choral score accompanies the game at all the right moments. While this music is great, I have a few gripes. For one, the subtitles have a very hard time synching with the voice acting, which by the way, is very good. Secondly, sometimes the music will be a little too loud to hear the in-game dialogue. Those are my only two complaints; otherwise, the sound is awesome.

Gameplay: 10/10

In this non-stop action game, you can play all the coolest parts of a great sci-fi movie. You really connect with the characters as you play, and the action is perfectly choreographed for the situation at hand. In any given battle, you can lock-on to an enemy and dodge, and while in mid-air, you can shoot full-auto, reload, switch to a psychic power, blow away the enemy, target another enemy, get off a few shots, and land, all in one leap. This is due mostly to the amazing slow-motion system set up throughout the game to make you feel truely unstoppable. As you progress, your character levels up in certain skills, such as wielding particular guns or using certain powers, and gets better in those areas by doing something more. The game plays really well with a keyboard and mouse, but it's meant for a gamepad with analog support. I have an adaptor to use the Xbox controller on my PC, so I get the best of both worlds. Good job, GlyphX!

Final Verdict: 9/10

If you have the Xbox version already, that's too bad. The PC version is completely bug-free, and the framerate is good throughout. If you don't have the game at all, it is definitely worth a buy. It's only $30 at the initial release for PC, anyway.

*note--The requirements say 2.0 GHz and 3.4 GHz, but I think they meant 1 GHz and 2.4 GHz, considering I can max out the game fine on 1.8 GHz Pentium 4.*

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/10/05