Advent Rising Description:

Advent Rising review:
5 stars (A masterpeice, that reviewers bashed for no reason at all) - First off, before I even talk about my review, lets look back on what so called "Pro" reviewers did to this game. Due to the fact that it did not exactly live up to the massive hype surrounding it, reviewers did their best to destroy it, and anyone who might think of checking it out.



I'm here to dispell the myth reviewers created, that this game isn't worth a 5 out of 10, and that it's buggy to no end. Now, lets talk about the good features-



- The absolute best soundtrack composed and produced for a video game in years. This is the sort of music you'll be hunting down MP3's for after you play the game.

- Action scenes that rival those seen in just about any video game to date, including the awsome Max Payne series. Consider this, you target the enemie, do a flying, spinning leap forward, waste him, then target his buddy, flip midair, land, fly backwards, fire, and then you not only kill the other bad guy, but you blow up scenery, and all heck litterally breaks loose. Thats an example of ANY of the gameplay to be found here. Not even mentioning the Vechicle scenes, and their "Hollywood" style flip a million times and drive fine. Do a 360 while being barraged by missile, and then hit the cliffside doing 80mph, flip 4 times, and drive right at the enemy ship, firing at it, and it explodes the MOMENT you go flying through it. Yep, doesn't get much better then this.

- Cinematics that really set the stage, and make you feel like your not playing a game, rather, you are watching a movie that you control. You will actually grasp what is happening, why it's happening, and what to do next. You will also be quite entertained, as like the rest of the game, the cutscenes are hollywood quality.

- Top notch voice acting, backing up the characters and storyline, easily on par with KOTOR's or Half Life 2, or even The Longest Journey(10 points if you actually know this game)



Ok, so now that I got that out of the way, lets talk about the bad features.



- Somtimes easy to get lost, due to a lack of a map. Can't say I have any idea how people get lost. The game basically idicates where to go, based on smart design choices in the levels, that while not being absolute linear in nature, keep you on track.

- Sound somtimes will cut out for a second or two..but really, this is easily ignored, and only happens a few times.

- very rare, but occasionally, when fighting many enemies at once, you could "fall" through the level. This got me once or twice, but again, I "died", and then reloaded the checkpoint. In under a minute I was back in action, no "falling" this time.

- This game is somewhat short..yeah, about 10 hours tops. I beat it in 6. Still, it plays alot like a Million dollar motion picture, so it flows fast...basically, it works for once, a game having short gameplay time. Not to mention, you can go back and play again, the game does have some replay to it.



Thats it. So for all the good versus the bad points, how in the hell did reviewers and people online claim this game wasn't worth 5 dollars? I'll tell you how.



If you have the PC version, and your complaining about visuals, your nuts. Yesm the textures aren't on the "Half Life 2/FEAR" level, but did you notice that, they work? Let alone, the game doesn't take 30 years to load due to insanely high texture maping. People also complained about floaty game mechanics and animations. I just have to shake my head, and point to Halo on the PC. It doesn't get more shakey then that port.



Next, we have the debat over the graphics in general. I would like to know what crack reviewers were smoking when they said the effects and character models looked like they were from a 1999 PC game. The character models are top of the line, and carry a sort of Anime/Comic book stylization to them, but again, it works well...considering how much jumping/flipping/dodging you will do in the game.



Finally, we have the "flic" targeting system, which on the PC works by having you use the mouse wheel to target. Takes 10 minutes to get used to, and then you'll grasp why you shouldn't just FPS the entire game out. When you target after a certain point in the game, time will slow down. There is no bar, or meter that says how many times you can do it, so insane slowmo gunfighting is always there. Of course once you see your character flying through the air, laying waste to everything in his path...you will no doubt have your jaw on the floor. Mind you , this is BEFORE you even get your powers.



So what is the sum total here? A game that will be considered a classic by few, and crap by many. I say thats ok. They can go play whatever they want, and I'll play this. Advent Rising isn't the BEST game of all time, nor does it claim to be just that. What it is, is the most cinematic driven game to date. The music, sound, and gameplay, match the style and presentation, and feel of the entire package perfectly.



So after all this, if your still considering buying this one, do yourself a favor, and buy it. A year from now or so, this game will be highly saught after anyway, and I have no doubt, wind up on "Home of the Underdogs", just like "Arx Fatalis" and many other great games, that average gamers or reviewers had a bug up their a** when reviewing.
4 stars (Great Game. Hours of fun) - My friend gave me this game for my 17th birthday. (Yes, I know I'm using the kid's review). At first I was a little skeptical. It looked good, but I had heard that there were many glitches. I installed it and then started the game. The graphics were very well done. Great fluid gameplay. At first the combat confused me. But you eventually get used to it. The more you fight the more that the flick-targeting makes sense. The game starts out a little slow, but in no time it picks up. As soon as Gideon unlocks his powers the game simply flourishes. The storyline is truly great, characters really come alive and the enemies are not dumb.



Pros:

Great Graphics

Awesome acrobatic moves

Awesome Powers and Awesome weapons (a lot of weapons)

Great characters

Nice variety of enemies.

Incredible story

You feel like your actually in the game.

Fairly good replayability

Gorgeous music



Cons:

Takes 5,000 bytes on your computer

A bit short

A few annoying glitches

(I would have given it 4 1/2 stars)


5 stars (Really Great Game) - This game is excellent and i would recommend it to anybody who would like to try something novel and new or basically plays games for good storylines.

The storyline while a little short is extremely emotional, heartwarming and basically just phenomenol.

The learning curve is also quite lenient on people, with the stroyline being inbuilt with a tutorial at the game to give you some time to familiarize yourself with the controls which are extremely easy to get the hang of.

Don't quit the game when the credits roll though, there is a extremely nice boss fight to get into after the credits not to mention some insight onto what might be in the sequels.



While guns are certainly fun to use, they can get dreadfully boring after firing the same one over and over again. Fortunately, the game has a experience system that unlocks a gun's secondary firing mode that is much more devastating than your primary fire.

My personal favorites are the HAZE pistol and the Seeker Sniper gun.

While guns are only one aspect of gameplay that you can dig into, the other is the special powers that your character Gideon gets slightly after the beginning. The powers while certainly capable of replacing weapons can actually be used to really good effect with certain weapon/power combos.

For example the lift power can be used quite efficiently with a rocket launcher or just about any other gun.



The targeting system in the game not only makes aiming a breeze during normal gameplay but also allows you to coordinate multiple attacks especially during Slow-motion mode which is where the flick-targeting system really shines, allowing you to gun down enemies faster than they can scream "OUCH!".

However, the targeting system will take some getting used to as it is completely off track from todays known FPS games.

For those who still prefer gunning in 1st person view, the mode is still available although i seriously recommend flick targeting.



The ability of switching weapons or powers in slo-mo mode while efficient and keeps the gameplay moving, would probably end up killing you in intense firefights. Therefore, i would still recommend taking cover before doing any weapon changes



Visually speaking, the graphics are very beautiful, even the littlest of animations such as watching gideon reload, jump and shoot off his guns are done expertly. The graphics have their own unique style, with the enemies the seekers being big and bulky while humans as thin and slighly elongated.

However, i am not sure whether this is graphically related or due to my graphic card, but some scenes can have the graphics blurring a little.



The audio is just amazing, if you buy this game, and don't like it, well thats your opinion but i would say that the music is something that you should get even if you don't like the game, it is superbly done and fits in with the game.

It is extremely moving and emotional at times



While some people have been complaining that the game is buggy, i would recommend them cleaning up their system with something like Norton systemworks. Before i did a clean up of registry entries and such, the game kept on crashing on me. However after doing the cleanup, the game ran the entire way withouht sa single hitch, which meant that something probably hicked on the installation process.



That ends my review, i probably missed some parts of the game in here but anyway, i would like to emphasize my recommendations to people to get this game and try it for themselves. Please note that this review is of my own opinion and the game may or may not suit your tastes.



Like a lot of people on the Advent Trilogy boards, i too am waiting for a sequel. :)

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