

Advent Rising sequels 2 and 3 would be created if it was up to Donald Mustard, the designer of the original Advent Rising and now the chairman of Chair Entertainment (Shadow Complex).

Advent Rising was a third-person action adventure game with a strong story written by Orson Scott Card. It was supposed to be the first game in a planned Advent Rising trilogy, but those plans were dashed when the game bombed. It’s publisher, Majesco Entertainment, was then strapped for cash and nearly went out of business after a series of its high profile games, like Advent Rising, sold terribly. As a result, they re-focused all their energy on creating portable and casual games. This lead to a huge turnaround for the company with big successes like Cooking Mama, but spelled the end for the proposed Advent series (which also had a PSP game called Advent Shadow in the works, but it too never saw the light of day).

There has been some speculation online that the Advent series may be returning, but Donald Mustard put that speculation to rest in a post on the official Chair Entertainment web-site, where he addressed the rumors.

“First, I’d like to confirm that our next project is NOT the second installment of the Advent trilogy or anything related to Advent. We are currently working on a completely new franchise, which you’ll hear more about later. Second, although our Core Design Team is comprised of several key members of the Advent team, we currently do not own the rights to the franchise (Majesco owns the IP) so we don’t have the ability to continue the series at this time. Lastly, I love Advent. We all LOVE Advent. It was designed as a trilogy and it’s an incredible story. I will always remain committed to the franchise and would be happy to finish the series if the opportunity presented itself. For now, we’ve got much bigger things in store for you. We’re moving in a new and very exciting direction, a direction that we control. We’ll keep you as up-to-date as possible and hope you’ll continue to always let us know your thoughts.” – Donald Mustard

It was very disheartening to see how Advent Rising performed and to see the poor reviews it received. I was really excited about the game before it came out. But stayed away due to its critical reception and low review scores. Some day I’ll probably buy it and check it out though. If you want to play the game, you can download Advent Rising on Steam for $10.

Here is a trailer for Advent Rising. While it still looks cool, it is amazing how 3D games age. Back then these graphics were absolutely jaw-dropping. I remember being floored and showing this trailer to everyone I knew.

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