Advent Rising

"Perfect when in the "action movie" mood"

Ok - so this is the game that was long awaited. New developer Glyphx worked long and hard on a game with high expectations. It would introduce a revolutionary combat system, be an extremely cinematic game with a deep story, beautifully orchestrated music, and it would be a trilogy. Advent Rising is the first installment of this game, and although it is a good game, like all others, it does have a good amount of flaws within it. There are framerate problems and glitches - but I'll get into that later.

Story - 10/10

The story of this game is amazing. I would play through this entire game even if the game sucked, as this story is worth the $50 I spent on it alone. Heres a brief introduction of the story:

You are Gideon Wyeth, the younger brother of the famous-hero pilot Ethan Wyeth. An alien ship arrives at your home world, Edumea, and Ethan is chosen to pilot the diplomatic envoy to visit the aliens. Ethan, who pulls some strings, gets Gideon the co-pilot seat for the mission. They go over to the alien ship, which belongs to a species called the Aurelians. They searched long to meet humanity, but once they had found Edumea, an Aurelian had messaged another species known as the Seekers. The Seekers have been afraid of the power humanity has the possibility to possess, and would want to obliterate Edumea and any human life stemming from it. The Aurelians, who apologized for leading the Seekers to Edumea, offered to assist any human survivors who made it off-world. The diplomatic envoy then leaves the Aurelian ship, and on the way back to their station (which had been orbiting Edumea), the Seeker armada warps in and begins their attack. And that is where the story of the Advent Trilogy begins.

It is told throughout the game in many cutscenes (oodles of them) extremely well. The only exception to this is something which many people complain about, the battle scenes which often appear between sections of gameplay. A lot of people don't like it, but they don't see as I have that they're used instead of a loading screen.

Emotion can be seen throughout the story from characters, and at moments you will feel sorry for Gideon, with the music being edited beautifully for the cutscenes, helps make the cinematics of this game emotionally powerful.

Gameplay - 8/10

Advent Rising features a system of gameplay called "flick targeting". You use the right joystick to look around, and if you see an enemy, you simply flick the control stick towards him, and it locks-on to him. This system, although implemented well, can be flawed at times. Everyone who has played this game knows what I am talking about when I say using the Lift power has its flaws when fighting with liftable objects nearby, as Gideon deemed it more important to, after killing the enemy he was just aiming at, to look at an object instead of focus on another enemy. This is only a minor annoyance, and I assure you all it didn't affect my review score at all, as it can be fixed with merely a flick of the control stick to target the enemy.

In Advent Rising, you can use a wide assortment of weapons and powers to wage war against the evil Seekers. They can be assigned to either your left or right hand, which means you can use any combination (Except using the same power in both hands) of weapons and powers. As you use these weapons/powers, they will level up and you'll use them better. As you level up, you'll unlock secondary functions, increase their damage, accuracy, etc. The method of switching weapons involves using the D-Pad. While switching, it slows combat down. You can still move around, but I find it best to do a dodge-move then bring it out. You can switch weapons / powers easily, allowing you to optimize all of them during combat.

Dodging in Advent Rising is a fairly simple thing to do. All you do is move the left stick in the direction you want to dodge, and tap "X". When you get better at dodging (leveling it up, and you'll get to this point quickly), you can unlock slo-mo dodging, which helps you kill multiple enemies mid air, switch weapons, and even take time to admire the scenery while in the air.

Jumping and grabbing onto ledges in Advent Rising is very clunky. Its kind of hard to explain, but it wasn't done very well. There are times I'd climb up a ledge, only to fall back down, hanging on the ledge again. Jumping is kind of weird, its difficult to judge distance and such with Jumping. Thankfully there are barely any moments where Jumping is a requirement.

Music: 8/10

Now, before I get any complaints about me giving it an 8/10, I shall explain my reasoning: Its not the music itself, but the ways it was edited and placed in game that affected my rating.

The music in Advent Rising is amazing. It is beautifully orchestrated by what I think to be a 70-piece Hollywood Orchestra. The music sounds amazing, during cinematics it is used well, and they just did a good job composing and playing it. Whats kind of off with it is its usage in the game. Sure, for plenty of moments in actual gameplay it fits, but I must say: it was poorly edited. One of my complaints, although minor, was the fact that they simply looped it over and over - not bothering to make it sound like a continuous song. People are going to go "Wait, he's giving the music an 8/10 for THAT?" No, that isn't my complete reasoning. But the thing is, while I'm blasting away and kicking major Seeker butt, the song plays once, stops for three seconds, and starts again. It kind of kills the mood for certain parts.

My only other complaint is the pauses in music during gameplay that occasionally pop up. They don't come up too often, but when they do it is annoying.

Other Sound Effects: 9/10

The other sound effects were done fairly well. Although nothing sounds truly amazing, they chose sounds that fit for the weapons and seem to work well. I did enjoy listening to the Darkfire and the Kaull.

Replayability: 7/10

This is a relatively short game. It doesn't have a great amount of replayabilty once you beat the hardest difficulty. But I give it a 7/10 for one reason alone: This is a perfect game for an afternoon where nothing else is bound to happen. Its short, action-y, great story, so if you're in an action movie mood, this game is the perfect game to play, as it can be beaten in 6 hours on the easiest difficulty, making it seem a lot like an action movie, seeming more like one than a videogame.

Overall - 8/10

Advent Rising delivers great gameplay, great while poorly edited music, good sound effects, average replayability, and a deep and involving storyline. Some flaws are glitches and framerate problems that appear that effect gameplay, but what game doesn't have those? Advent Rising, until its price drops to either $35 or below, I would suggest renting it first, then buying it if you fall in love with it like me. If its below $35, just buy it. That money being used for your mother's christmas gift? Get Advent Rising instead. Its a great game worth at least a rent, as it is a story you must get through to prepare for the second Advent game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/06/05