I should take notes during play if I really mean to write proper reviews. Luckily, I'm just a blogger. :P
First off, it's fair to say that I would have overlooked this game if it wasn't for going to Video Games Live and seeing the clips and hearing the orchestral soundtrack. I figured if they'd gone to that much effort, the least I could do was pick the game up for $10 from J&R (or GoGamer, or wherever I ordered it from). I played through it last night and tonight, which obviously means it's not super long, but it bears mention that I did go to bed pretty late both nights, which indicates I was actually engaged (as opposed to WoW, which makes me sleepy even before bedtime).
For those with no idea, Advent Rising was supposed to be the first part of an epic sci-fi trilogy, but got very mixed reviews and didn't really sell. I'm kind of curious to read the reviews because I'd bet I can guess what both the good and bad reviews will say.
The positive reviews will praise the production values.
Advent Rising has good production design (the overall look of the game is good and hangs together) and the graphics engine (Unreal based, according to Wikipedia) produces cool distortion effects for force fields and psychic powers. Admittedly, some of the environments (mostly the human ones) feel a bit generic, but overall, the game looks good. It also sounds good.
The audio in Advent Rising does a good job covering the bases. The orchestral score pushes the epic feel. The voice acting is well done, though you do get the feeling the actors weren't fully coached on some situations. Sometimes the clips just seem slightly out of context. Since Will Friedle (who voices the lead) never seemed to have any issues like that on Batman Beyond, I'm assuming the voice director for Advent Rising couldn't measure up to Andrea Romano. (And seriously, who could?)
The positive reviews will also praise the ambitious gameplay.
Everything in the game levels up. Your gun skills, your psychic powers, and even your dodging ability. Everything but your running (which might have been nice, come to think of it) seems to have a standard five levels of progression, with a secondary ability learned at level three. Some of the alt-fire modes and secondary psychic abilities are very useful, which makes levelling your guns and powers feel more like an exploration than a treadmill. Good stuff.
The positive reviews will also probably focus on the story.
SPOILERS (highlight to make visible)
The story of Advent Rising is definitely classic sci-fi. The heroes home is destroyed. Benevolent aliens teach him to use the force to help the underdog resistance movement take the fight to the evil aliens who did it. It's all rather cliched, and the characters aren't given much depth, but that's how space operas are, generally. In one twist, you have a choice near the beginning to save your brother or your girlfriend. The impact on the game seems purely cosmetic (I haven't played through both ways), but it's something I can see certain people finding compelling, especially at the end of the game where whoever you didn't save comes back as the end boss. I kinda saw it coming, though.
END SPOILERS
All that said, the story is serviceable, if not particularly original. Now on to the negative.
The negative reviews probably bag on the graphics.
Advent Rising came out in 2005, four years after Halo, and it's graphics are nowhere near as detailed or shiny. 'Nuff said.
The negative reviews probably call out the spotty controls.
The game has a lock-on target scheme that you must use to use certain powers, which is kind of annoying to those of us who just like to shoot stuff. Speaking of which, it also has a first person mode, but you can't dodge in it, which limits its usefulness.
While having psychic powers is great, you don't always feel like you are in control of them. At least one out of four throws with telekinesis either doesn't go where you want or just drops the enemy, letting them immediately resume their attack. Also, if you do throw them, they take your aiming reticule with them, often leaving you looking at the sky or floor or some other direction where you can't see what's going on. The vehicle controls are just okay, and the jeeps practically demand to be labeled Warthog wannabes.
Negative reviews probably call out the overpowered, underpowered, and occasionally nonsensical force powers.
SPOILERS (highlight to read)
The shield power, when levelled up, makes you immune to almost every attack in the game. I can only think of one attack by the last boss it doesn't effect. And once it is powered up, it lasts long enough for you to completely regenerate your health. Also, you can shoot your gun with your other hand while your shield is up. So basically, once you've powered up your shield, you're damn near unstoppable.
Additionally, the force push ability, while looking super cool, doesn't really do much damage unless you throw the enemy off a ledge, and if so, why didn't you just use multi-lift? Hmm. I wonder if you can force push slow moving missiles back at drop ships? That wouldn't be super useful, as you have other powers that can do the damage, but it would at least add enough coolness that I'd use force push.
Force push's secondary mode is weird, too. It lets you grab a weapon from an enemy, but not pick one off the ground or wall because you can only auto-target enemies. Not cool.
END SPOILERS
Finally, the negative reviews probably call out the largely flat characterizations and cliched plot I already mentioned above.
Have you figured out by reading where I come down on this game?
Yeah. It's pretty easy to tell. I liked it.
I don't know if I'll start giving all games scores, but for now, why not? For the record, I'm basically stealing X-Play's review system, as I find it the most functional.
One star means it's horrible.
Can only be enjoyed with drugs / head trauma.
Two stars means it's got serious problems.
Can also be enjoyed by undiscerning genre / source material freaks.
Three stars means it's good enough.
Can also be enjoyed by genre lovers (but not genre snobs).
Four stars means it's really good.
Can also be enjoyed by people who are apathetic / lukewarm / ambivalent about the genre and genre snobs.
Five stars means it's awesome.
Only mindless haters will call this game anything less than great.
Essentially, these ratings are buying advice. They're not trying to hold up any standard of quality that only educated reviewers can understand. None of these are guarantees, of course. If a game has that one cliche or that one control niggle or that one voice actor that drives you nuts, you still won't like it. But it's a good baseline.
I give Advent Rising a three.
Out of five. :)
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