Advent rising, A gamers review
Saying that, there is a good game here if your into your sci-fi adventures with a very strong resemblance to Halo, The colors are somewhat the same, as are some of the environments, monsters also tend to have similar characteristics to the afformentioned game, and yes in a way the HUD and health system are pretty much halo too, yet don't let this put you off, as it leads to a feeling of familiarity which i found to be a good thing.
To be perfectly honest, i love this game, it set out to try and give a cinematic feel and it pulls this off greatly, The cutscenes do give you the story line in a cinematic style that a lot of games are lacking, even if sometimes it leaves it a little short, yet it does deliver them with some panache, this game is tailored to the sci-fi fan, and for obvious reasons.
Basically its the old classic story, humans are in danger from a crazed alien race hell bent on killing the entire species, friendly alien race tries to help by teaching humans how to unlock that hidden part of the brain and thus to use Jedi mind tricks, you start in space and after a quick first section of flying your craft to the space station, your off on your feet, legging it around in true 3rd person shooter style, you then have to take the (now) obligatory tutorial before your whisked strait off to find out who the new visitors are, what they want, and why they are so interested in trying to help you?
Your pretty much thrown right into the thick of it, soon as the tutorial section and short movie are over.
If your looking for a open style game then this is not for you, the level design is pretty much strait forward linear, get from A to B and shoot things along the way, with enough big explosions and scenery demolition to keep you happy The musical score i found very much atmospheric in its application, there are a few slip ups here and there, as mentioned in the gamespot review, yet i didn't let this put me off, i will say that the voice acting in this game is very good, OK some times it wanes a bit and although the lip sync is kind of none existent most of the time, it is still refreshing to have at least some talent behind the voices.
The weapons sound meaty with lots of base being thrown around my speaker set up, and ambient sounds are nice and clear, with explosions making my cat uneasy on its feet.
The weapons them selves are plentiful with the use of a two handed gun system, Q to pick up a gun for your left hand and E for the right, then the two mouse buttons for left and right handed fire, most weapons also have a secondary fire mode yet i have never found a time in combat to use this option, weapons also feature upgrades depending on how much you use them and what weapon you currently have equipped (NOTE you also get upgrades on your melee attacks), though this could have been better implemented, as there is no way to pick what upgrades you can have for any given weapon, and with the choice of upgrade not being particularly good for a vast majority of your favorite killing tools.
The combat its self is quite nice and tinkering about in the options gives you a auto aim ability which coupled with the duel wield, i some times found that i was targeting two different enemy's at the same time, then come the Jedi mind tricks, well not quite Jedi but still, they do tend to make the going easy though sometimes i still found my self having to repeat bits because i got my bits handed back to me on a plate.
The graphics are not to bad in there own right with some nice touches here and there, at 1600x1200 i still noticed some jagged edges and clipping problems that I'm sure could have been avoided with a bit more polish, yet even at this resolution with all settings and draw distances maxed out, i had no slowdown even in some of the most intense battles. scenery and cityscapes are good with some nice "neotokyo" feel and look about them.
The controls are OK, yet i found that if you have a joy pad AND a mouse that use USB, it made the camara rotate around the player as if a button was stuck, just unplugging one of the control devices that wasn't in use fixed this problem.
Well on a hole a good game, if your into your sci fi then this game is itching to be played, OK its got some bad points here and there, but nothing major. If you can rent it or get a demo first i highly recommend you try it out, you will either love it or hate it.
happy gaming Pot Noodle
P.S your going to love the cut scenes