Advent Rising

Plot

The game begins on the Luriam, a Human space station above the planet Edumea. Gideon Wyeth, along with his brother, Ethan, is tasked with escorting a human ambassador as they board the first alien ship humans have ever come in contact with. At this meeting with the Aurelians, they are told of a coming scourge on Humanity, a hostile species known as the Seekers who wander the galaxy, wiping out the apparently numerous Human civilizations they encounter. But it is too late; before the meeting even ends, the Seekers arrive at Edumea without warning, and begin their attack on the planet and the station. Upon crashing into the Luriam, Gideon and Ethan makes their way to the science facility in search of Gideon's fiancée, Olivia Morgan. After finding her and dealing with more than a few Seekers, the three make their way to the escape pods. By this point Ethan and Olivia are both injured and require aid to make it to the pods. Gideon is forced to make a choice who to help into the pod, and unfortunately the other is left behind to be scanned by the Seekers.

After crash-landing in his escape pod on Edumea, Gideon make his way into the city along with the loved one he chose upon escaping the Luriam. Before entering the city, his brother/fiancée is taken to a hospital, Here Gideon learns that Admiral Torn is waiting for him. He fights his way to the command center and learns that the planet is soon to be bombarded with meteors. After rejoining his brother/fiancée, the two make their way to the shipyard in hopes of evacuating the planet before its destruction. The only ship available is guarded by Captain Marin Steele, who provides Gideon and his brother/fiancée with transport off the doomed planet. After watching helplessly as Edumea and millions of its helpless inhabitants are destroyed, the group drifts in space until they are reunited with the Aurelian ship. The aliens aboard are overjoyed that any humans survived. While aboard the ship, Gideon learns why Humans are so sought after in the galaxy, to the point that the Seekers would try to exterminate them: A prophecy, which states that Humans will eventually "come of age" and strike down the Seekers' hold on the universe. The Seekers believe in the threat of the prophecy because Humans, when properly taught, possess supernatural abilities more powerful than any magic. The Aurelians intend to take Gideon, Marin, and Ethan/Olivia to the powers that be in the universe to prove that the Seekers really are traveling the galaxy exterminating a species; most aliens don't believe the Humans really exist at all. On the way, Gideon begins to train with his new mentor, Kehlem, developing new abilities as well as augmenting his melee skills and general athletics. The Seekers, however, catch up to the Aurelian cruiser on the cusp of its destination, Aurelia.

Gideon, his companions old and new, and the rest of the Aurelian fleet board the Seeker ship, in the hopes of turning the battle. Gideon makes their way to the hangar and eventually the command deck only to find that the Seekers have a bomb ready to detonate. The Aurelians and Gideon do their best to evacuate the ship, but the ship rips apart upon re-entry and crashes into the Aurelian ocean. In the remains of the crashed ship, Gideon finds Ethan/Olivia, Marin, and Kelehm trapped in a

room rapidly filling with water. He uses his powers to open the door, but it proves too much and it snaps shut before his brother/fiancée can make it out. He tries once again, but the room is sealed and he is forced to watch Ethan or Olivia drown. After exiting the vessel, Gideon finds the shore overrun with Seekers. Gideon unleashes his abilities, driven by the pain of losing everyone around him. The group makes their way closer to an Aurelian city as Kelehm calls for aid. The group is picked up and brought to the city.

Kelehm tries to convince the council that the Seekers are a murderous and vile race, that they must declare war on them, but the council is tepid in its response, stating how the Seekers have helped to advance Aurelian scientific research and donated vast sums of money. Angered, the Seekers in the council rise up, killing Kelehm. Once more enraged by the death of his allies, Gideon lets lose more power and gives chase to the head Seeker, K'Chel. As he is about to catch up, Gideon is cut off by a bounty hunter. After being defeated by the creature, Gideon gives up but is saved at the last moment by Enorym, a high ranking Aurelian warrior and friend of Kelehm.

In order to prevent a full-scale Seeker invasion of Aurelia, the group sets off to destroy The Ancible, the Seeker communications tower. Gideon forces Marin to stay behind, fearing the loss of the last two humans were the mission to go south. Gideon and his strike force enter an Aurelian temple desecrated by the Seekers. Making his way further though the temple after large amounts of resistance, Gideon and the team enter the Ancible Tower through a hidden entrance. Gideon makes his way up to the top of the tower, naturally, where he uses the computer to align a Seeker weapon satellite so it can destroy the Ancible Tower. Gideon escapes just in time to reach his transport and getaway. On-board the ship, though, he learns that a coup has occurred within the Aurelian capital. Gideon proposes an attack against the rebels, but is knocked unconscious by one of his soldiers - a member of the coup.

Gideon awakens in the Aurelian capital where the coup member are fighting with Enorym's remaining forces. After finally putting down the traitors, Gideon learns that Marin has been captured. Thus, Gideon and Enorym's soldiers prepare for a final assault against the remaining Seekers on the planet. After a long fight into the heart of the Seeker stronghold, Gideon and Marin are reunited. This is short-lived, however, as another bounty hunter takes mental control of a massive beast called the Skinwalker. Gideon initiates a fight against the Skinwalker, and eventually defeats the hulking monster. After picking Marin up, the two radio for transport, only to have the Aurelians relay that the seismic activity is too strong as the transmission cuts out. Spying nearby Seeker hover-tanks, the two begin their escape over a river of lava. The duo leave the tanks and head for the exit when an explosion rocks the base and forces it to collapse. The rest of the Aurelians wait for Gideon to exit. All hope seems lost until Gideon emerges from the fire, psychic shield enveloped, with Marin in his arms. At this point, the credits roll, over a sequence of an Aurelian ship making the long, long journey to the Galactic Council's central command planet.

Some time later (now bearing a sweet beard and long grizzled hair), Gideon and Marin (who looks more or less the same) meet with the head council with Enorym to accuse the Seekers of genocide. Just as the Seekers begin to deny it, either Ethan or Olivia (whoever was left behind and scanned way back on the Luriam) appears. He/she is floating and appears genetically-altered with Seeker technology adorning him/her. He/she says that they are the true humans, that Gideon and Marin are lying about the benevolent Seekers, and that all species should bow down to him/her. Naturally, Gideon is conflicted, but he fights the "true human" nonetheless. A grand battle ensues with Gideon and Marin (now bearing some psychic abilities of her own) attacking the creature until Gideon unleashes his final ability and reduces the thing that used to be his brother/fiancée to a singularity. This opens a portal, which Gideon is sucked into before it closes. He awakens on an unknown snow-covered planet, and as he is about to collapse from exhaustion, a never-before seen alien walks up to him uttering "Come human, there is much to be done."

Campaign Chapters

Prologue: First Contact

Chapter 1: Hostile Negotiation

Chapter 2: Surface Tension

Chapter 3: Extinction Agenda

Chapter 4: The Awakening

Chapter 5: Crossed Lines

Chapter 6: Turning Tides

Epilogue: Pulling Strings

What Went Wrong

Originally planned as the first in 'The Advent Trilogy ', Advent Rising is filled with technical flaws such as frame rate and clipping issues, checkpoints that spawn the player under the stage, disappearing terrain and bosses, and so on. All of those combined together made Advent Rising a flop both critically and domestically as the trilogy was never continued, ending on a cliffhanger. The PC version,released one month after the Xbox release fared generally better critically with many of the issues found in the original version fixed,as well as a much improved combat and targeting system wich was a target of considerable criticism on the Xbox version of the game. The PC version also has a "megapatch" available made by the community known as Advent Revising that fixes most of the remaining issues of the game as well as restoring cut content. The only other announced title, Advent Shadow, was a PSP prequel staring Marin Steele and set before the destruction of Edumea. Like the unnamed second and third games in the trilogy, Advent Shadow was canceled. Because of Advent Rising's failure to come anywhere close to expectations, and the subsequent financial issues of publisher Majesco, it is very, very unlikely that the Advent Trilogy will ever be continued.

Majesco's "Race to Save Humanity" Million Dollar Contest

In April 2005, publisher Majesco Entertainment announced a contest for Advent Rising, with a million prize, called "Race to Save Humanity". The game came with a two-month voucher for Xbox Live. The idea was that every week for the first six weeks after launch, the letter "A" was to be hidden in one of Advent Rising's levels. When players found the "A", they would receive a code to punch in to the contest website. The first person to do so each week would win the weekly cash prize, culminating in the sixth weeks $1,000,000 grand prize. Subsequent entries each week could win a lesser prize, such as a SoBe-branded refrigerator or SoBe-branded guitar.

The prizes were never given. Technical difficulties plagued the implementation of the contest, as they had the game itself. The contest was cancelled on the Majesco forums in August of that year, with this message:

After careful assessment of the technical issues identified with the Advent Rising “Race to Save Humanity” contest, Majesco Entertainment and Xbox Live have determined there to be no technically feasible solution that would allow the contest to continue in a fair and secure manner. As such, we apologize for any inconvenience, but we must unfortunately cancel the contest.

Participants who could prove purchase were offered two Majesco-published games as a consolation prize.

Characters

Humans

• Gideon Wyeth - The main character of this game. He is an exceptional pilot and very intelligent.
• Ethan Wyeth - The brother of Gideon Wyeth. He is Edumea's most celebrated hero.
• Olivia Morgan - Gideon's fiancée. Works for the federation as a physicist with 5 other elite members.
• Marin Steel - Executive pilot for a leading contractor of the Federation military.

Aurelians

• Enorym - He commands the elite Felidic Warriors and is known throughout the Aurelian military for his bravery, strength, and most importantly, his wisdom.
• Kehlem - Ninth tier Aurelian Garghon, Kelehm has enough experience and backing to become the High Senator when Aurelia is admitted to the galactic senate. He has trained himself in telekinesis, though nothing like what Gideon can do.
• The Seekers - The zenith of evolution in the galaxy. They enslave newly-discovered alien races for thousands of years only to train them and recruit them to their army. Their hidden purpose is to destroy all Humans in the galaxy.

Your Arsenal

Throughout Advent Rising, Gideon acquires many weapons he can use at his disposal.

Human Weapons:

Faust C-41

• Standard Pistol

• Armor Piercing Rounds

Rockwell Young XJ9

• Standard Assault Rifle

• Mounted Grenade Launcher

Talmage 50.80

• Rocket Launcher

• Capable at shooting three rockets at a time

• Missiles can be free fired or guided

H.A.Z.E. Blaster

• Explosive Pistol

• Rounds can explode on impact or have a delayed explosion effect

Grenades

• Throw at enemy and wait for the fireworks

Seeker Weapons

G'Kol Acolyte

• Standard Pulse Rifle

• Rounds Explode on Contact

Kaull Firelance

• More Powerful Rifle

• Can be charged to unleash a powerful multi-directional shot

Darkfire

• Dark-Matter Gun

• Can self-explode at close range

D'Nex Talon

• Shoots balls of energy that explode on contact
• Can be charged up so that when it hits an organic entity it unleashes smaller energy balls that can ricochet of objects

ShadowStalker

• Plasma Sniper Rifle

Discord

• Short range heat ray gun

Gnashbone Fury

• Rapid fire Rocket Launcher

• Missiles can be guided

Powers

Throughout the game, Gideon will unlock long-lost Human powers that you can use to defeat the Seekers.

Lift

• Lift enemies into the air.
• Alt. Mode- lift multiple items into the air.

Time Shift

• Teleport to a different area in the immediate vicinity.

• Alt Mode- slow everything down while Gideon continue at normal speed.

Surge

• Release a wave of energy from your hands, which can be charged for more power.

• Alt. Mode- snatch weapons out of enemies' hand.

Negate

• Generate a single direction shield that can block attacks.

• Alt. Mode- generates a bubble shield around Gideon.

Aeon Pulse

• Unleash a lethal pulse of energy.

• Alt. Mode- 360 degree blast of destruction.

Shatter

• Slice enemies with shards of ice

• Alt. Mode- freeze enemies solid.

Soundtrack

The official soundtrack for Advent Rising was released on June 28th, 2005 under Sumthing Else Music Works. The album contains music composed by Tommy Tallarico and Michael Richard Plowman. While it has some synthetic elements, most of it is performed by a full orchestra, The Hollywood Studio Symphony, conducted by Mark Watters. The album consists of 27 tracks.

1. Muse
2. Poeta
3. Bounty Hunter
4. Aurelia
5. Greater Lights
6. Glorious Human
7. Stolen Transport
8. Canyon Encounter
9. The Rise of Aurelia
10. Edumeas Last Stand
11. Aurelian Conflict
12. The Aurelian Movement
13. Luriam Down
14. The Human Movement
15. Human Demise
16. Seeker Assault
17. Midst of the N'Kul
18. Seeker Horde
19. Fiery Arrival On Aurelia
20. Power Within
21. Fortified Strength
22. Mastery of Self
23. Return to Humanity
24. The Seeker Movement
25. Seeker Unrest
26. Conquest
27. Greater Lights (Jay-J's "Shifted UP" Mix)

Original System Requirements (PC)

Minimum

• Windows 2000/XP
• 2.0 GHz Processor
• 256 MB of RAM
• 128 MB ATI 9000 or higher or 128 MB GeForce 3 or higher (except GeForce 4 MX)
• DirectX 8.1 or higher compatible sound card
• DirectX 9.0 (included with download)
• 5.5 GB Minimum Hard Drive Space
• NVIDIA nForce or other motherboards / soundcards containing the Dolby Digital Interactive Content Encoder required for Dolby Digital audio

Recommended

• Windows 2000/XP
• 3.4 GHz Processor
• 512 MB of RAM
• 256 MB GeForce FX 5600 or higher or ATI Radeon 9600 or higher
• Sound Blaster Audigy 2 series sound card or higher

System Requirements (PC)

Minimum

• OS : Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 8 / 10
• Processor : 1.8 GHz processor
• Memory : 2 GB RAM
• Graphics : 3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 9.0c
• Hard Drive : 5 GB available space

Availability

Advent Rising can be purchased at GOG and Steam.

External Links

• Demiurge Studios
• Majesco Entertainment