Advent Rising

"The hardest game to review I've ever played."

When I turned on Advent Rising for the first time, the game froze while the Majesco logo was being displayed.

Needless to say, I was not impressed.

There were moments when I was really enjoying Rising, but I can't name it a videogame classic, and it all narrows down to one thing: Glitches. There is no hesitation in my voice when I say that Rising is one of the buggiest professionally published games I have ever played. And it's way beyond the KOTOR level of poor pathfinding issues and weird real-time cutscene lags, though those kinds of things happen as well. I'm talking about the kind of stuff that directly affects the gameplay itself. Before you are done with Rising, you will have encountered enemies that take no damage, turrets that can't be un-targeted (even after they're destroyed!), characters that walk through walls, and elevators that won't move. Your vehicles will get stuck to walls, scripted events won't trigger, dialog won't match what's happening on-screen, the game will freeze, and a number of other evil mishaps will pop up. This kind of sloppy programming is unacceptable, even for first-time developer Glyphx Games. Have we forgotten that Metroid Prime was made by a rookie development team?

And the slowdown problems? GOD HELP US!

Never in my life has such a promising videogame concept been beaten down by so many technical shortcomings. Had Rising been polished up, had many of the bugs been fixed, I probably would have ended up giving the game an 8/10 or 9/10, as I loved the story and found many of the gameplay-related ideas to be innovative and fresh. But the failings in the faulty programming run deep, and the game loses two or three points off of its final score as a result. I hate to do it, but I'm trying to be a critic here.

If you can get past this one (major) issue, well, Rising can potentially be the big sci-fi epic we've all been waiting for. The story, co-written by “legendary” author Orson Scott Card, was originally meant to be the first in a trilogy, but that may never happen no thanks to poor sales. Shame, too, ‘cause this plot shows some serious promise. We're thrown into the shoes of Gideon Wyeth, a space pilot (you know, in the future) who's immediately tasked with boarding an enormous alien ship and finding out what's up. These aliens, the Aurelians, come in peace – in fact, they worship the humans as gods, whom they long believed to be no more than a silly myth. Unfortunately, they've also accidentally led to Earth the Seekers, a far more powerful race of aliens that ask no questions and want only to annihilate all humans in existence. And they almost succeed. The Aurelians are unable to stop the Seekers as they are, but will gladly rescue any humans they can, which winds up being Gideon and two other people. From there, it's a long and epic ride through the galaxy with the Seekers hot on your tail to finish what they started.

Now, aside from the cutscenes, Glyphx did a pretty good job of incorporating this plot into the gameplay, with many of Rising's coolest moments happening while you're actually playing the game. Racing through a war-torn city as it's being struck by meteors, running around a recently-bombed spaceship while it's falling apart, being in the middle of a council meeting gone violently wrong… The guys at Glyphx clearly know theatricality. Until the very end of Rising, I was not only convinced that I was experiencing an incredible sci-fi epic, but I felt as if I was actually in one – which sounds really cliched, I know, but that's my honest feeling.

So the story's great. What else? Gameplay… Yeah, it's good. See, Glyphx was obviously going for something more than just the standard run-of-the-mill shooter, and I respect their valiance. So, instead, they've come up with this weird little hybrid of game types. Trying putting Halo, God of War and Psi-Ops together, with the result being a sort of third-person lock-and-shoot marathon of sorts, and you'll get a general idea of what to expect. Gideon can lock onto an enemy, and from there, he can punch, kick, shoot, dodge, or use one of several nifty psychic powers to fight the bastard off. Weapons and abilities are set to the two triggers, and you can essentially dual-wield anything you want. (Yes, you can dual-wield rocket launchers. Yes, it is awesome.)

What hurts, really, is the rate of progression. If you want to enjoy Rising, you've got to put some hours in, as many of the opening moments of the game are simply not that fun. This is because, until you get off the planet Earth and start utilizing your cool psychic powers, your combat is pretty limited. In many of the earlier moments of the game, you'll simply find yourself picking up whatever weapon is nearby and firing it at all of the Seekers that appear. You can jump, dodge and dual-wield, but it's really not a whole lot. You'll rely on a lot of generic tactics, and for the most part, the game will seem pretty bland. Even the environments in the earlier portions of the game aren't particularly creative or interesting – they're just cities and spaceships that look like, well, cities and spaceships. Many of the environments are nothing more than either big, open areas with little cover or a series of boring tunnels. You'll even encounter infinitely respawning enemies a lot. (That's Glyphx's way of saying, “You're not supposed to be here! Go somewhere else!”) Even the cutscenes get old – they seem to be nothing more than redundant shots of repeated NPC models running from the Seekers. Ah! Help!

And let's not forget the glitches…

This sounds like a nightmare, I know, but Rising really hits a turning point a couple hours in. Turns out, the Aurelians worshipped us for a reason. Those psychic powers I mentioned? Very real, and very fun to use. Now, I should stress that very few of the powers you have are particularly original. You know, you can lift things with your mind, fire shockwaves and energy projectiles, tamper with time, etc. Nevertheless, I had a hell of a time messing around with Rising's abilities. In the first stage when I was able to utilize my “lift” ability, I was attacking Seekers on the outside of a spaceship. My gamer instincts told me to shoot them. I had different ideas – putting my new mind power to use, I was able to chuck the Seekers into space. No fears, no tears… With little more than a tap on the trigger and a flick on the thumbstick, those enemies were getting sucked into the vacuum of the black void. And let me tell you, when you do that, you feel awesome.

Strategies only get deeper still. You can hold an enemy in the air and fire away. You can shoot exploding energy spikes out of one hand while you reload a gun in the other. You can use shockwaves to push enemies over cliffs. You can place two energy shields and leap back and forth between the two. What's especially great is that every single thing can be leveled up over continuous use – powers, guns, melee attacks, even your basic jump and dodge functions. Your combat techniques open up even more as Gideon becomes a more powerful character. You'll quickly develop a Max Payne-ish slow-motion dodge technique that allows you to pinpoint enemy headshots. Your lift ability will evolve from lifting one object to many at a time. Guns will unlock useful secondary functions. Melee attacks will turn into cinematic fatalities. Watching as Gideon slowly grows from a normal, boring human into a near-invincible powerhouse badass is easily the best part of Rising.

And you'll see yourself progress, as well, but in different ways – particularly in getting used to the eerie control scheme. It's mostly not a problem, with one major exception, the “flick-targeting system.” The back of the box claims that this mechanic is “revolutionary,” but it's really just a neat little idea that needed better execution. See, you can instantly lock onto any enemy within reach by “flicking” the right thumbstick in its direction. It works from a neutral perspective, but get this: The right thumbstick is also used for camera control. See where I'm going? Yes, there will be moments when you mean to adjust the camera and wind up locking onto a Seeker, and vice versa. Watching a video of Rising would, I assume, cause you to wonder if the player is drunk, with all the bouncing around that the camera does, though I should note that the game offers the ability to adjust the sensitivity of the feature. Yeah, like it works anyway. Like it works anyway.

And Glyphx tried to mix up the action on occasion by incorporating, yep, vehicles. Jeeps and gun turrets (which control exactly like the ones in Halo that the developers were obviously copying) only really appear in the opening portions of the game, and really don't add a whole lot. On the other hand, the Seeker tank, which gets quite a bit of attention later on, is totally great. It's completely overpowered and can even lock onto targets. The levels that feature the tank really aren't challenging, but are enormous fun if only for the sake of giving players the satisfaction of blowing up everything that moves. This kind of sensation belongs in every game.

On a technical level… Well, yeah, glitches. Glitches, man. They kill. And Rising is loaded with ‘em. And the framerate is another major cause of concern, if only because the developers seems to want to cram too much into the game at once, what with the huge environments and dozens of enemies and all. (Thankfully, the lock-on system means that the framerate won't interfere too much with the gameplay.) From an artistic standpoint, well, Rising starts off pretty generic but can be breathtaking at times. Much of the game takes place on an Aurelian planet that is simply beautiful to look at and obviously inspired by the art direction of the Halo games. The voice acting is top-notch and the music is pretty spectacular, even if it does skip a lot. Yeah, glitches, man.

Pros

+ This is one seriously epic sci-fi story.
+ And it incorporates many great plot-related moments directly into gameplay.
+ Combat really opens up to all sorts of play styles as you progress.
+ All of your abilities can be level up.
+ Much of the second half of the game is a lot of fun.
+ Breathtaking art direction and a stirring score.
+ The Seeker tank pwns j00.

Cons

- Buggy! Buggy! BUGGY!
- It takes a while for the game to get going.
- Framerate problems galore.
- This “flick-targeting” thing doesn't work too well…
- It's got that cliffhanger ending that will probably never be continued upon.
- And it's buggy. Did I already say that?

Overall: 6/10

You know, if Glyphx hadn't been so sloppy in the production of Advent Rising, I think I would have given this game at least an extra two points. There were times when I absolutely loved Rising, especially in the later portions, when Gideon was getting stronger and the plot was accelerating. I mean, there were times when I was having a blast. But this number of bugs and glitches is simply unacceptable, and ultimately, I give Rising a 6/10. Getting down to the bottom line… I spent eighteen bucks on Rising and I don't regret it for an instant. In fact, I really hope that enough people start buying this title to warrant a sequel, because there are gaps to fill. I recommend that you, yes, buy this game if you can get it for a low price, because we need a follow-up, and also because these kinds of greats ideas deserve your support, even if the end package needs a lot of polish.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 10/02/06