Mastery and Command

The very first time we got a good look at Advent Rising from developer GlyphX and publisher Majesco, the game was described to us as an action role-playing game (RPG) with a story by famed science fiction writer Orson Scott Card. That first look wowed us with its unique graphical style and innovative combat system. By the time the game released, the "roleplaying" tag seemed to have been dropped, and that's appropriate—Advent Rising is action-adventure through and through. The game borrows from RPGs in the way you can customize your version of hero Gideon Wyeth, improving his powers, weapons, and skills just like you do inThe Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind®—by using them. It's intuitive, doesn't beat you over the head with the usual details-oriented game play you'd expect in an RPG, and most importantly makes every time you play a new and rewarding experience.

They're only human.

Who's the Master?
The first time you level up a skill, it may surprise you, especially if you just popped the game in without reading the manual. Gideon's skills (we're going to use that word to apply to all skills, including weapons, melee, and super-powers) improve with continued use, and it begins right away, in training. Every individual weapon (and power) has multiple levels of mastery, with special benefits. The usual, but not iron-clad, constant is Level 3. At that level, with weapons or powers, you gain an alt function mode. Your Acolyte can now shoot grenade-like blasts, for instance. Here are the ways a few specific weapons level up (and don't forget you've got to level them individually—having alt-fire with the H.A.Z.E. blaster doesn't mean you get alt-fire with the Acolyte):

H.A.Z.E. Blaster
The basic human blaster is a fusion weapon that fires radioactive elements. The H.A.Z.E. blaster's improvements are common to many weapons, such as the Acolyte and the Talon.

• Level 1: Basic functions—aim (or flick target) and pull trigger to fire.
• Level 2: Increased damage and accuracy, reducing the chances that your enemy can hop out of the way.
• Level 3: Alt-fire enabled, which means you can hold the black button and pull the trigger that the blaster is mapped to and switch to "grenade-firing" mode. And in this game, you want all the grenades you can get!
• Level 4: The damage for the alt-fire grenade mode increases.
• Level 5: Same as Level 4, except the damage is increased for both normal and alt-firing modes.

You'll likely level up during training.

Talmage
This is your standard rocket launcher, except you can carry and double-wield two at once—and at times, you're going to need to. Being a rocket launcher, the Talmage (and its alien cousin the Fury) levels up a bit differently.

• Level 1: Basic functions—use two for twice the whammy.
• Level 2: More damage, more accuracy.
• Level 3: The rocket can now track to the original target in alt-fire mode.
• Level 4: Even more damage and even more accuracy.
• Level 5: A third helping of increased damage, and you can finally use the rockets as true guided missiles.

ShadowStalker
This weapon will be the one that drives you to switch to first-person more than any other. Why? It's the Advent Rising sniper weapon, that's why! Naturally, it levels a little differently than anything else.

• Level 1: You begin with a 10x zoom function—not bad, but it gets better.
• Level 2: The level of damage the weapon inflicts goes up.
• Level 3: Zoom twice as far: 20x.
• Level 4: And again—now you can zoom all the way to 30x.
• Level 5: Another level, another damage increase. Get this far, and you will be an unstoppable sniper.

Who's Got the Power?
Your powers also level up, and in much more unusual ways (after all, they're powers). Powers are grouped together with melee and jumping skills. Here's how:

Subtle visual clues tell you when you level up.

Melee Attacks
Advent Rising only gives you one melee attack button—B, naturally—but as you get better at the fisticuffs, you'll go from Johnny Bar-brawl to Space Ninja in no time.

• Level 1: Basic melee skills, meaning you get to punch! A lot!
• Level 2: Your strikes do more damage, and now you can add kicks.
• Level 3: More damage, and now you can perform punch fatality combos.
• Level 4: Still more damage, and kicks can kill instantly.
• Level 5: You gain the seismic pound ability (think Neo in the second Matrix movie) and can perform stealthy attacks that immediately kill the enemy.

Jump
You can't be a space ninja (our term, not theirs, by the way) if you can't jump all over the bad guys.

• Level 1: Press A, go up in the air. What did you expect? You're no space ninja yet.
• Level 2: Slow-motion dodging is available (move the left trigger the way you want to dodge and hit X). You can also charge your jumps now by holding A.
• Level 3: Bullet time is cool, but now you can do cartwheels in slo-mo, just like in the intro movie.
• Level 4: More dodging bonuses—this time you can cling to walls and "ledge dodge."
• Level 5: Flip dodging is now engaged—make the enemies miss you in style in this most powerful dodge move.

Dodge in bullet time with improved jump skills.

Lift
Good ol' Lift, the skill that makes boarding enemy ships a breeze and lets you toss three-ton stone blocks with your mind, grows increasingly useful as you go along.

• Level 1: Map this power to a trigger, target the enemy, and lift them up in the air (control their movement with the right thumbstick).
• Level 2: The skill now drains energy more slowly.
• Level 3: Multi-lift mode is enabled, letting you toss several foes or objects around at once.
• Level 4: Multi-lift is increased, so lift more and life often!
• Level 5: Your Lift skill will do serious damage at this level.

Lift and separate your enemies.

Surge
This is one of the coolest graphics effects in the game, and if it were in a Star Wars game, we would call it "Force Push"—sort of a telekinetic shockwave.

• Level 1: Shove 'em with your eerie mind powers!
• Level 2: Do more damage over an increased radius.
• Level 3: Now, in addition to knocking 'em over, you can steal enemies' weapons with alt-fire.
• Level 4: More damage, and another boost to your attack radius.
• Level 5: Do the maximum damage possible and affect practically the entire room.

SUUUUUUUUURGE!

Negate
This is the wicked skill that lets Gideon erect standing force shields, creating and placing instant cover as he needs it (and if he doesn't want to just drop one, he can carry them around with him for especially tough boss fights.)

• Level 1: Place or carry one shield.
• Level 2: Place two shields, carry one.
• Level 3: Sensing a pattern here—three shields at once, and now you can use an alt-fire mode to create a sphere of aural energy around your body. So if you're keeping score, that's three shields on the ground and a personal one around you.
• Level 4: The power now drains less energy.
• Level 5: Maxed out, you get four shields at once and a sustained protective sphere around you.

Place shields with your mind.

Aeon Pulse
One of Gideon's flashiest moves is the Aeon Pulse, also affectionately known as "shooting fire out of your hands."

• Level 1: Basic—map to trigger, and your hand turns into a blaster.
• Level 2: Do more damage.
• Level 3: Activate radial flare mode with alt-fire and blast multiple enemies at once.
• Level 4: More alt-fire damage for your flare, along with an increased radius.
• Level 5: Both modes are maxed out damage-wise, and the destructive radius give new meaning to the phrase "he really cleared the room."

Timeshift
This power gives you the ability to manipulate time and space to turn Gideon's body into a sort of quantum weapon of its own by plowing through subatomic space—and any enemies who happen to be in the way.

• Level 1: Base power—get a burst of super-speed, and pity anyone that gets in your way.
• Level 2: Timeshift now costs less energy.
• Level 3: Unlocks your alt-fire mode, the "time-damp," which slows enemies down to a quantum-level crawl in a localized area.
• Level 4: Now use the power for even less energy.
• Level 5: Sustain the time-damp for an extended period.

Shatter
This one's the show-stopper, and is absolutely devastating to enemies and their vehicles.

• Level 1: Use Shatter to channel freezing shards of ice as a weapon.
• Level 2: Damage goes up.
• Level 3: Freeze mode is unlocked, meaning it's time to play some Advent Rising-style "freeze tag" and stop your enemies cold (ouch).
• Level 4: Your freeze radius increases, as does the damage caused by both modes.
• Level 5: A bigger freeze radius and maxed-out damage makes Gideon his own walk-in refrigeration unit.

A protective sphere is Negate's alt-fire mode.

It's unlikely that anyone will master all of the skills described here, and that's one of the things that makes the game so unique. On one play-through, you might go all the way on Shatter, on another, you might decide to make the most out of your Timeshift skill.

Who knew that we humans had it in us?

By Ben Barker