Advent-ures in Storytelling
The new cinematic action-adventure game Advent Rising™ from publisher Majesco Games and the development house GlyphX, Inc., begins the first part in a magnificent, sprawling trilogy that tells the tale of humanity's last stand in a far-off future and how one man, Gideon Wyeth, becomes the hope not just of humanity but of the entire galaxy. The way the story is told involves crucial decisions made at key plot points during the game, and those choices are not the simplistic "option A is the evil choice, option B is the good choice" we've come to expect these days. The decisions you help Gideon make will often seem more like the choice between the lesser of two evils. In this article we'll look at a couple of specific instances—one with short-term consequences, and another with long-term impact—as well as how Advent Risingsets up the conflict for the rest of the trilogy without shorting gamers on this first part. The ways Gideon's decisions change the game's story make for nice replay value.
In other words you can anticipate a "to be continued" ending, but don't expect any sudden mid-story cutoffs to precede them.Advent Rising is deep, full, complete, and packed with potential for more stories—and leaves with a real mystery, not a cut that happens right before the apparent climax … not that we know of any games that have ever done that.
Warning: Story SPOILERS ahead!
You going to let him get away with that?
Little Choices
One of the first choices—the "short-term" decision described above—is also eerily reminiscent of an early scene in the Orson Scott Card novelEnder's Game. Gideon is challenged in a bar by a drunken Marine and accused of being a useless pretty-boy pilot. Despite Gideon's good intentions, the drunk won't hear of it, and starts a fight in the bar. You have no choice, and here's where you get your first lesson in melee combat. Later, however, the same guy and his Marine buddies show up unannounced at the firing range where you're learning how to use weapons. The trainers decide you might as well have some live enemies to try your hand at, so the Marines and Gideon go at it with stun pistols all over the obstacle course. You win, of course and Bud the Marine (seriously, his name is Bud) takes it very poorly. So much so, that he pulls a live, loaded, deadly pistol on Gideon's brother Ethan right outside the training area.
You must stop him, but how? There are two ways—use the stun pistol you're still carrying and knock Bud out, or you can start melee attacking and literally beat him to death. (Ender's Gamereaders certainly know which scene from the book this recalled.) This ends the situation—Bud pulled a weapon on a superior officer, so there are no charges filed against you—but later, you want some help from those same Marines to take out a horde of enemies. If you only zapped Bud with the stun gun, you might get some help since you showed admirable restraint. If you knocked his brains out, the Marines will made some snide comments about the "flyboy" that murdered their pal, and let you take on the horde all by yourself. Neither choice is really "good" or "evil," since Bud is a homicidal hothead, but your decision will definitely have an impact later.
Only two of these three will get off the ship.
Big Decisions
If you're looking at the big picture, then one of the biggest decision points is also one of the most tragic and dramatic—because no matter what he chooses, Gideon is going to suffer some serious guilt. It's also where you choose your traveling companion for much of the adventure.
Who is behind the glass of doom? You decide!
Gideon, his fiancée, and his hotshot pilot brother (it runs in the family, I guess) are among the people trapped on a space station under attack by the villainous alien Seekers. They have one chance—to escape to a friendly alien craft, that of the Aurelians, who came to warn the humans about the Seekers but arrived too late. Gideon gets to the escape pods, but finds that his fiancée isn't there. Gideon runs back through the dying space station, finds Olivia and returns to the escape pods—and only then do you make the painful decision that will haunt the rest of the game.
Either stay and defend your brother (in which case both of you make it to the escape pods) or you can leave Ethan Wyeth behind and take Olivia Morgan onto the pod. The one you don't help is, unfortunately, stuck behind the dramatic glass wall of doom just before the pod launches. Gideon will watch helplessly as one or the other—fiancée or brother—gets brutally attacked by the Seekers, and then.…
Without going into detail, the odds are that Gideon may well see the abandoned character again. But he's not going to be happy about it.
Only the Beginning
Advent Rising is only part one of a planned trilogy, and the ending leaves you with tantalizing clues about where things are going while providing a satisfactory conclusion to this rollicking first adventure. Where will Gideon's life as the (possible) savior of the entire galaxy go from here? We can't say for sure, but we will tell you two things: first, do NOT turn off the game in the middle of the credits. There's a lot more game after the credits run, including a major boss fight. Second, wherever Gideon ends up,he's going to need some thermal underwear and a cup of piping-hot soup, very first thing.
By Danny Chihdo
