Grand space opera from Ender's Game creators. Advent Rising could have been like Mass Effect
A little more than two years before Shepard began his fight with the Reapers, another game with the potential to kick off a sweeping galactic saga saw the light of day. Advent Rising was a title shaped in part by sci-fi legend Orson Scott Card.
Humanity is screwed. As soon as any alien civilization learns of its existence, it immediately targets Earth in order to destroy our entire species at all costs. We are aware of this thanks to movies like Independence Day, as well as games such as the Advent Rising also attempted to this distinguished group. If its creators had been given more time and fate had been kinder, it could have become what Commander Shepard's adventures later achieved—a story of cosmic scale, allowing us to embody the chosen one.
Divine humanity
Orson Scott Card probably doesn't need an introduction to any science fiction literature fan. That writer wrote a novel called Ender's Game that was so successful, it led to a whole series of books. Why I mention this? So, Card was one of the main scriptwriters for Advent Rising, which was definitely noticeable. The game's scenario didn't run away from topics related to morality, identity, and destiny, sometimes touching on metaphysics and questions about the meaning of existence. Its main character, Gideon Wyeth, found himself in the midst of events of truly galactic scale, and the fate of his entire species (and not only) depended on the choices he made.
I that what made Advent Rising appear on my radar was the way humanity was presented there. In contrast to the universe of the Mass Effect series, where people of Earth had to fight for a place among the most important civilizations inhabiting the Milky Way, in the world of Advent Rising, humans were a species perceived by other beings as gods. While the friendly Aurelian race saw them as their saviors, their arch-enemies, known as the Seekers, feared their divinity and sought their extermination. They almost succeeded when Earth fell victim to their devastating attack.
Fortunately, Wyeth managed to escape the massacre carried out by them, which allowed him to take on the responsibility of stopping the Seekers from spilling more human blood. While working on this task, the main character also discovers the truth about his species' origins and the role he has to play in restoring order in the galaxy. He also gets the chance to seek revenge for the destruction of the Blue Planet.
The plot was undoubtedly one of the most important aspects of Advent Rising, which made it hard to tear oneself away from the screen. Besides Orson Scott Card, other writers such as Cameron Dayton and brothers Donald and Geremy Mustard have approved it. The story was full of twists and turns and really kept me glued to the screen. Nonetheless, Advent Rising was a video game, not a movie or a book, so gameplay played an equally important role in the reception of this title.
Shooter with ambitions
After stripping Advent Rising of its narrative depth, we would get a fairly standard third-person shooter, enriched with RPG elements. Playing as Wyeth, we explored locations, conducted conversations with independent characters, completed missions, and made choices that affected the further course of the story. As we progressed, we developed the character, gradually improving his specific skills.
Gideon was not just an ordinary "loser," but a chosen one. As befits a chosen one, the main character possessed supernatural abilities revealing his "divine" potential. The protagonist could slow down time, just like Max Payne, to gain an advantage over enemies. Also, he had a pretty impressive, futuristic arsenal at his disposal, where everyone could find something for themselves, from rifles and shotguns to grenades. When it got too hot around him, he could always activate the force field to protect himself from the gunfire. Besides, from time to time the game allowed us to take control of machines and use stationary weapons.
All of this was done on a grand scale, as evidenced by the size of the locations. I definitely the soundtrack by Tommy Tallarico better. It might not be as memorable as the music from Halo or Mass Effect, but the songs really stuck with me and emphasized the scale of the events in the game.
Uncut gem
So as you can see, Advent Rising had the potential to be a real hit. The devs were aware of this and were planning to transform the franchise into a trilogy, which would show the further fate of humanity after Gideon's adventure. Why didn't it happen?
Well, Advent Rising was released in a state it should not have been released in. The game had a lot of technical issues, like bad optimization and annoying bugs that made it hard to play or even impossible in some cases.
The game first appeared in May 2005 on the Xbox console, and in August - on PC. Although the average rating of this title on Metacritic was around 70/100, reviewers warned players about its flaws, so not many of them rushed to play it.
What happened next?
Plans to turn Advent Rising into a trilogy fell through. In the meantime, a spin-off of this title, Advent Shadow, was being developed for PlayStation Portable, but the project was ultimately canceled. The game's developers, GlyphX studio, also didn't come out unscathed from all this turmoil, allowing themselves to be absorbed by Sandman Studios in 2006.
However, the Advent Rising universe has undergone some expansion. In the years 2005-2006, a series of comics set in this world was released. In June 2006, Donald Mustard said he was ready to continue the Advent series, but no one responded.
How to play Advent Rising today?
Thanks to Ziggurat, Advent Rising can now be purchased on Steam and GOG.com. In both cases, the discussed game costs $9.99. You can buy the PC version of the game on a disc for just a few bucks.
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