ic-games Review - Advent Rising - Reviews, Previews and Interviews for PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii

ic-games Review - Advent Rising - Reviews, Previews and Interviews for PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii ic-games Review - Home - Review, Preview and Interview for PC, Xbox,Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii

Advent Rising

Information
Reviewer: Liam Hunn
Developer: THQ
Publisher: THQ
Reviewed: Xbox
Genre: Action Adventure
UK Release: 17th Feb 2006
Article Date: 18th Apr 2006
Difficulty: N/A
Retail Price: £39.99
Price Comparison:
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Score Breakdown

Experience:
Game Play:
Graphics:
Sound:
Overall Score: 78%

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Pros

Great Story

Cinematic

Cons

Dodgy Aiming lets the side down

What do you get if you cross Halo, Deus Ex and an animated movie? The answer is Advent Rising, a massive one player first and third person shooter. You play Captain Gideon Wyeth in the deep future. Humans are just a legend in some alien cultures, believed to have been wiped out by an alien race known as The Seekers. That is until humans are found once again and with the help of Gideon, the human marines and pilots, and the Aurelians, another alien race which is a highly more advance civilisation, it is your mission to help save the human race for a second time.

The game starts off with a movie style start. The games title is quickly followed by one of the games many brilliant animated mini movies. The animations in the movies are highly detailed, and are defiantly good enough to be in a Hollywood blockbuster. The movie finishes and goes into some typical action/space age music (which thankfully can be turned off in the options menu as it does get highly annoying!) and straight into the game action, flying your vessel into the dock just to give you a feel of one of the vehicles at your disposal throughout the game.

After this little teaser you then get into the game properly on what is the training level. You do learn a lot, such as the standard controls, walking, running, action buttons etc, which is followed by hand combat, gun training and then a bit more hand combat. There are the guidelines throughout the game that are now pretty standard amongst the gaming world now, such as a notice popping up in the corner telling you what action you can do, and what button to press to undertake that action.

One of the main selling points of the game, and something that you are heavily trained in the use of is a new “Flick-targeting” system of combat. Simply move the right analogue stick which controls the camera. If you are in range of the target (which all depends on what your combat attributes are) you can engage the enemy with your choice of weapon. Your combat attributes will increase throughout the game automatically. The more combat experience you get, the better you become. Things like your aim and ability to shoot at distances will increase, making things that little bit easier for you.

That’s available in the third person view, and makes the game pretty easy at times due to the fact that there is no aiming to do, just a simple flick of the camera in the right direction. If you want a harder game, press the back button and you’ll go into the first person view, and go from one extreme to another.

The only word I can give for the combat in first person is challenging. It can take several attempts to get a shot on target, and in a combat situation this is not ideal. I can understand the reasons for the developers to have brought in both the third and first person views, as gamers have their preferences as to how they play a game, but while playing the game in both views, it became more apparent that the “Flick-targeting” system was what they had really concentrated on. It is near on impossible to get anywhere in combat situations with the first person view of shooting because it simply takes far too long to get a shot on because the control is far too jerky. And we all know human killing aliens don’t stay in a static position, and if you don’t, you do now.

One thing I will say about the targeting system is that it can become extremely annoying. You can be quite happily killing some alien when all of a sudden it will automatically switch to another target. If you’re close to an enemy, and all of a sudden you can’t see it because your target has been switched, it can put you in great danger of death, as you have lost precious seconds in which to kill the alien. After hours and hours of playing, I have still not managed to work out whether this is a bug in the game, or whether it will automatically go for the strongest or most dangerous enemy out of a group. Either way, I hated the fact it did it.

As well as standard weapons, you have three vehicles to use at certain times in the game. These can either be land or air vehicles and are very simple to control. Just like in games such as Halo, if you have any of the marines around you, they will pop into the vehicle if there is room and fire the onboard weapons if the vehicle is equipped.

I mentioned at the start of this review that the game had a Deus Ex type of feel to it. This is due to the fact further into the game you learn how to use the super human powers that humans have, but are not aware of without training. You learn one power at a time, starting with the lift. There are 6 powers altogether, each one used best in different situations, and you only have a limited amount of energy to use before it runs out and has to recharge. The use of powers is also dependent on the trigger system, and has the same reactions as the weapons version. You can be walking through a room and can switch targets several times.

The game play its self is very good. There is a great story to go with it, and the action is entertaining and will keep you interested. The game graphics are top quality, and what you would expect from an Xbox game and the use of highly detailed animated mini movies goes nicely into the game. However, the physics of the game do have some glitches. Sometimes your character can fall and hold onto a nearby ledge or in some cases, hold onto nothing at all. The characters also appear to “float” slightly over the ground sometimes, or can even go through it.

The environmental interaction of the game also seems a little inconsistent. It reacts brilliantly to explosions and things go flying around if you hit them. The inconsistency comes into play for things such as jumping over balconies onto a lower floor. Some will allow you to do it, others won’t.

And finally the camera angles. How many times has a possibly good or even great game been let down by lousy camera angles? If you’re surrounded by enemies trying to kill you, and it’s just getting on top of you and all you want to do is run away to the nearest exit, you will have a slight problem in doing so. The left stick moves you but the right changes the camera angle. As soon as you move the camera, Gideon will move that way. If you’re running and trying to assess the situation around you at the same time, you will have problems as you will momentarily run into trouble until you quickly change your running direction.

The game itself is very good, but is heavily let down by lots of little things, whether it would be the jerky aim in first person mode, the over enthusiastic "Flick-targeting" system, or the dodgy camera angles. These are enough to frustrate and ruin your gaming experience. It will annoy after a while, and make you turn the game off. However, it is a good game, and won’t annoy you instantly, only when it comes to those extreme combat situations when you don’t want the glitchy physics to come into effect.

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