Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Space. The final frontier.
The Xbox. A
pretty freaking impressive console. And when you’re playing games like this, it’s hard
to believe they’re running on 13-year-old hardware. The Xbox had some pretty serious
power for its time, and it was really one of the driving forces behind the evolution
of modern game development—bigger, prettier, way more costly.
That means when games fail, the cost is a lot higher. And the crashes are a lot uglier.
That’s as clear as a Martian sunrise in Advent Rising.
Before its release in 2005, this is a game that spent years in development. It started
to build serious hype, too. I mean, this thing was promising an epic story, epic cut scenes,
an epic action game. It has an orchestral score by Tommy Tallarico, voice acting from
Boy Meets World’s Eric freaking Matthews...this was gonna be an epic game.
Turned out to be an epic failure. It tanked at retail and cost Majesco a lot of money.
So much, in fact, that the plans to turn this into a series turned into, “Hey, maybe we
better focus on handheld games for a while.”
Spend big, lose big...Advent Rising.
Anyway, you play as a human who finds himself in a bad situation. A dangerous alien race
is planning to destroy mankind, and you are one of the last humans who can fight back.
It may be a bit contrived, but...the story is actually fairly well done. In fact, if
this game does anything well, it’s precisely that. This is a very cinematic experience.
It’s just...you know, it’s also supposed to be a video game.
And really, Advent Rising is brought down by a whole list of technical problems. The
most notable of which is its horrible framerate. Like a bad metalcore band, this game constantly
chugs, but it doesn’t stop there. The camera has some problems, too. And at times...the
game just straight glitches out.
Like, this vehicle is supposed to move. First, it doesn’t.
So then, I reload. And this happens.
Right off a cliff. Years in development.
Frankly, even when Advent Rising functions as it’s supposed to, the verdict isn’t
much better. It uses an awkward flick-the-stick targeting system, which is about as precise
as a blindfolded dart thrower. It has some of the most baffling driving mechanics I’ve
ever encountered. And it’s a shame, because...there are some good ideas in here, not to mention
some really nice graphics and a decent story.
Advent Rising aimed for the stars. Too bad it ended up a crater.