Advent Rising has one play as Gideon, a human pilot soon confronted with an invasion by aliens. Said aliens look strikingly similar to Halo's Covenant, complete with differently colored troops, and the story beats served in the first few hours clearly evoke Bungie's original from 2001 as well. That said, the gameplay is much simpler: you're dual-wielding whatever weapon you pick up, and clear room after room full of bad guys with auto-aim. To prolong combat, the developers like to spawn enemies in front, behind, and sometimes even on top of Gideon, without any animation or anything—they simply appear out of thin air. The mindless shooting is only interrupted by frequent cutscenes, which do a half-decent job at moving things forward, though by the end, the plot dries up completely, as though the developers ran out of time.
Roughly a third into the game, Gideon is given what amounts to force powers, allowing him to shoot energy pulses or lift enemies, and from that point on, AR plays more like The Force Unleashed. In addition, one gets to pilot vehicles, whose controls and physics are abysmal. The way buggies bump around is almost comical, especially compared to Halo's Warthog, and the goofiness extends to Gideon's on-foot movement as well. All animations are way too fast, and even though Gideon eventually becomes a god, ground elevations are insurmountable for him, and require special attention by the player. The controls are a mess in general—for instance, when you lock onto an elevated enemy, the camera is centered in such a way that you can't actually see much of the target.
Aside from being repetitive beyond belief, the main issue with AR is how buggy everything is. Crashes are frequent, though the game typically at least has the courtesy to save right before them, but this doesn't apply when you get stuck in a wall. When driving vehicles, the sound breaks, and shadows are simply not displayed. This game just screams amateur hour, and clearly is unfinished.