Advent Rising Review

More Than Just Shooting ...

In addition to the shooting, Advent Rising has a few other tricks up its sleeves. As you play though the game, you’ll learn some psychic powers that you can use along with your guns. The powers include telekenisis and a force push move along with many more that do a good job of breaking up the shooting and making the game more interesting. The only problem is that the powers make the game incredibly easy (you can pick up an enemy and then shoot them while they are helpless in midair, for example) which is a bit of a letdown.

Advent Rising also throws some vehicle and turret sections into the mix which are pretty fun. The vehicles drive like the Warthog from the first Halo (which is good or bad depending on who you ask) and you’ll get to fly some ships and drive some land vehicles so it is pretty good. The only thing I didn’t really like is that the driving sections are pretty linear and there isn’t much room for experimentation and making your own fun. Just like everything else, the driving sections could have been better but they keep the game interesting so I like them.

Bugs and Glitches

The biggest issue with Advent Rising is that it is incredibly buggy and just not all that well put together. Whenever the game transitions from gameplay to a cinematic, the frame rate and music and everything else gets really choppy. During firefights the frame rate grinds down into single digits which makes targeting and fighting very tricky. The game also has a tendency to crash and freeze for no apparent reason. And when it does crash, it is pretty hard to justify starting it back up again when you know you have only average gameplay waiting for you.

Graphics and Sound

Graphically, Advent Rising is a pretty bland looking game which makes the technical problems with it even more annoying. The characters and environment aren’t all that detailed, so why the heck does the frame rate take such huge hits all of the time? The graphics aren’t terribly detailed, but they are consistent throughout the game and it definitely has its own style.

The sound is fairly good and the music in particular is really well done, but the way it is used is perplexing. It doesn’t follow the flow of the game at all and it is strange to hear big, dramatic orchestral pieces you are just wandering around out in the middle of nowhere. The voice acting isn’t bad, but it doesn’t really stand out either. Sound effects for laser fire and space ships and all of that stuff are pretty much what you hear in any sci-fi movie/game.

Overall, the graphics and sound get the job done, but they are far from impressive.

Bottom Line

Advent Rising is an unfortunate example of a developer being too ambitious and trying to do too much and the end product not living up to expectations. The storyline and cinematics are well done and you care about what happens to the world you are playing in, but the gameplay and presentation leave a lot to be desired. Advent Rising tries to deliver a huge cinematic storyline while introducing a brand new flick targeting system while implementing vehicles and psychic powers all at the same time and it falls flat on almost all of it. If even one of these areas would have had more focus the game would have undoubtedly been better. As it is, Advent Rising is only average. On top of that, there are some serious technical problems that really ruin the overall experience. I can’t recommend Advent Rising for a full value purchase, but it will make a nice rental.