http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ARC_3553.jpg
[[caption-width:268:Cue heavenly chorus.]]
''Advent Rising'' is a third-person action-adventure game for Xbox that was released in May of 2005 (with a PC version being released a few months later). You play as Gideon Wyeth, seeking to defend humanity from an alien race known as 'The Seekers'. To help you in this quest are the friendly Aurelians, and the fact that humans are apparently demigods with a vast number of powers.

The Xbox game was not entirely well received, due in part to the number of bugs and difficulty of controls, but the PC version fared better.
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!!This game provides examples of:
* {{Badass}}: Gideon Wyeth, of course.
** His brother Ethan possibly moreso, being able to hold the line at the escape pods while crippled.
* BeamSpam: Level up your energy-blasting power enough and you can blast the hell out of EVERYTHING.
* BulletTime: You get this ability if you level up your jumping skill high enough. Note that "bullet time" is more or less literal: you can only use this ability with a weapon in your hand that you're using to target someone, which means you can't use your innate BeamSpam powers while flying through the air in slow motion.
* TheCallTwinksYou
* ColonyDrop: The Seekers destroy the hero's home world by dropping asteroids on it.
* ConvectionSchmonvection: A few levels later in the game take place in an underground lair inside a volcano, where you routinely jump around pits of lava.
* CreatorKiller: This game's bombing almost led to the demise of Majesco. It basically killed their long-term plans to rival companies such as {{Ubisoft}} and is why they push more casual titles such as ''CookingMama'' today.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Several of the levels seem to be homages to ''{{Halo}}''. Or maybe just ripoffs. It's hard to tell.
* GainaxEnding: Seeing as this was meant to be the first part of a trilogy, this trope was practically inevitable.
* GameMod: [[http://www.miketyndall.com/setz/Advent%20Revising/ Advent Revising]], a fan-patch that, while not fixing any possible problems the PC version has when it comes to gameplay, fixes a buttload of problems it had with cutscenes & cinematics [including adding in cutscenes that were cut from the PC version, along with (arguably) better subtitles, less cutscene stuttering, and lowered music delay]. Essentially, this makes the PC version [[http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/advent_rising (available on GOG for about $6,]] [[http://store.steampowered.com/app/3800/ or Steam for $10)]] basically the best version.
* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: The bounty hunter boss. Jumps at you in the middle of a conversation with the Seeker ambassador, shouts something about a huge bounty placed on you by some never-explained "worried" people, is then killed and never mentioned again.
** Also a HilariousInHindsight moment - if you turn on the subtitles, you see his name is Baraka Bahma. [[BarackObama Say that quickly...]]
* GroundPound: Once his superhuman melee skills are upgraded, Gideon Wyeth can perform a 'Seismic Pound'.
* GunsAkimbo: You have the choice to dual wield any weapon in the game. Even the rocket launchers. You can use two different weapons, and use a weapon with a power, or use two powers.
* HumansAreSpecial: Obviously. So special that the Aurelians, at least, worship the humans as gods, while the Seekers will do everything they can to control and/or destroy them for the same reasons.
* NormallyIWouldBeDeadNow: In a cut-scene, the hero falls out of a walkway, hits the side of a building hard, slides down it for about thirty stories and slams into an observation platform. He just shakes it off. And this is ''before'' getting any superpowers.
* LoadingScreen: Between levels, you are treated to in-game cutscenes that can only be skipped once the next level has finished loading. These cutscenes range from plot-moving action and conversation to long, pointless shots of gunfights and general destruction.
* ObviousBeta: The Xbox version has a '''lot''' of bugs.
* OminousLatinChanting: Present in most music tracks. That or OneWomanWail.
* OneHitKill: Using high-level melee attacks, Gideon may randomly snap an enemy's neck instead of just punching them.
* OrsonScottCard: Half of the writing team, and heavily promoted.
* OutOfTheInferno: Gideon does this after causing the self-destruct of a base stationed on top of a volcano. [[http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/8356/adventrisingscreenzg7.png And it is awesome]].
* RPGElements: The powers and guns the player uses will level up, unlocking a secondary mode for each weapon/power as they do.
* SadisticChoice: You are forced to choose between saving your brother or your fiancee. [[spoiler:Except that the game doesn't tell you you can only save one. And the one you save dies once you reach Aurelia. And the one you left behind is somehow transformed into a bizarre abomination that tries to kill you at the end of the game. So it's practically all sadism, no choice.]]
** Oh, and if you choose [[spoiler:Olivia]], every time you save there's a chance the file will be corrupted and after loading it'll turn out you have took the other option, [[GameBreakingBug making the above choice moot]].
* SceneryPorn: Here, [[http://rhornbek.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/advent_wallpaper.jpg have a gander.]]
* SchizophrenicDifficulty: The game can be quite challenging in the beginning, before you get any superpowers. Then the first (unspoken) ability you get is the ability to fully regenerate your health by standing still, and suddenly things get much easier. Afterward, as your powers develop, how difficult the game is can vary wildly depending on what abilities you decided to invest in.
* SortingAlgorithmOfWeaponEffectiveness: Weakly present. While some new mooks showing up later do have new weapons, the ones wielded by the freshly encountered are not that weak and you often have a selection of quite good weapons from the weapon racks on the walls. Even the gun with which you embark on missions is quite good. And of course later on you may choose to forgo weapons entirely and blast everything with just your psychic powers.
* SpaceOpera
* StillbornFranchise: It was intended to be a trilogy on consoles with a spin-off for the PSP. The poor reception of the original game put a stop to any further prospects, as well as the million-dollar contest promoting it.
* SubtitlesAreSuperfluous: There ''is'' a subtitle option, but it only affects the [=FMVs=], while the in-game speech is left unsubtitled.
* SuperpowerLottery: Gideon Wyeth, has, once he unlocks all his powers, SuperStrength, a HealingFactor, BulletTime when using his improbable dodging skills, [[MindOverMatter telekinesis]], [[BarrierWarrior various]] [[AttackReflector forcefields]] (which are [[NighInvulnerability impenetrable]] and harm any enemy that touches them), [[ShockAndAwe electromagnetic bolts]], [[PersonOfMassDestruction massive, devastating radial energy explosions]], [[FlashStep gravimetric teleportation]], [[TimeMaster intertial damping]], [[BeamSpam dozens of exploding ice-missiles]], and [[AnIcePerson cryokinesis]]. He's also skilled at piloting, marksmenship, and hand-to-hand combat. And, for his last trick, he can create [[UnrealisticBlackHole controlled singularity]] that can kill a PhysicalGod.
* TheChainsOfCommanding: Gideon isn't very comfortable with the idea of being worshipped. Most of the time he seems to avoid talking about it.
** As one of the Aurelians says, "It is not easy being God."
* UnorthodoxReload: All guns are reloaded by twirling them around Western-style... including ''rocket launchers''.
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