The Perfect Video Game
- Exemplification Through "Advent Rising" -
By: Blue Rose
Now, I understand that I am probably committing every fallacy in the book on this one, but I can't help but be obsessed with this game.
By: Blue Rose
Now, I understand that I am probably committing every fallacy in the book on this one, but I can't help but be obsessed with this game.When Reach and I's local BlockBuster was closing down, He and I decided to head down and peruse their inventory to see if there was anything we wanted to pick up. As I was glancing through the "Transporter" series, Reach called me over. "Rose," he says (Well not literally, but you're not gonna trick me into posting my real name :P) "you HAVE to get this." I took the game from his hand. Little did I know, I was holding the Holy Grail.
I was skeptical at first. The cover art was pretty bland, and the price was only $5 (to put that in perspective, that's 1/4 the price of Barbie Horse Adventure at Gamestop). It took some convincing, but eventually Reach talked me into buying the game on the grounds that if I, "Didn't absolutely love it", he would eat the cost.
Well, I went home and plugged in the 'ol Xbox and was immediately swept away. Even the opening credits was one of the more immersive experiences I've ever had. For the opening credits scene, you pilot a space ship into a massive space station. It sounds simple at first, but it was absolutely beautiful. Entranced by the amazing artwork, I didn't even notice that I had been sitting there for 15 minutes of credits.Once you gain control of your character, you are thrown into a compelling plot that sneakily works in a tutorial.
The controls are mapped perfectly, and are just as much a part of the immersion as the story it self.
---- Mild Spoilers ----
Starting the game, you are a space marine named Gideon Wyeth. You begin combat using dual-wielded firearms, but slowly learn psychic abilities. You can replace one or both of your fire arms with the psychic power of your choice, and, as you move through the game and learn more powers, you transition from traditional weapons to all psychic abilities.
This parallelism plays flawlessly into the plot, as you slowly begin to side with different alien races. It is not, however, forced in any way. You could technically go through the whole game with guns, but it seduces you into playing along with this transition. I didn't even notice until the end of the game.
---- End Spoilers ----
With this amazing parallelism, and flawless writing, the game was just set up for success. Upon further inspection, the game just has amazingness at its roots.
With Will Friedle, "Eric" from "Boy Meets World", doing the main voice acting and the story written and directed by Orson Scott Card, creator of "Ender's Game", I don't know how the game could have possibly failed.....
....yet it did.
Even with its all-original orchestral score, and cinematic experience so complete, it made Avatar look like the "A Clockwork Orange" from the 70's, Advent Rising so underwhelmed revenue projections, that one year after its release, the next two parts of the trilogy had already been cancelled.
With the release of Halo around the same time, Advent rising just wasn't enough of a clone of the precedent Bungie had set-up a couple of years earlier.
Most critics murdered the game, and its fate was sealed forever in video game history; truly one of the biggest tragedies in the video game world.
All I can say is, if you ever find a copy of this game, BUY IT IMMEDIATELY. It goes without saying that I made good on my arrangement with Reach after falling in-love with this game.
For now, I'll just have to wait patiently until me and Reach are extravagantly rich enough to create our own remake of the game.
Reminding you to always find your voice,
- Blue Rose.
Starting the game, you are a space marine named Gideon Wyeth. You begin combat using dual-wielded firearms, but slowly learn psychic abilities. You can replace one or both of your fire arms with the psychic power of your choice, and, as you move through the game and learn more powers, you transition from traditional weapons to all psychic abilities.This parallelism plays flawlessly into the plot, as you slowly begin to side with different alien races. It is not, however, forced in any way. You could technically go through the whole game with guns, but it seduces you into playing along with this transition. I didn't even notice until the end of the game.
---- End Spoilers ----With this amazing parallelism, and flawless writing, the game was just set up for success. Upon further inspection, the game just has amazingness at its roots.
With Will Friedle, "Eric" from "Boy Meets World", doing the main voice acting and the story written and directed by Orson Scott Card, creator of "Ender's Game", I don't know how the game could have possibly failed.....
....yet it did.
Even with its all-original orchestral score, and cinematic experience so complete, it made Avatar look like the "A Clockwork Orange" from the 70's, Advent Rising so underwhelmed revenue projections, that one year after its release, the next two parts of the trilogy had already been cancelled.
With the release of Halo around the same time, Advent rising just wasn't enough of a clone of the precedent Bungie had set-up a couple of years earlier.
Most critics murdered the game, and its fate was sealed forever in video game history; truly one of the biggest tragedies in the video game world.
All I can say is, if you ever find a copy of this game, BUY IT IMMEDIATELY. It goes without saying that I made good on my arrangement with Reach after falling in-love with this game.
For now, I'll just have to wait patiently until me and Reach are extravagantly rich enough to create our own remake of the game.
Reminding you to always find your voice,- Blue Rose.
Reach's note: Alas, it is often the case that an imperfect world has no tolerance for perfection. We crucified Jesus, remember? The guy who could create alcohol from the most abundant source on the planet? In semi-related news, Halo: Reach actually looks different from the last three games bungie made. I thought they were just going to keep making Halo 2 there for awhile.
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