One of our favorite games.
The first thing I am sure that comes to every ones mind is, “Advent What!?” And indeed you should. This game was released in 2005 by developer GlyphX Games and unfortunately is now present in the developers graveyard of games. I originally bought this game upon release but it can now be found on Steam for $9.99 thanks to publisher Majesco.
I wanted to review this game because it is one of my all time favorite games and one I thoroughly enjoyed playing. Its greatness can be truly found its script written by Orson Scott Card and Cameron Dayton. Orson Scott Card is well known in the Sci-fi novelist world for have written such great novels such as Ender’s Game, a fantastic book and highly recommended.
This is one of the only games I have sat and played through from beginning to end without stopping. Now on to the show!
Good: You play as Gideon Wyeth a space pilot who is charged, as well as his brother, with the duty to pilot a shuttle carrying human diplomats that will make first contact with the aliens on board their ship. Once they meet the aliens the say they came to warn the Human race that some bad bugger named Seekers are headed to wipe them out of existence. Unfortunately a warning too little too late because the Seekers succeed and Gideon as well as a few other are the last remaining humans. With the help of the good Aliens they help to unlock a hidden potential in humans that allow them to use special powers that humans have potential for but fell away from along ago in their forgotten history. Unlocking new powers and set on revenge this shit is about to get real.
This game is setup to be a 3rd person shooter with the ability to use a power or gun in either hand. In the PC version of this game Left clicking would fire the assigned power/gun to it and right clicking would fire its assigned power/gun. Gamers associated with the Diablo Series can quickly adapt and truly appreciate this setup allowing for a barrage of blaster fire and some power combos. As you progress through the game you are introduced to new powers and abilities which you then can level up the more you use them. Eventually you get so used to using only powers and the need of guns becomes irrelevant. The best power by far is introduced to you later in the game where once fully leveled you can slow down time and truly kick some bug arses.
The best part about this game is that graphically everything from the backgrounds to the use of the powers are quite beautiful and when paired with an amazing epic sounding soundtrack and script this game truly shines. You are left with an immersion into the story and just want to know what was going to happen next.
Bad: Sadly there are a few problems with this games that hinder its excellence. There was a few times when the bad guys beat the living crap out of me and no matter how many times or different ways of doing things differently be it leveling up a power for an hour just to loose it all cause I failed miserably. This caused anger and frustration, the dark side definitely arose inside me something only I would wish upon my boss. Eventually I did progress but it wasn’t pretty…
This game came out in the times where games began to invoke choice systems, where one’s choice would influence the outcome of events yet to come. This game only has one key part that gives you this choice and having played through the game both ways the outcome doesn’t really changed anything at all, just simply who accompanies you along the way. Seeming to be a very important issue at the time it eventually just makes you feel like they could have done more with the decision making – story driven content the game barely provides. It appeared that they wanted to do more with it but had their efforts cut short.
Ugly: The very unfortunate and and worst thing about this game is that the other two games that were to follow were canceled leaving you with the thoughts of “WTF NOOOOOOO!” after being pulled into the story for so long. This game was even suppose to tie in with a comic book series but that too seemed to come up short as well because of the game being canceled and the company going the way of yoga. The game company and series has become one with the force…
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