Last year's E3 featured a lot of over hyped games, and the one that I remember out of the bunch is Majesco and GlyphX Games' third person action adventure title Advent Rising for the Xbox and PC. There was a serious chunk of real estate devoted to this game at Majesco's booth, and the art books scattered about and giant advertisements suggested that it was a flagship title...until I played it. While the game certainly looked promising, its frame rate was a total mess, leaving me somewhat disappointed. As its May release fastly approaches, I decided to go back and take a better look at Advent Rising, but unlike last year, I'm a lot more excited about this game.

Advent Rising is the first in a planned trilogy, and just like in Atari's cool RTS title Act of War, Majesco's really gone the distance to ensure that its game has a quality presentation. Not only is its soundtrack being composed by a seventy-piece Hollywood union orchestra and a Mormon tabernacle choir, but its story is being penned by the award-winning science fiction writer Orson Scott Card (author of such books as Speaker for the Dead and Shadow of the Giant), and based on what I've read this game's narrative is quite intriguing.

Set in the distant future, the game revolves around humans and how other races perceive them. Some see us as messiahs that will bring balance to the universe, some think we're symbols of hope, and others just think we're these mythical creatures (like how we see unicorns). However, one group in particular, the Seekers think we're bad news, and they've decided that the only way to rid themselves of this menace is to exterminate it, so they've gone out and begun this crusade of death. Because we don't take kindly to scumbags killing us off, we fight back, or rather, you do. Playing as the character Gideon Wyeth, you'll travel to various locales and destroy a multitude of different enemies using 12 different weapons, all of which are upgradeable. You're also able to pick up alien weapons, dual wield, perform death-defying acrobatic maneuvers in mid air with the push of a button, and finally use your own body to cause mass destruction, as you become somewhat of a supreme being Mack daddy capable of wielding intense powers such as energy shields, blasts, and levitation attacks. You'll also ride around in a variety of vehicles such as hover tanks and flying objects, both human and alien.

When I met with a Majesco representative at E3 all he kept repeating to me was "It's just like Halo." In a way Advent Rising sort of looks like Bungie's game, and if you pour over screen shots and search for a sameness you'll probably find it, but at this point I like to think that the game has its own unique style, because after all, Halo didn't define the sci-fi genre at all but is a mere extension of several other more famous properties, much in the same way that Advent Rising is, but it offers enough dissimilar elements that it more than stands on its own. Creature designs seem to be this mesh of machine and organism. The Seekers are especially menacing looking. Gigantic as hell and equipped with a rather large blade, they look very difficult to deal with. Here's some more info on characters you'll come across:

Ethan Wyeth: A war hero who's used his fame as a lunching pad, allowing him to cash in on book and movie deals.

Olivia Morgan: Gideon's main squeeze. She's extremely strong-willed and a brilliant physicist.

Kehlem: This alien appears to be on our side, a very noble creature that knows much about human mythology.

Enorym: Commander of the Felidic Warriors, this popular alien appears to be Kehlem's pupil. Not only is he skilled on the battlefield, but in political circles as well.

Marin Steel: An expert pilot who gets to try out all of the military's new toys.

In addition to the cool character designs, the environments are also impressive, featuring well constructed space ships and a variety of alien locales, but there are also those sterile looking places that have become the norm in games/movies of this type. There are also plenty of cool effects, and the screens where Gideon is staring at a gigantic ship hovering in the air and the scene where this enormous creature is about to squash him with a rock is cool because it gives things a great sense of scale. This is the type of game that's so incredibly detail rich that it can put your version of reality on the back burner and truly suck you into its world.

As far as videogames are concerned, I don't dwell on the past. You can't, because the way a game looked almost a year ago is 99% of the time not the way it's looking now, and such is the case with Advent Rising. New movies show a more stabilized frame rate and improved visuals, and the action level appears to be way over the top, meaning it's definitely one game to look out for. Since it's the first in a trilogy, I certainly hope Majesco's game gets off to a strong start when it releases sometime this May.