Advent Rising

This game could have been good. It gets a lot right - the basic gameplay is fun, especially the powers later on; the graphics are nice; and when it ventures out of corridors into above-world scenery the engine really shines. However, it drops the ball. The abundance of cinematics suggest there should be a really good story here, but it's cliched and pretentious - and the game outright contradicts the story multiple times (the several times you leave your loved ones behind in a sewer, exploding ship, what have you - only to find them completely unharmed later on - are especially over the top). The overall fun gameplay is ruined by some annoying level designs - for example, some rooms must be cleared of enemies to proceed, while others simply spawn endless waves, and there is no way to tell the two apart. Worse than that are the outright bugs. Several places are difficult for your character to grab a hold of or jump over, something that should never have made it past testing, and the game is prone to crashing. Since you must restart the whole level if you exit the game, this makes the crashes very frustrating. A final note about the lacklustre story - the end is a "to be continued", so even if you persevere through the glitches, bugs, and shoddy design, you will still not get any closure, as there is no sequel. The ingredients are all here to make a great game, but the decisions made in putting them together leaves an unsatisfying mess.

The game keeps crashing to desktop all the time. The time between crashes get shorter by each crash. In the end it was crashing every 5 minutes for me. Sorry, but to sell such a buggy mess cries for a refund. I feel cheated to buy such a good old game. There is no workaround to be found for the pc version to prevent the crashes.

Let me start off with the good parts. - There is a story. - The music was often very fitting to the game play. - The controls were easy enough to pick up, although not necessarily intuitive. - Psychic abilities rock and level up the more you use them. - Level design was very good, and you get a good sense of being there. - Riding vehicles is fun, as is taking control of turrets. Of course it's not all good. - The flick-targeting system is crap. - There are too many spots where you character gets hung up or stuck. - Jumping is a mixed bag. - There are times where your commands just don't do anything. - Character models are inconsistent. - Cinematics are over compressed. - The story is one sci-fi cliche after another. My thoughts: Overall this is an average FPS. The psychic powers are a nice addition. It was quite buggy, but none of which kept me from finishing the game. I can forgive the outdated graphics, but the cinematics are just horrible. I was impressed with the levels, which gave the feeling of being in an alien world. At the end of the day, for the pittance I paid for this game, I feel I got my money's worth. If you are in need of some sci-fi action, and don't mind some bugs, and more of the same, you should enjoy this game.

Before I give some feedback to this game, I'd like to point out that this game gets way too much credit here than it deserves. Sure, it's from gog.com, that's a good thing, which means it's DRM free, even better, etc. pp. But let's look at the rating system, 5 stars is the best a game can get, it's like 100%, the perfect game - so, no offense, but if anyone here who gave Advent Rising 5 stars did that on purpose, then he/she just never played a good game. Why? Read on. Advent Rising is an over-ambitious project. It was intended to be an epic trilogy, with a compelling plot, great level design and loads of fun gameplay, clearly inspired by the Halo franchise (aliens, alien weapons, scenery). What's left is a third person shooter which is extremely tedious in the beginning when you have too little ammo for too much enemies which seem to appear out of nowhere and are best to be avoided by just running past them. Although there are different types of enemies, none of them are distinctive with a certain attack pattern. The gun fights with them are monotonous and lack good controls. After about a quarter/third of the game, the protagonist receives special powers, like telekinesis. Nothing that's new to the genre, but definitely better than shooting those lame firearms. Believe, you'll never use those again. Gradually you get new abilities which you can upgrade up to level 5 by using them. Most of them can be reached by simply performing the ability over and over again, like jumping for 5 minutes, which will get you level 5 of the jumping skill, which lets you perform new dodge moves. These abilities are also mandatory during the occasional boss fights, which are sometimes harder than they should be, thanks again to the controls. Let's get to the story, mhm. I guess it's safe to say that the story is okay, at least for a game, with some cutscenes that are supposed to give some depth to the characters, but fail miserably while trying. Again, I hope nobody is impressed by this plot or these characters, otherwise I recommend them to read a sci-fi novel, even if it's just a mediocre one. Then again, maybe the excellent graphics and the overwhelming quality of the voice actors make this experience so immersive. Sarcasm, anyone? There is a point very early in the game where you have to decide if you save your brother or your girl friend - the game of course doesn't tell you beforehand that you lose the other one, but in the end, it doesn't matter. Why? First of all, you had almost no time to get to know the character you lose (and the character you save), and the character will save dies eventually anyway. Wow, that's a great plot twist, and I spoiled it, damn it. Speaking of twists, the plot takes another, extremely unexpected turn when the credits roll and you think: "It's finally over" or "That's it?" - and do you really want to know what the twist is? Then you have to buy and play the game. If you think it's worth it. For those of you who want some scifi alien action (with a story that's also marginal but definitely not worse than the one of Advent Rising), Halo is your game. And the ones who enjoy third person action AND want to experience a great plot, although playing a video game, check out Max Payne. Hopefully it'll arrive on gog.com soon - see you then.

I played only half of the game. This doesn't mean that the game was awful, but it was mediocre at best. Don't be fooled by the Orson Scott Card credit. This story screams of Halo and a few others. It also doesn't help the poor voice work of some characters plus the bland dialogue. The gameplay is rough, very rough, coupled with uninspired level design. I watched the cutscenes until the end and I still don't care they weren't able to produce the trilogy. Can't recommend this at all.