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On
the shelves that hold your games collection there is almost
certainly at least one Third-Person Action game lurking about.
Hardly surprising since the genre encompasses everything from 50Cent:
Bulletproof to GUN, Beat Down: Fists Of Vengeance
to Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith.
 These days
almost every film tie-in can fit into this group, prompting some to
suggest that the genre has reached its’ saturation point, and
considering the state of such unoriginal tragedies as Predator:
Concrete Jungle, this hardly seems an outrageous statement.
However, the genre does allow players to experience game worlds in a
much more movie-like way than can be offered by almost any other,
giving it a huge range of gaming possibilities. Utilising one of the
slightly more obvious uses of a Third-Person Action game, a
Science-Fiction Shooter, Advent Rising has been released
simultaneously for PC and Xbox. Although boasting a far more
generous line-up than Nintendo’s seemingly-almost-dead GameCube,
the arrival of the Xbox360 has meant a decline in support for
Microsoft’s original big black box. Is Advent Rising the
game to send the Xbox out with a bang? Or has that task been
assigned to the much anticipated releases of Driver: Parallel
Lines, Lara Croft’s Tomb Raider: Legend and FarCry:
Instincts: The Next Chapter?
Advent
Rising has stolen almost everything from Sci-Fi games and films.
Everything from Star Wars to Halo: Combat Evolved has
been looted for it’s entertainment value and as such Advent
Rising has managed to make a half decent gaming experience,
despite not featuring anything you haven’t seen a million times
before. The games premise is that an unstoppable legion of aliens is
out to destroy humanity; does that remind you of another Xbox game?
A brief stint in the games decently incorporated Warthog-esque buggy
the Scythe and the realisation that if you hide from enemy fire for
a while your health returns  should jog your memory. The game also
implements an array of psychic abilities, including an easy to use
Telekinetic Power which is almost a carbon copy of the system used
in Midway’s Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy and
CodeMasters/Free Radical’s Second Sight. However, despite
cheekily robbing most of its content from its peers, Advent
Rising does implement these systems well and aside from feeling
a little like a jack of all trades, is still quite fun to play.
There
are two main things that you first notice about Advent Rising.
The first is the epic Cut-Scenes, complete with an orchestral score,
huge space battles and to-the-death duels. The second is the
atrocious Frame-Rate problems that occur during them. This is
unfortunate because Advent Rising seems convinced of its own
quality as a Sci-Fi blockbuster and, for the first few seconds, you
will be too. Once the Cut-Scene has finished, the game starts and
for the most part, plays fairly well. Your character, Gideon Wyeth,
can jump, dive and crouch in a similar way to what you would expect,
and didn’t receive in the illustrious Perfect Dark Zero. He
can also dual wield a selection of guns and later on, psychic
powers. In order to do this you can assign a gun or power to each of
the triggers. For instance, if you fancy a Machine Gun/Rocket
Launcher combo, you could it set up so the L Trigger fires the
Rocket Launcher and the R Trigger the Machine Gun. What about a
Pistol/Force Push mixture? If that floats your boat, go for it.
Whilst changing weapon the game slows to a crawl, this time
intentionally, to allow you to set-up your hardware as you see fit.
Although hardly an amazing innovation, this method of gives you a
huge range of weaponry options and means that at the very least, you
can have some serious fun with a Rocket Launcher in each hand.
Unfortunately, Advent Rising’s Auto Lock-On feature can
dampen some of the weaponries enjoyment, as often it seems more than
a little temperamental. As you move around the Levels, the game
automatically targets the most obvious enemy. This works reasonably
well for the most part but there is no option to easily turn it on
and off; not that handy when all you really want to do is run away.
Later in the title, when you gain Telekinetic  Powers, you are able
to move inanimate objects in order to throw them at your enemies.
Unfortunately Auto Lock-On also locks with these which can make
travel in some of the game’s more crowded areas quite the chore.
Advent
Rising also features some limited RPG elements: if you use a
weapon for a prolonged amount of time, you will increase in Rank
with that weapon, eventually getting access to that weapons
Secondary Function. Although not in anyway as well implemented or
extensive as the system used in the like of the NES’s Shadowgate
or the upcoming The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, it does add a
little variety to this otherwise by-the-numbers title. Unfortunately
most of the time the enemy AI does not really pose you too much of a
problem and there are several occasions when enemies become confused
and get stuck in walls. In-fact, despite initially seeming like a
game backed with a solid budget, it becomes very apparent that Advent
Rising is a game that is not finished. Countless bugs litter Advent
Rising, including instances of Polygon Pop-Up, melodramatic
Hollywood-scripting, Polygon Cross-Pollination and Frame-Rate
issues. However, for some reason the game still remains reasonably
playable, and, above all; enjoyable.
When
the various graphical glitches are not present, Advent
Rising
does look reasonably nice. The graphical quality of the game makes a
change from the ever increasing made-for-PlayStation2 multi-format
garbage that plagues the Microsoft’s original console, an issue
that is bound to escalate with most First and Second-Party
productions going next-gen. Although the Cut-Scenes do jerk
significantly, often resulting with the subtitles limply fitting
with the speech at the best of times, a little flexibility that can
be afforded to the developers since they have managed to disguise
almost all of the games loading times within the FMV’s. The
Cut-Scenes themselves are also suitably epic, which is a real plus
in a game that relies heavily on its movie like story-telling. Advent
Rising also boasts some incredibly expansive Levels which really
shine when travelled though in the Scythe. Advent Rising’s
sound however, has few flaws. The game is backed by a well produced
orchestral score which does nothing but enhance the games movie-like
theme. The Voice-Acting is also better than the average, despite a
few lines seeming a little cheesy. In addition most of the weapons
available to the player give out a decently meaty sound when fired.
To
be honest, Advent Rising is a funny sort of package. While
none of its concepts are particularly new, they do, despite their
initial tacked on feel, actually work together. The game allows you
a lot of freedom in your weaponry and psychic powers and you will
find many different ways of completing the games reasonably lengthy
storyline. You can also appreciate the games full on attempt to be a
Sci-Fi movie with a story that, while occasionally not entirely
explaining itself, is reasonably interesting and of a higher quality
than the average videogame. However there is significant evidence to
suggest that Advent Rising was rushed for release. As
mentioned, there are obvious graphical, AI and scripting problems
which do decrease your enjoyment of this title. In its defence, Advent
Rising is stated as the first part of a trilogy. If Majesco
learn from the mistakes that they have made in their first chapter,
whilst carrying-on with the great Dual-Wielding System, excellent
FMVs and decent storyline, there may still be a good reason to own
an Xbox.
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