Advent Rising

Infobox VG
title = Advent Rising


developer = GlyphX Games
publisher = Majesco
designer = Donald and Geremy Mustard
engine = Unreal Engine 2.0
released = May 31, 2005
June 30, 2005
genre = Third-person action
modes = Single player
ratings = ESRB: Teen (T)
PEGI: 12+
platforms = Windows
Xbox
media = DVD-ROM
requirements = Windows 2000/XP
2.0 GHz CPU
256MB RAM
5.5GB hard disk
128MB Radeon 9000 or GeForce 4MX graphics card
DVD-ROM drive
input = Xbox: Gamepad
Windows: Keyboard and mouse, separate version for Novint Falcon
followed by = "Advent Shadow"

"Advent Rising" is a third-person, science fiction action/adventure video game, akin to a fast-paced action movie.

"Advent Rising" was released on May 31, 2005 for Xbox and on August 9, 2005 for Windows. The story of this game was created by Donald Mustard, and featured a script written by famed sci-fi writer Orson Scott Card and Cameron Dayton. The full orchestral soundtrack was done by Tommy Tallarico. As of September 14, 2006, Steam began offering "Advent Rising" for download as well as other games by Majesco. ( [http://steampowered.com/v/index.php?area=game&AppId=3800 Advent Rising on Steam] ) At release on Steam, it cost $14.95 USD.

"Advent Rising" was the first in a planned trilogy which also saw the development of a game that would take place alongside "Advent Rising", called "Advent Shadow" for the PSP. However, the game's retail performance fell short of expectations. By the end of 2005, Majesco Entertainment had completely revised its business plan to focus towards handheld games and canceled plans for future Advent games.

A five-issue spin-off comic book series was produced and ran from October 2005 to November 2006 (see "Comics" section below). Plans for novel tie-ins by Orson Scott Card never came to fruition.

In June 2006, Donald Mustard posted a statement on the website of his new venture, Chair Entertainment, stating that he "would be happy to finish the Advent series if the opportunity presented itself," but confirmed he does not currently hold the rights to do so. [ [http://chairentertainment.com/community/forums/viewtopic.php?t=28/ Chair Forum Post] ]

In 2008, Novint is adding a Novint Falcon support to this game, and will sell it as Ascension Reborn for the Novint Falcon only.

Plot

Gideon Wyeth arrives at Luriam, a small outpost in orbit around the planet Edumea, where a gigantic extraterrestrial spaceship has arrived. Gideon has arrived, along with his brother, to pilot the shuttle that will carry the diplomats facilitating first contact between the aliens and humans. After meeting up with his brother Ethan and doing a bit of training (and getting into a barfight with rowdy marines), a sociopathic marine named Bud (who Gideon fought in the bar earlier) threatens them and nearly kills Ethan. Gideon has the choice of either capturing or killing Bud and this will affect how marines see and help him later in the game. Gideon heads to the alien ship with a few human diplomats and soldiers to meet with the aliens. Upon meeting with the aliens, led by a diplomatic leader named Kelehm and a more military-oriented one named Enorym, the group is told of the Seekers, an alien species bent on destroying humanity, which will soon arrive at Edumea and destroy it. At that moment, the Seekers arrive in the system, and Gideon is forced to return to the outpost. After fighting with the boarding Seeker fleet and rescuing his fiancé, Olivia, Gideon is faced with choosing between helping Ethan or Olivia aboard an escape pod. Whichever person he decides not to help is unable to make it to an escape pod themselves, and is lost to the Seeker forces. Minor portions of the story from this point further change slightly depending on who was saved, though the overall plot is the same regardless.

When the escape pod crash lands on Edumea, Gideon gets medical attention for Ethan/Olivia and then sets off to get to the Command Center to meet Commander Torn, who is issuing a call for marines to safely bring Gideon in. After assisting marines battling the seekers, Gideon arrives at the Command Center and speaks to Commander Torn. During the conversation, Gideon learns of an imminent global disaster caused by the Seeker threat, and sets out with Ethan/Olivia to find a way off the planet. As meteorites begin raining down upon the planet, Gideon meets Marin Steel, who agrees to help Gideon and Ethan/Olivia off the planet. As they escape the atmosphere, a series of asteroids impact the planet, destroying Edumea. In an effort to search for fellow survivors, Gideon scans the radio waves for distress signals, though only finds an offering of assistance to any humans from the Aurelians, the friendly alien race he had met earlier. After meeting with the Aurelian leaders, Gideon learns that humans have divine properties, and asks to be taught how to use them.

After grasping the basics of his mystical powers, the Aurelian ship is attacked by the Seekers. The Aurelians, led by Enorym and Kelehm, have no choice but to board the Seeker ship and attack it, as their ship is dwarfed in offensive power by the Seeker ship. Although Gideon and the Aurelians try to fend off the invading forces, their ship is destroyed and they are stuck on the Seeker ship, bent on a crash course with the Aurelian homeworld. After colliding with the Aurelian sea, the ship is evacuated as it sinks, and Ethan/Olivia drowns with it. Retreating to the Aurelian capital of Arnis with Marin, Gideon and the surviving Aurelian leaders ask the government for assistance, though their effort is interrupted by the arrival of a Seeker ambassador who denies destroying Edumea and kills Kelehm. Enraged, Gideon attempts to kill him, though he is able to escape due to the timely intervention of a bounty hunter who would have killed Gideon if Enorym did not ambush and kill the hunter first.

Determined to remove the Seekers from the planet, Gideon sets out with the Aurelian government's forces in an effort to destroy the Seeker control tower. After fighting through multiple waves of Seeker guards, Gideon succeeds in destroying the tower. In the aftermath of this success, however, the Aurelian government is overthrown by Seeker loyalists led by the Councilman Seran and a fierce soldier captain named Banath, and Gideon is imprisoned. With the help of his psychic abilities and the Aurelians loyal to his cause, Gideon is able to escape, kill Banath, capture Seran, and reinstate a favorable government. In a final effort to remove the Seekers from the planet, Gideon sets out with the last of the Aurelian army to destroy the Seeker base. Leading the ground assault, Gideon reaches some holding cells where Marin is being held captive. After freeing her and destroying the Seeker's last lines of defense, the base self-destructs and the Seeker threat, at least on the Aurelian world, is eliminated.

To try and receive more support in fighting the Seekers, Gideon, Enorym, and Marin go to the galactic council to ask for assistance in punishing the Seekers for their genocide of humans. Being actual humans, the council believes their testimony and turns to the Seeker representatives for an explanation. While the representatives defend their race's innocence, Olivia/Ethan (depending on which one Gideon failed to save earlier) teleports into the council chamber with an altered personality and wielding godlike powers. The creature, known as a Koroem, claims to be a "true human" and takes credit for destroying mankind because they were imposters trying to replicate the appearance of "true" humans. Koroem claims to have commanded the Seekers to wipe out humanity, and that it has come to absolve the Seekers of any crimes and reclaim its rule of the galaxy. Enorym denounces the Koroem as an imposter, and the creature uses its power to crush him.

With this, Gideon and Marin use their powers to battle the being. When the Koroem is defeated, Gideon is drawn into a portal that it creates, leaving Marin to mourn the loss of her last link to humanity. Gideon is transported to an ice world along with some debris from the council chamber. Slowly dying from the cold, all Gideon can do is simply stagger forward seeking some sort of shelter. Moments from death, a mysterious horned being appears, saying to Gideon, "Come with me human, there is much to be done," ending the game.

Characters

* Gideon Wyeth (voiced by Will Friedle) — The main character of the game. He is a member of one of the last human outposts.
* Ethan Wyeth — Gideon's hotshot older brother, a hero of the colony wars and pilot on the diplomatic mission of first contact with the Aurelians.
* Olivia Morgan — Gideon's fiancé, a scientist currently assigned to space station Luriam.
* Paulsen - A marine gunner who accompanies Gideon through much of Bahr Han City.
* Marin Steel — A pilot and high-ranking military operative.
* Torn - Commander of the human forces in Bahr Han City. Torn believes that the Seekers are another species of the buggers seen in "Ender's Game".
* Bud - A psychotic Marine with a bad temper, Bud attacks Gideon at the game's start shortly after a training match which he claims was rigged. Whether Gideon kills Bud or stuns him with a nearby stungun will affect how marines view him later in the game.
* Kelehm — A ninth-tier Garhgon (an Aurelian religious caste), he has trained himself in the telekinetic arts.
* Enorym Tenspur (voiced by Michael Bell) — Ally to Gideon and the most highly trained of the Aurelian elite fighters. Also a commander of the elite Felidic Warriors. Enorym leads an assault on a Seeker ship shortly after Gideon learns how to use his psychic powers.
* K'Chel — A Seeker Ambassador, K'Chel arrives on Aurelia and kills Kelehm. He escapes before Gideon can kill him and reappears in the council at the end of the game, but escapes during the battle with the Koroem.
* Daenos — One of Enorym's best warriors, Daenos assists Gideon in the assault on the ansible tower. At certain points, he provides insight into Aurelian society, mostly religion and their worship of humans. Daenos is killed after surviving the battle when the traitor Banath stabs him in the chest.
* Banath — Enorym's best and most passionate officer, Banath is one of the seeds of rebellion on Aurelia. After voicing disapproval at guarding Marin while Enorym, Daenos, Gideon, and Sarkin (another warrior) go off to battle, Banath helps stage a rebellion and kills Daenos. However, shortly afterward Gideon kills Banath in a short duel.
* Sevan — A council member on Aurelia, Sevan is the leader of the rebellion. Skeptical to even the existence of humans, Sevan does not revere them. He trades Marin to the Seekers in order to spare Aurelia and is nearly suffocated by Gideon.

Reception

Following its Xbox release, "Advent Rising" received mixed reviews from critics whose scores ranged from a high of 4.5 out of 5 (Gamepro) to a low of 5 out of 10 (EGM). Reviewer scores averaged at a 68 on Game Rankings and a 67 on Metacritic, while user scores averaged at 7.5. The most common complaints were the large number of bugs the game was plagued by. The bugs caused a range of problems including freezing and generally just detracting from the game play. Another common complaint regarded the difficulty in using of the flick targeting system.

"Advent Rising"'s visual design choice was noted by some, pointing out that the characters all appear fairly elongated, although it has been said that this was a deliberate stylistic choice.

Upon the release of the PC version of the game a month after the Xbox counterpart, "Advent Rising" was slightly better received, earning a 72 on Game Rankings and a 70 on Metacritic, with user scores averaging at 82. Many reviewers felt that the month long delay had been put to good use as many of the glitches in the Xbox version had been fixed. Framerate was also improved , with slow downs becoming rarer.

An interesting side note is that a million dollars was offered in a contest via Xbox Live for the first player to find a hidden symbol. Unfortunately, Majesco was forced to cancel the contest when security issues with Xbox Live's global time syncing created an unfair playing field for competitors.

Orson Scott Card's influence

The game's overall story was created by Donald and Geremy Mustard. The dialogue and screenplay, however, was written by Orson Scott Card and Cameron Dayton. Card's influences are noticeable in the terminology which has been carried over from "Ender's Game". The terms "vids," "Buggers," and "ansible" are all references from his critically acclaimed novels (though the term "ansible" was coined by Ursula K. Le Guin, and was not actually added to the script by Card himself, but by Donald Mustard. See [http://www.hatrack.com/ubb/main/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=003303;p=1#000001 Card's comments on the matter] ). It is widely agreed upon that the story is the most celebrated feature of the game, with a cliffhanger ending meant to inspire interest in the future games in the series.

Comics

An avid comics fan, game creator Donald Mustard originally realized the story of Advent Rising in hand-drawn comic books. "With "Advent", from day one, we conceived it initially as a comic book itself. Back when I was getting out of high school, we were laying the foundation for "Advent". I drew the first several hours of what would ultimately become the game as a comic book," Mustard revealed in a 2005 interview. [http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=5663]

The release of the Advent Rising game was supported by a promotional one-shot comic book produced by DC Comics. The comic was written by Lee Hammock and drawn by Billy Dallas Patton as a direct tie-in to the action of the game. It was inserted free of charge within a handful of comic books published by DC.

Another comic book, this time a series, grew out of the partnership between Majesco and 360ep, a young entertainment properties management concern founded by former Marvel Comics CEO Bill Jemas.

The new comic series, called "Advent Rising: Rock the Planet," was written by Rob Worley, with layouts by Arthur Dela Cruz, pencils by Cliff Richards, inks by Dennis Crisostomo, colors by Cris Delara, and letters by Simon Bowland. The comic was produced with oversight by Mustard and Jemas. This new series begins the franchise some ten years before the events of the game. It follows the adventures of Gideon, Ethan, and Olivia in their formative, teenage years. The first issue was published on October 26, 2005. The fifth and final issue was released on November 22, 2006.

External links

* [http://www.adventtrilogy.com/ Official Advent site]
* [http://www.gamepro.com/microsoft/xbox/games/reviews/45832.shtml Gamepro Review]
* [http://www.majescoentertainment.com/catalog/works/adventrising_pc.php Advent Rising at Majesco] - Screenshots, PC demo, and link to buy non-Steam digital download of full game
* [http://www.chairentertainment.com/ Chair Entertainment Group]
* [http://xbox.ign.com/articles/620/620664p1.html IGN Xbox review]
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