Advent Rising is one of those games that not every one can enjoy. For one thing you have to forgive alot of glitches and framerate problems. Then there is the lack of story-flow. Several times I found myself in a place with no idea how I got there, or what the blazes I had to do. In this review I shall break down this game into segments and tell you, dear readers, about the pros and cons of each.

Story Overview
This is not a happy game. The entire first half is about loss and death. The basic story is this: You are Gideon Wyeth, brother of Ethan Wyeth a decorated war hero. Mankind is about to make contact with an alien race. You are part of the envoy to the alien ship. When you get there the benevolent aliens, called the Aurelians, give you a universal translator. Very handy, huh? They tell you that mankind is on the verge of extiction at the hands of the En-cul, otherwise called The Seekers. The Seekers are bent on destroying humanity, but we don't know why yet. As you are returning to the orbital space station over your planet, the Seeker armada comes out of Hyperspace and begins their attack. You return to the space station because you crash into it, and begin searching for your fiancee, Olivia Morgan. Here's where it gets interesting. You must chose either Ethan or Olivia to rescue because they are both injured and cannot walk by themselves. Depending on which one you save, the other gets nabbed by a Seeker as your Escape pod launches, and is presumed dead. Once you arrive on planet you go through a series of adventures and eventually escape as it is destroyed. You, your brother or fiancee, and a woman named Marin Steel are picked up by the benevolent aliens you met earlier. Then you learn about latent superpowers you have, and as one of the last 3 remaining humans in the universe you learn to use them to engage the Seekers in numurous conflicts.

Story Presentation
The way the story is presented is sketchy at best. I got the impression the the designers were trying too hard not to bore the player with cutscenes, and the games suffers because of that. There are gaps in the story that are painfully obvious. I often asked myself "how did I get here?" "what am I doing?" "he was on the ship that exploded, what's he doing here?" Many things are not explained, but this occurs primarily in only one place, and is not a problem elsewhere. The story we see is well presented, and I did feel actual sorrow when Gideon loses his fiancee and brother. No matter who you save on the station the other on dies later so by the end it's only Gideon and Marin alive. Like I said, it's not a happy game.

Graphics/Performance
The only truly horrible part of this game is the performance. Between glitches, poor framerate, and scripted functions that don't occur there is alot to forgive. However, it's not an exagerated problem, but it really reduces the value of other wise terrific gameplay. The graphics are also not brilliant and are subpar for an Xbox, but also this isn't a big problem. One annoying inconsistency that we see is Gideon's hair. It changes length six times. When it starts out it's sorta short and spiky (similar to Anakin's in Attack of the Clones) Then, in one cutscene it's down in front of his eyes, then after the scene it's short and spiky again. Then goes in front of his eyes and stays that way for a long time. Then, in one cutscene it goes short and spiky, then it's in his eyes again. In the game's epilogue it looks like Aragorn's hair. What's up with this??

Gameplay
This is the game's strong point. Aside from the horrible targeting system, the gameplay is exceptional. You can assign different powers or weapons to either hand via a slo-mo menu, and the powers actually come out of the selected hand. This game also features a very RPG-like upgrade system. As you use each power or weapon, you gain up to 5 mastery levels which unlocks alternate fire modes, less energy loss from powers, increased ammo for powers, icreased damage and accuracy for all.

Soundtrack
Ohhhhh, Baby! The music is awesome, the sound effects are well done. Of course that's because Matthew Wood was in charge. We all know him as the chief sound editor for the PT and OT DVDs. He's also General Grievous.
This game has a good cast with a couple famous names. Vanessa Marshall, Jan Ors from Jedi Outcast, does Olivia, and Dwight Schultz, Murdock from A-Team and Reginald Barkley from Star Trek, plays the Aurelian Leader/High Priest. The only trouble with sound was in one scene in which the voices were out of sync with the cinematics. It's a little grating, but if you got that far you've already proven that you can get past that kind of thing.

Summary
Did it have some problems? Yes. Was it choppy at times? Yes. Was it fun? Absolutely. I enjoyed it tremendously. Will I buy the promised sequel? You better believe it. Will I buy the novelization if and when it's released? Yes. We should be getting one; we were told that we were. This was a good game that suffered from stupid errors. With any luck at all these problems will be worked out by the time the two sequels arrive. This may not be a happy game, but it is a hopeful one. In that respect it's a lot like Star Wars A New Hope: not great, but good enough to come back for more. Make no mistake: I liked this game alot. I must warn you that you have to be able to cope with the glitches. At one point you will encounter an elevator that won't work. Just keep pressing the X button and run around like an idiot for a half hour and it will go eventually. Just stick with it and it will be worth your while.

Ratings out of 10

Technicallity Rating 5 for framerate, inconsistencies, glitches and missed action-triggers

Enjoyability Rating 9

Sound Rating 10

Replay Value: Average. About usual for this kind of game.

Overall: 8. Good game that promises better things to come. Stick with it and it will provide an entertaining experience.