The Andromeda Strain [Advergaming]

At 9pm tonight is the premier of the The Andromeda Strain based on a book by Michael Crichton (1969). A&E has developed a video game, as they do for all their other properties, around the mini-series. The filming for the mini-series happened at the Burnaby, BC campus of Simon Fraser University.

The game sets the stage through a mix of video cut scenes and a virtual assistant who helps you as you play through the game. There are four levels and I just finished playing through level one.

As I payed through the level and dissected a body, contained the deadly non-human virus and looked to fight against the Andromeda Strain a la Osmosis Jone I found I started to enjoy the back story to the game. The video cut scenes, as the mini-levels were loading, helped move the story forward and were fun to watch.

I even had the chance to chat with Benjamin Bratt’s character Dr. Jeremy Stone a Professor of bacteriology at University of California, Berkeley and can you believe it a Nobel Prize winner. This was the part of the game I didn’t like as much, the conversation arch wasn’t as robust as I would have liked it. Mind you, I’m talking from a spoiled gamers point of view who is use to playing on PCs and a Xbox 360.

I would go check out the game before tonights premier. You should also check out the blog they having been running since April for the mini-series.

[Via Wikipedia, A&E TV]