Rise of Incarnates

Gameplay

The game's playable characters were the so-called Incarnates, humans who have awoken mythical powers. Players could apply long-range assault with close-quarter combat. Their powers allowed them to transform into a creature or summon a being to assist them in battle.

Battle arenas were set in places like:

Setting

Rise of Incarnates is set in a post-apocalyptic Earth. A string of "cube phenomena", which saw objects and spaces appearing as perfect cubes, attract multiple catastrophic events, including meteorites falling from the sky and massive cold fronts sweeping across the land which brought about the collapse of cities around the world, leading the people in the planet to live in a state of perpetual fear. Among the people are those known as "incarnates"—humans who can draw powers from daimones; spirit manifestations of the gods, demons, and monsters from all of the world's mythologies. General public fear incarnates for their supernatural powers, not helped by the fact that the cube phenomenon is sighted every time the incarnates use their powers, while the authorities attempt to harness their powers for their own deeds.

For this reason, several different factions have been formed in reaction to the rise of the incarnates. The U.S. government has formed the "Phantom Unit", an experimental incarnate deployment program that seeks to become the incubator for incarnates and place them in various agencies based on their aptitude, as well as the "Wild Hunt", a covert organization in several squadrons answering directly to the President of the United States, created with the goal of apprehending and exterminating unregistered incarnates. Across the pond, the British government has also formed the "Were-Legion" with the same purpose as the Phantom Unit but is composed of incarnates that take the form of shapeshifters. In the wake of the hostility and persecution that occur between the incarnates and the powerless, two competing organizations were formed: Akohr, an elite organization that considers the incarnates as abominations to the human race and seeks to annihilate them with the "Slayer"; and Vikarāla, an India-based industry corporation that had stepped in as the main facilitator of communication between individuals free of cost with a hidden agenda: ensuring that the incarnates rule the world.

A battle of dominance between each incarnates is triggered when one day, an enigmatic voice speaks in the mind of every incarnates, requiring them to defeat the "Sovereign of this era" to avoid a certain destruction.

Plot

While driving with his girlfriend, Emily, incarnate Jedrek Tyler has to watch her getting captured by a convoy of Wild Hunt, a U.S. government paramilitary organization. Resolving to find her, he teams up with Terrence Blake, a Wild Hunt renegade. The two receive help from arms dealer Mireia Valentin, who informs them about "the Prophet", a classified profile in the U.S. government; the U.S. government in turn is trying to locate "the Herald", a being connected to the Prophet. The three later learn that Emily, despite not being an incarnate, has the ability to channel the incarnates' lamia energy.

The case about the Prophet, a being contained in the body of a man named Oswald Coleman, attracts numerous people to try to delve into its identity and potentially seek its power, including Reinhold Kruger, a British commander of the "Were-Legion" interested in using the figure to bring about a world revolution. Concerned, U.S. President Sanders tasks Erendira Queen, the leader of the Wild Hunt, to protect the Prophet at all costs. At the same time, there also exists Kanat, a mysterious incarnate who has the ability to turn people he heal into incarnates. Kanat is protected by Ricardo Abascal from the attack of Akohr, an experimental organization intending to eradicate incarnates once and for all.

Eventually, the Prophet summons a demonic being, Red Dragon, who is actually Jedrek from an parallel universe. The Red Dragon is controlled by the Herald, revealed to be none other than Emily, an artificial human created by the Prophet to turn humans and incarnates against each other; the real Emily, President Sanders' daughter, had died a long time ago. Sanders kills her to stop the Red Dragon's rampage, though this only earns him Jedrek's hatred. Seeing Sanders overwhelming Jedrek in a duel, Mireia kills the former. The remaining incarnates attempt stop the Prophet from escaping, to no avail. The Prophet then reveals that he has been using Sanders, "the Sovereign", all along, his goal being to reign over a new world.

Comics

The game's official website released an online graphic novel that features some of the game's events. In collaboration with Marvel Comics, Bandai Namco adapted the web comic into a 17-issue comic book.

The new comic series made its debut on July 23, 2014 at San Diego Comic-Con, with the first two issues in a combined volume. Marvel Custom Solutions vice president Jonathan Rheingold said "Bandai Namco Games and Marvel working together was a no-brainer. Both companies hold to the highest standards of quality storytelling, artistic talent recruitment and character creation, so it was a natural connection for Marvel to offer its expertise to the legendary video game developer in packaging and distributing the comic book adaptation of Rise of Incarnates."

The newly released volume was also available at approximately 2,500 comic speciality shops supporting Marvel Comics for free from July 24, 2014. Additionally, the comics were accessible for free digitally through the Marvel Unlimited Comics App on iOS and Android devices.

Reception

It has a score of 68% on Metacritic. IGN awarded it a score of 8.0 out of 10, saying "Rise of Incarnates' great fighting action depends heavily on teamwork - when you bring a friend, it shines."