Next Video's Script (Advent Rising)

I've been interested in space opera 3rd-person shooter/action game Advent Rising for a few years now -- and after several of my viewers suggested this as another entry to my Not Forgotten series, I took a stronger interest in it. It makes sense for that series, as it was a game with a universe of potential, but was held back by bugs, performance issues, smaller scope and three cancelled follow-up games. In what will be my longest Not Forgotten video so far, here is the the script in full for Not Forgotten - Advent Rising.

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 Space Opera. Zero gravity suits. A fleet of starships in pursuit of a mysterious, intergalactic enemy. Planned from the beginning to be a trilogy, with your actions in earlier games effecting consequences in later ones. You follow the story of a determined protagonist who discovers awesome psychic powers that bend matter, space and time at will -- to overthrow the tyrannical enemy force that destroys entire planets at a whim. Sound familiar?

Advent Rising’s story is, in a nutshell, the interstellar conflict and space magic of Mass Effect merged with the colorful animated look and heart of a Pixar movie. Sporting a script written by Orson Scott Card, writer of Ender’s Game -- one of the most celebrated young adult sci-fi novels of all time. Part Star Wars, part Starship Troopers, the “spirit” of the game has outlived its disappointing release and remains in the hearts of many as one of the underappreciated greats that deserved another chance.

But what led to this game’s failure? How can some love it despite glaring flaws, or despise it ignoring its compelling theme? And how can we learn from this artifact of history to make for a better future for like games? Let’s find out in this episode of “Not Forgotten”.

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Shooting for the Stars

In the early 2000’s, brothers Donald and Geremy Mustard concepted an inspired space opera storyline, based on ideas Donald had been steeping in since high-school. Having experience with the game industry for years on the marketing side at least, they decided to venture forth and create their own game -- Advent Rising. Donald had been a huge fan of sci-fi marvel Ender’s Game since he was about 10, so when they actually hired fellow Salt Lake City denizen Orson Scott Card as lead screenplay and script writer -- it was like hiring your childhood hero to help make your own dream project.

Having a reputation in the industry helped catch the eye of Majesco in 2003, who signed on as the game’s publisher. Things were looking great, and the game was set to release in the first quarter of 2004. Hiring the talented composer and musician Tommy Tallarico (who now holds the Guinness Book of Records on most prolific video game composer ever). The scale and ambitiousness of the project grew. And as the E3 trailer showed off what looked to be an enthralling new sci-fi franchise -- Advent Rising was then planned to be a trilogy, with choices in earlier games affecting the later ones.

The story follows Gideon Wyeth, a pilot serving at one of the last human outposts in the galaxy, who is a little overshadowed by his hotshot older brother Ethan, in a plot involving the intended destruction of the human race by the Seekers -- an alien faction which have the ability to fling asteroids at their enemies. They end up making first contact with the Aurelians, a benevolent alien race which worship humans as deities, since they believe that humans are the originators of the supernatural powers that some in their ranks possess. It’s a story of high action, adventure, loss and betrayal -- and would easily translate to a movie script if given some extra dialogue. Many terms in the game like “buggers”, “vids” and “ansible” were borrowed as a nod to the Ender series, though Card has specifically stated since that it is not a shared universe.

Then the inevitable hype train took off, and development delays crept in. In a bold marketing move to help ensure a strong launch and the beginnings of a Halo-esque expanded universe, a one-off comic book was developed with DC Comics, as well as five issues of a prequel comic following the main characters in their teens, produced by a former Marvel CEO’s new company. Orson Scott Card also planned on writing a novel tie-in to the game as well, similar to the renowned Halo novels by Greg Bear.

A lot was riding on this new franchise, and to say that there was a world of potential here would be an understatement.

Between Two Worlds

Advent Rising has drawn many comparisons to other franchises, some preceding it, some that came to be afterward. And while it may resemble the likes of Bioware’s space adventures, Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect, this is superficial. A few hours of actual gameplay will convince you that the game’s RPG and adventure game elements are quite thin in comparison to those games. You do have downtime sections here and there with some exploration, but about 99% of the NPCs are just window dressing and non-interactive. These are really just point A to point B sequences with little diversion -- a missed opportunity for more character interaction and expansion of the setting I feel. The scope of the story here may be massive, but the path the game allows you to walk upon is narrow.

The more apt comparison is the Xbox system seller itself, Halo. At least for the first act of the game. Two-trigger action, dual-wielding guns, regenerating health, multiple grenade types, and a galaxy full of aliens to punch and shoot at. There are vehicle segments which are almost carbon-copy Warthog scenes, even down to the mounted machine gun on the back. If through some miracle these weren’t inspired by the popular first person shooter series, the fact that Halo sold nearly as many copies as the system itself, an Xbox console exclusive like Advent Rising all the sudden has a lot more to live up to in the eyes of the average gamer.

Though when the action gets going, you grab ahold of some fun and powerful weapons and hear them whir and click while reloading before you let loose a fury of firepower to take out your enemies, it can be good fun at times. There are dozens of micro-ideas in this game, but so many are half-developed. Such as the bullet-time ability where in certain instances you can dodge and go into slow motion for a second or so, and had it been developed to a point of mechanical depth like in Max Payne, it would have been great. The weapon arsenal has some highlights here and there too, but again doesn’t really take any concept too far and they don’t have a lot of weight, kick or particular playstyle-driving effects in them.

Comparing Advent Rising to Halo as purely an action shooter, Halo dominates hands-down in terms of skillful execution of the basic mechanics. And Advent does little to convince you otherwise. And then...something happens. After a massive blow to humanity a few hours in, there is a slower sequence, and the game’s lightspeed-paced story gets a much-needed breather. The main character Gideon gets in touch with a side of himself he doesn’t know he had, and manages to master impossible powers such as levitation, and the control of time, matter and space. In the game’s universe, these are dormant powers in all humans, and legends say humans were the originators of said powers long ago.

It is after this paradigm shift the game becomes the most interesting. You now have a growing collection of sandbox-like abilities. In a story arc that essentially leads to your character becoming a god among men, you can lift enemies to float them helplessly in the air, fling them off into empty space, block projectiles with your mind like in The Matrix, freeze enemies or perform other supernatural abilities. We’ve seen these sorts of mechanics in games elsewhere, and the common comparison to Mass Effect’s biotic abilities two years later is interesting, but Advent is unique in its crude design.

You see, most AAA games if given the same design document would implement these abilities, then balance and polish them down until they are utilitarian but not overpowered. In a way, the rough mechanics attached to Lift, Aeon Pulse, and Time Shift, especially as they develop into more powerful abilities, make you feel like a veritable deity by the game’s ending. Zipping around the landscape, throwing groups of enemies with telekinesis, shooting blasts of energy from your hands -- you’re one “Kamehameha!” away from going Super Saiyan!

This progression from run-of-the-mill space gunner to supernatural being with overpowered magic perfectly echoes the game’s story -- and is probably why the game is so revered by its fans today.

A Sales Singularity

Reeling from the shockwave of Psychonauts’ disappointing sales in April of 2005, publisher Majesco needed Advent Rising to be a hit. Badly. Paying for ads to show before the theatrical release of Star Wars Episode 3, a sweepstakes including a SoBe Energy Drink refrigerator and guitar, cash prizes and a million-dollar competition in which players would try to find a hidden in-game easter egg each week in order to qualify for the prize. Majesco went all in on this hand of cards. A risky move, and unfortunately, not one that paid off.

At the end of May that year, the game hit, but not with a bang, with a fizzle. Despite the prizes, a big-name writer attached and the hype machine underway, the game simply could not move copies. Reviews were middling and not impressive, and the game shipped about as many discs as Psychonauts did, putting a second nail into Majesco’s fiscal coffin that year. To make matters worse, their sequel to BloodRayne flopped, and their tie-in to the Aeon Flux film adaptation was met with mediocre reception too (the movie didn’t sell loads of tickets either).

As controversial electronics and video game analyst Michael Pachter put it, “It was a perfect storm. One could say it was a bad strategy; I would say instead of *bad*, it was a very *risky* strategy. Essentially, they played blackjack, put a quarter of their money on each hand and busted every time.” 

Four failed games in a row was catastrophic to Majesco, and they’ve all but abandoned core game development since, cancelling other AAA releases in development and moving into the handheld and low-budget gaming industry. This aftermath included the canning of a Playstation Portable game mid-development called Advent Shadow -- a spinoff that was set to follow the story of Marin Steel, one of the main game’s characters. The cherry on top of the failure cake that was the unfortunate case for Advent Rising, was that the million dollar contest had to be cancelled before completion, due to Xbox Live security concerns.

A technically broken game, after a year delay and just months out from the hyped launch of the next-gen Xbox 360 console. This series of events collided in a way that is the stuff of nightmares for game publishing execs. And short of someone miraculously acquiring the rights to the franchise and crowdfunding it, a sequel is pretty much impossible at this point.

Crafted by Artists, Broken by Technology

A volatile first title by a newcomer to the industry, the story behind developer GlyphX Games is an interesting one. Branching off of GlyphX, a computer graphics studio founded in the late 90’s which made promotional videos, cover art and cinematics for game heavyweights like Diablo, Unreal and Mortal Kombat for several years before deciding to build an entire game themselves.

The game launched on Xbox first, and despite that being the most broadly marketed and sold version, it was poorly optimized and had a lot of technical issues. The game would stutter to single digits at times, crippling its playability in some action scenes.

From poor lip syncing and camera cuts that are sometimes a whole second mis-timed, to onscreen characters “teleporting” from one pose to another during shooting or melee brawls. To the more game-breaking bugs such as bad level geometry, broken quest triggers, disappearing NPCs, all of which can require restarting the entire level. I even had to do so and even skip a level because of these recurring issues while getting footage, even after patches and an unofficial fix which has eliminated many of the issues I’ve read about.

The targeting system was deeply flawed too. Instead of pointing and shooting with perhaps a little aim assist like games such as Halo, the game’s jarring lock-on system will engage on targets even when you're just trying to turn around, other times it will make your aim WORSE by forcing you to make direct shots at moving enemies, which makes your slow-moving projectiles miss most of the time. Had the devs built a smooth system of aiming and targeting objects you wanted to shoot or use powers on, combat would be much, much more enjoyable.

But patching a console game wasn’t really a thing back in 2005. If a console game was broken on disc, it was broken forever -- which is a death knell to a game riding on a successful Xbox launch.

Looking Toward the Horizon

Advent Rising was a rough-cut gem. Its flaws sometimes accentuating the potential it had. Instead of having dialogue options or menus to determine the path of the story, the game observes the player’s actions at unannounced points. This can affect a bit of dialogue here and there, or could affect the outcome of a main character’s life. They are so few and far-between that they catch you off-guard, rather than the on-the-nose “moral decision time” menu choices that most games use nowadays. It’s sad then that we will not get to see the repercussions that were planned to occur in the 2nd and 3rd parts of the Advent trilogy.

With a dramatic finale and a cliffhanger ending that literally states “To be continued”, Advent Rising left those who played and enjoyed the game BEGGING for more. But the sales numbers simply couldn’t justify any follow-up to the game.

Sometimes music can tell a story better than dialogue or visuals can. Just think of the first time you saw the binary sunset scene from Star Wars and prove me otherwise. One of the most beloved aspects of the game (even enjoyed by people who didn’t even really like it) is Tommy Tallarico’s fantastic score. Fit for a Star Wars-like epic, it is one of the most cinematic game soundtracks of the decade worthy of its praise over the years. A fantastic soundtrack can make a good game great, and a great game a masterpiece. Tommy went on to co-create the Video Games Live project, which covers video game music with a live orchestra.

After the fallout of Advent Rising, brothers Donald and Geremy Mustard would go on to form Chair Entertainment. Developing games under Epic Games’ wing, and adapting Card’s Empire series into their celebrated Metroidvania game, Shadow Complex. Another Card video game adaptation was in the works too, the first full adaptation of Ender’s Game, Card’s most revered novel. It was sadly cancelled in 2010 to pursue mobile game development. Chair also co-developed the acclaimed Infinity Blade series along with Epic Games -- hailed as some of the best and most technically impressive smartphone-exclusive games ever made.

But what makes this game so endearing, despite the hate, bad reviews, bugs and fiscal failure? It could be the well-scripted and compelling story that stirs the same heartstrings as Star Wars did when we were kids, or maybe it was the gorgeous strings, horns and choir notes that make up it’s unforgettable score. Perhaps it’s a lot of things, but the one takeaway I got from playing this game now, a decade after it’s release window was the sincerity of the game’s design and efforts, and the heart and soul the devs put into it. In the end, the product is the product, and a “what should have been” doesn’t amount to much. I can see clearly all the reasons why the game didn’t sell well, but I can also see the many reasons it could have been great.

The Mustard brothers and GlyphX weren’t an experienced bunch when they set out to make this labor of love, but nonetheless, they did succeed in crafting an adventure, as flawed as it is, that won’t be forgotten.