2,000 Pennies or Less: Advent Rising

Advent Rising
Platform: Xbox
Backward-compatible: No
Price: $9 used, $20 new from adventrising.com

Perhaps Advent Rising was simply ahead of its time. As an Unreal Engine–powered third-person action-adventure, it was planned as the first in a sci-fi videogame trilogy penned by none other than Orson Scott Card. It saw its share of delays, and its publisher, Majesco, saw its share of financial troubles.

But Advent did finally release, complete with a “Win $1 million” marketing campaign powered by hidden items you’d have to find in the game as they were added in via Xbox Live’s downloadable-content feature. The über-giveaway fell through, but the gameplay did not.

Technologically, Rising stumbles out of the gate and never recovers, with a framerate that rarely reaches 30 frames per second and poor early-game melee combat. But as the story progresses, so too does the quality of the gameplay, with both eventually reaching riveting levels. As humanity’s role in a galactic tug-of-war is revealed, Card’s plot astounds, and the powerful moves your avatar (Gideon) can unleash make you feel truly badass.

Sadly, we’ll never get the last two parts of the trilogy, but at least you can still enjoy its developers’ talents, as most of the key team members formed Chair, makers of Xbox Live’s stellar Undertow.