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Technical problems keep it from being great

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 44 / 45
Date: June 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Advent Rising was announced a few years ago as the first in a trilogy that was epic in scope. It has all the workings of a great project as well. The original story began in the director's mind and he knew it would be such a grand story that he enlisted the help of notable sci-fi scribe Orson Scott Card to help work the script. Card worked on the script, getting the dialogue right and also assisted with the overall story. On top of an excellent author, they employed an orchestra and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to perform. All of these should spell out to be a recipe for sucess. And it does, sort of.

What holds this game back from glory are the myriad of technical issues. To begin with, the game is beautiful. Graphic-wise, it reminds me of Halo 2. Halo 2 had no loading after the initial load and the graphics, while nice, suffered at times from having to be rendered quickly. The same goes for Advent Rising. In fact, while you are watching a cutscene, the game is busy loading the next sequence. What this does is put a tremendous strain on the engine. If the engine is strong, it shouldn't pose much problem. But, unfortunately, this sometimes spells disaster for Advent Rising.

The first 40 minutes of the game did not give me a great first impression. During the training sequences, the game locked up three times. I had to replay the same sequence about 4 times to get through it simply because I did something the game didn't like and it froze. The game auto-saves onces you hit certain check points and if you have to reset the game, you're starting back over from the beginning of the checkpoint. Things became much better as the game progressed and I don't remember the game freezing again.

Added to the lock ups, the game stutters when there's too many things going on at once. I don't mean when little things are happening, I mean when you have a squad of 3-4 people on your team shooting at 4-6 enemies and there's two drop ships coming in and launching missles that explode with huge flames. When that happens, the game's audio begins to "click," the frame rate drops very noticeably and things become a bit annoying. But again, this only really happens when there's a ton going on.

Unfortunately, more technical issues abound. Namely in the sound. With the beautifully orchestrated music pounding, the screams of people fleeing certain destruction, the explosions, the lazers tearing apart buildings, you'd expect to have a lot of sound. Unfortunately, in the cutscenes the sound tends to be muted. To give you an example, on my surround sound receiver (which the game supports by the way), I usually keep the sound at 10-11 for a decent, full sound that doesn't also piss off my neighbors. For this game, generally I have to have the sound on at 16-17 and it's still muted. I know the reason is probably because the game is loading the next scene and the engine is faltering because of it.

A love it or hate it device is used for targeting. Called "flick targeting," you use the right stick to change between your targets, effectively "flicking" it in their general direction to lock onto them. For those who use their right stick to change the camera constantly, like me, this can take some time to get used to. But, if you can train yourself not to change the camera as much will find it works pretty well. Where it can get into a problem is when you are trying to run from the enemy to get to cover. When this happens, and you try to reorient the camera to find some place to run, it can become frustrating to continually lock onto targets. Also, when you receive your power to levitate objects, this becomes even more of a hindrance as you not only lock onto enemies now but also moveable objects. Click the right stick (R3 button) helps with this problem because it releases the camera but it still causes moments of annoyance. Honestly, though, it's a great system to handle more than one enemy at a time.

At the heart of the game, past all of the technical problems and targeting woes is a great story. The beginning of the story with the Seeker's attack of your home world reminded me of what Halo 2 was missing. Here we saw devastation on your homeworld, we fought on the homeworld and it generally stressed the feeling of your world at risk. From there, it's an epic event after epic event as the seekers cause untold problems, a few plot twists occur and a few deaths propel our protagonist toward his goal. It's a great story and the dialogue is terrific, bring to mind movie quality. The voice actors are a charm to listen to, and there are a couple funny moments. Card's influenced can be seen everywhere. In fact, I was waiting for the main characters to break out in a discussion of Varelese and Ramen in terms of aliens (read the Ender's series if you didn't get that).

For all that's good in this game, and there's plenty do not get me wrong, I feel semi-disappointed. This game has been pushed back countless times. Mostly, it's been pushed back to help fix the frame rate issues, and other technical problems I've noted. And so when the game was finally released I was shocked when the very things that made it miss release date upon release date were still causing problems. What is most annoying is that we are this far in the Xbox development cycle and bugs abound. We are currently waiting for Xbox 360 to come out and countless games have been made that are more beautiful and less buggy than this game. It's disappointing to see that even this far into the Xbox life problems are still occuring. Maybe the game was too grand for the Xbox and should have been an Xbox 360 launch title. Whatever the case, this game is really good, regardless of the problems. If you can overlook the technical issues above, you will find not only a good game, but a good game with a heart. And that's hard to find today.

A Fun Epic Sci Fi Shooter ,Flawed But Fun.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: June 05, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Advent Rising is a third & first person shooter that is a fast pace Sci-Fi Epic like gaming experience that is best desribed as a star wars/halo2 mix. But Advent Rising is still a unique game in its own right. You play in 1st & 3rd person which can be changed while playing. There are about 11 different weapons ranging from ballistic to the alien variety & they all have great response,sound,& power. You are able to equip & fire from both hands by using both triggers simular to halo2 ,& most weapons have alternate fire modes. You can perform Melee attacks & will get advanced melee's as you progress in mastery levels 1-5.The Mastery Level is a reward system ,as you use a weapon or power you will automaticly gain level ups such as more damage or better accuracy,also it'll open up alternate fire modes on special power & weapons you can gain up to 5 levels on all weapons & powers.You eventually will aquire Special Powers simular to force powers in star wars games. These powers include LEVITATE ,which gives you the ability to levitate enemies & shoot them in mid air ,also lift inanimate objects & you can also throw enemies off cliffs, SURGE which is a type of force push to damage enemies & if you hold trigger for a stronger surge blast,NEGATE which gives you the ability to make a shield & its advanced stages you are able to put up multiple sheilds ,4 when maxed out,alternatly you can carry a shield ,AEON PULSE which gives you the ability to shoot pulses from your hands in which damages the enemy, TIME SHIFT which gives you the abilty to warp time & attack enemy at a great speed which causes alot of damage to enemy,it basicly looks like a quick sprint into the enemy ,kinda like a running charge at a blurring speed,& finally SHATTER which you can shoot ice shards, which look more like blue spheres on screen, & its advanced stages can freeze an enemy. All Weapons & Powers also have (alternate) modes of fire & powers in which become available as you advance in mastery levels 1-5. All powers use energy but as you gain mastery levels you will use less energy.You automaticly are awarded the power ups as you fight or use powers,you can look in your weapons & powers menu to see there effects.You have different vehicles to drive that resemble halos warthog, & there is an enemy alien tank that looks quite good. The land vehicle (scythe) 4x4 ,is very responsive & has very strong boost power. You can also operate anti-air turrets when available.For the most part your on foot.This game is a pure 1st & 3rd person shooter with an added very helpful force type super powers, these powers arent thrown in just for fun or looks you'll definalty use them & need them alot, I found myself prefering to use the force type powers more & more in the later stages ,because in Advent Rising the more you use anything the stronger it gets with the mastery level up system.You can equip a power to one hand & a weapon to the other hand for an endless array of good combinations ,or you could just use the powers ,whatever works for you.The graphics are good & they get better as you advance in the game, but I do have a "S" cable so keep that in mind.Overall Advent is a very fun game ,but could use some polishing up on a few things. The targeting system is a little herky-jerky .You use the right analog stick to change & hone in onto targets . Adversly you also use the right analog for the camera pan & tilt. Things makes things a little unbalanced when in a firefight as sometimes when you are trying to look into a certain direction the targeting ring will lock onto a different target than you intended. But I had no serious problems that hampered my game experince with the targeting system . I think it would have been better to have a cleaner smoother targeting system or even a free form target system like most first & third person shooters have. But you can adjust the Targeting systems sensitivity in the options menu.There is also alot of slow down when the screen gets full & on one occasion the sound got messed up. But even with these game flaws Advent Rising is still a very fun shooter with nice level detail which is 95% linear but still very EPIC movie like in design. I noticed there are some simularities to halo2 in the design of some of the levels in Advent,with vast open spaces & the like. But dont let me mislead you Advent shouldnt be compared to HALO2 .Id say Advent is a loose mix between a star wars type game & halo2. The cutscenes are nicley done with Great story content & good voice acting & there are a ton of clips to be seen. Advent gameplay is good but when the framerates slow down ,which is often,is gets stiff. And the camera could be a little smoother,but your still able to see in (3-d) all directions like other 1st & 3rd person shooters. But even with all of these flaws Advent is still a very fun shooter.I beat the game on Normal difficulty in 3 days ,the story was very good ,just make sure to watch the entire CREDITS because at the end there's a surprise Boss battle with another ending & it definatly opens up for the sequel. You have 4 difficulty settings Easy,Normal,Hard,& Ultra. Its a fairly challenging game thats not too easy ,& not too hard ,but you can change difficulty while your playing to suit your needs.Its a very good start to a game series ,hopefully with some fine tuning ,sequels to this game will take note of gamers comments & improve on it. In a nutshell Advent Rising is kinda like watching a very good Epic movie storyline while you get to partake in being the star.Advent Rising is a fun overall Sci-Fi gaming experience regardless of its flaws. Definalty Worth Playing.Im looking forward to the sequel.

Could've been perfect had they just finished...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: June 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I get the feeling that the folks at Glyqhx, after numerous delays and pressure from Microsoft to come out with this thing, just said, "screw the bugs, let's put it out there." In my opinion, the numerous glitches, control problems and graphical quirks don't stop this game from being a whole big pile of fun.

Let's talk about the funness first: you play as Gideon Wyeth, a member of the most mysterious and revered race in the galaxy: humanity. Cool, huh? A gameply universe where humans are worshipped as gods. As you find out as you progress with the game, we apes do not dissapoint. Gideon masters no less than 12 different abilities along with supernatural strength and jumping ability. He can lift stuff with his mind, shoot fire out of his hands, slow time, turn himself into a floating bomb...pretty much everything short of flying. Now, before you get these powers, you use guns and grendes and stuff. Pretty standard and not all that noteworthy. The powers are what make this game. I love watching Gideon gather energy to let loose a massive stream of firey energy at some unsuspecting Seeker battle robot. Wicked awesome.

The plot progresses and we find that, after the Seekers destroy Gideon's home planet, that the Seekers are the only race that knows for sure that the diefied humans exist for certain and that, well, we scare them. You ally yourself with a race under the Seekers' oppressive rule and kick their butts from here to next Tuesday. Tons o' fun...and with a kickin' soundtrack to boot.

Now then, the downside. This game gets really glitchy. I distictly recall one occasion when I walked inside a solid stone pillar and couldn't get back out. This game freezes. The AI gets kinda dumb when it walks a Seeker into a corner. On top of this, the controls, particularly the targeting/camera controls (both from one stick) get confusing to both the player and, apparently, the computer as well. It can get annoying if that kinda stuff bugs you, but I wasn't terribly bothered by them. I thought this game was a whole messa fun and will pick it up again and again, not leastly because Glyphx has promised new levels to be released through XBOX Live.

Be a god. Play Advent Rising.

The Most Fun and Intriguing Game You Will Ever Play...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: July 30, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Let me start off by saying that all of the official reviews you have read for this game have been completely wrong. I have yet to see any positive feedback from professional reviewers about Advent Rising, which is proof that every one of them needs to be fired from their jobs.

Now, with that aside, let me talk about the miraculous thing that is Advent Rising. I have never found myself so immersed in an experience as I have with this game. The gameplay is addictive, the story is compelling, and the music is to die for.

Bugs:
There isn't a game out there as unique as Advent Rising. Look past the glitches and slowdowns and you are clearly playing one of the most fun and incredible games ever released. Everyone has badmouthed the Flick Targeting, but all I have to say is that I play with an inverted camera, and I still found the targeting tolerable. Can you imagine targeting to the right and the camera moves left? It wasn't easy, but still, I gave the game a 5, so you know it can't be that bad.
-The framerate, in my opinion, isn't an issue, cause it only slows down about 4 times through the entire game, and not even enough to get you killed.
-Lockups are the same, rare.
-Music fades in and out, and will sometimes overpower the dialogue. (But music can be turned off)
-In fact, the only glitches worth mentioning are:
1. Every so often the camera will continue to lock on a target after they have been killed, meaning that you can't look ahead. It is quickly fixed though as another object is targeted.
2. While using Aeon Pulse alternate fire the character will get stuck in the air.
3. The health of the 2nd boss is inconsistent, one time it is easy to kill, other times it will take hours.

Gameplay:
Advent Rising delivers more surprises than any game out their. I've lost count of how many times I've just had to pause the game and think of how awesome what I've just pulled off was. You can do SO many things at one time that it is incredible, and I am STILL finding new things like...MINOR SPOILERS...the fact that you charge up the surge power and deliver a deadly blow that looks awesome. Also, that you can freeze the Seekers and then completely shatter them. Sure I'd heard people talking about it, but pulling it off is amazing. In what other game can I slow down time, kick a guy through the air, run across the room and then kick him again before he hits the ground? I can literally pick up 5 bad guys, throw them into Lava, and fire a rocket launcher at a mech-baddie while flying through the air in slow-motion, all at the same time. And then finish that one off by landing and spinning my launcher like some cowboy, it's incredible! End Spoilers.
-The coolest things however, are the RPG elements. Choices you make effect the storyline, and the powers/weapons you can level-up on create a unique character every time you play.

Story and Characters:
I won't spoil it, but it is the best storyline I've ever played in a game. This game made me cry, enough said.
-The characters are actually interesting! I want to learn about them, want to know where they came from. And Ethan is the man! One of the best characters out there. Gideon is cool too, but Ethan really made the game for me.
-(Minor Spoiler is you're sensitive like that) Just a hint that won't spoil it for people who haven't played it yet. If you want the story to reach its highest potential I'll just say this...pick the dude. The game makes more sense that way.

Problems:
-Other than the formentioned glitches, the character models other than Gideon and Ethan, and the Aliens, are rather dull. I would loved to have seen the females look better because during the city scenes there was only one skin for them, while the men had at least 4. Made it unbelievable.
-No subtitles. Without them it is hard to know what the characters are saying because the music, or mumble of their voice.

You have to play this game with an open mind, and whatever you do, don't play the entire game the same way. There are so many ways to kill things, that experimenting is so much fun. The landscapes are breathtaking and the weaponry is killer. And I don't care what anyone says, this game did not copy Halo with the Seekers. They look nothing like the Covenant, and the gamplay is actually much more fun than Halo.

Don't be deceived by the beginning of the game, I was, and I regretted getting the game, but by the end, I was completely immersed in the world and didn't want it to end. Let's hope the sequels fix the minor problems and expand on the already incredible gameplay.

I've already said this, but the game made me cry, and that's tough for me. It is truly one of the best games I've ever played, and IS the most fun.

Just remember, have an open mind, you'll love it! And as long as you aren't a picky and spoiled moron, the glitches won't bother you enough to keep you from this incredible experience.

We need more games like this!

Great writer, great soundtrack - but trilogy stopped.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: August 12, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Advent Rising features a story by Orson Scott Card, and music by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Talk about a game with great promise. Humans are the answer to an alien prophecy - and because of that, they are the target of destruction.

The graphics are a Halo style and draw from many sci-fi legends. One race looks like the Predators. There are robot-style creatures. There are creatures a la Judi Densch. The look in general is sort of "exaggerated human" with wide shoulders, bell bottom pants and blocky doors and supports. There aren't shiny surfaces and reflective surfaces here - instead you get strange artifacts and extra lines.

Generally, the pretty creatures are good - and the ugly creatures are bad. The story progresses along standard Sci Fi lines, which isn't bad of course. I love Sci Fi stories. There are aliens, and good aliens, and bad aliens. There are truces and betrayals. The game has a good dose of plot along with its enemy bashing.

The soundtrack works in smoothly with the game. The voices sound rather good for a computer game, and the music and sound draw you along into the game.

We played all the way through this game several times, enjoy the plot and game play. There were little situations that we would miss on one pass, and only catch when we were watching for them.

There was originally a big contest associated with this game for promotion reasons - but they've *already* lost the URL for that page, and it goes to one of those spammy holding pages. That is pretty sad, and a rather clear indication that this game didn't sell as well as they had hoped it would.

The game was also set up to be a trilogy - but the game webpages for this game still talk about its first release in the future tense and there is no word at all about future game releases. I guess this is one of those trilogies where we only get to see the first third of the game.

Well recommended - but be aware that you are not going to get any future releases out of this, according to current sales figures. I always hate games that end in a "to be continued" mode and it's even worse when the game is NOT continued.

This game was rushed-out garbage..

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: September 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Wow. Very rarely am I compelled to write reviews on games. This game is BAAAAD. I hate myself for paying $50 for it. Let me explain.

Orson Scott Card wrote the screenplay for this game, and it is actually pretty good. The orchestral music is really good, too.

So it sounds good, right? Wrong. The controls are the worst I have ever tried to use in my 20+ years of gaming. You want decent framerate? Not gonna find it here. Even the crappy cut-scenes slow down and suffer from choppy frame-rate. The whole engine shuts down to a crawl if you face more than two enemies. Wanna try and lock on to the bad guys? Good luck trying to pick the one you actually want to hit. Even if you do manage to target the guy you want, your character will arbitrarily split his fire between your intended target and another, whether you want him to or not. Oh, and then there is the camera, which like to stick you inside walls, swing around at inopportune times (letting enemies get cheap licks on you while you wait for the camera to swing around so you can target them), or just plain glitching out. This company sold everyone a crappy product dressed up in a pretty bow, and I am kinda angry about it. The potential was there....

A little buggy, but tons of fun!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: June 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I was mesmerized by my first glimpses of the game and had been waiting patiently for Advent Rising to come out. I was overjoyed when it finally hit the shelves, but became bit worried when when I read a few reviews before the fact, and found their verdicts to be mediocre at best, poor at worst. Undaunted, I bought the game to see for myself, and personally, I wasn't disappointed. The storyline, which pits humankind as a race of myth, destined to save the universe against the Seekers, a race that is bent on destroying them(and written by the great Orson Scott Card, no less) keeps you riveted, wondering what is going to happen next; the music is a top-notch orchestral work of beauty, and the gameplay is fast, intuitive, and pulls you in. However, the negative points will severely turn off some more nitpicky gamers, in that there is a major bug in the realm of frame rate. Some areas of intense battle slow down severely, and subtract from the experience.
Also, there is a problem with the targeting system in that it is EXTREMELY tricky and twitchy, switching from one enemy from another at the drop of a hat, and losing sight of the main character in intense combat moments. This can be frustrating, but like the frame rate problem, can be overlooked. Also, the sheer amount of obvious work and love put into the game makes up for these problems.
As it is the first in a planned trilogy, those problems hopefully will be addressed in the later games. All in all, Advent Rising is a game well worth its money, and plagued by overly harsh reviews. I say give it a try; if you're a bit nervous about it, rent it first and see. Aside from the framerate and targeting system, the game is a masterpiece, and like other reviewers have said, NOT to be compared to Halo. If its two major problems had been addressed properly, however, I believe that reviewers would have been kinder to it. But it is a game not to be snubbed for its shortcomings. It's tons of fun and a worthy addition to anyone's Xbox library.

Good Game, but has a few bugs

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: June 04, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I am a 24 year old gamer and feel this game is truly unique. It is nothing like Halo except that you are human killing aliens. The game is beautiful constructed and the storyline is captivating--it vaguely reminds me of star wars. I recommend at least renting this game if not buying it.

The only problem with the game is that at certain times your character jams. For example: You use one of your super powers and you float into the air, but then never come back down. It can be very frustrating. Plus the aimng system is very touchy and at times you lose where you are shooting.

With all said, It is a great game and should not be over looked. Rent it at least.

A brilliant game with a great story!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: June 18, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I saw Advent Rising on last year's E3 and was amazed, so I pre-ordered this game for US-launch (yes, I live in Germany). When I read some of the first reviews, I was disappointed and almost cosidered cancelling the order.

Luckyly i didn't: I played this game for 6 hours now and it is just brilliant! Great graphics and sound (though some minor technical problems) are one thing, but the great story, voice acting and cutszenes are what makes Advent Rising a classic. This is one of the rare ocassions where a game's story truly captures me.

I read some complains about the controls, but don't agree: The auto-targetting system is efficient and fun, if you like running and shooting in fast pace, you don't have to bother with target-selecting and aiming - you just concentrate on the action.

I know this is a short review, but there is not much to say: Ordering this game from the other side of the atlantic was totally worth it and I can clearly recommend it to any Sci-Fi and Action-Fan!

A Great Start . . .

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: June 22, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Advent Rising is the first of what promises to be an amazing trilogy. The story is a great sci-fi adventure. To finally see a quality script and quality voiceacting in a video game is a treat. The soundtrack is nothing short of spectacular and completely immerses you the game, I may purchase it when it becomes available. What's more, even though this is the first part of a trilogy, you don't feel cheated at the end of the game (like in Halo 2). The first installment gives a nice feeling of completion. The only things keeping this game from a five star rating are the technical problems (which on the whole are minor) and the graphics (not what you would expect from a modern day epic video game). I trust that Xbox 360 will easily allow the developers to fix the framerate and graphics in the final two games of the trilogy. In the end, this series may surpass everything that's come before it, even Halo (that's right I said it).

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