It is always such a shame when a great game goes relatively unplayed and under appreciated. So often these little gems of video game goodness get their release but fall on deaf ears and gather dust on a shelf at EB. As such, the chance of  sequels to these impressive games being produced fades. Fortunately, this is not the case here.

In 2004, Vin Diesel’s fledgling game studio, Tigon Studios, teamed up with other gaming juggernauts Vivendi and Starbreeze to bring us The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay.  While the critics raved, gamers really didn’t give Riddick a shot. Perhaps the stigma of horrible video games adapted from movies had sealed it’s fate before it was even released. While the original Riddick film, Pitch Black (1999) was a great piece of original sci-fi horror, The Chronicles of Riddick (2004) was an epic disappointment of a film; if only gamers had known the game had nothing to do with the movie…

You're not afraid of the dark, are you?

But lucky are we gaming minions for Riddick is back and ready to slice, dice and ghost people in the shadows. The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena gives us yet another chance to slip behind the goggles of Richard B. Riddick: murderer, bad ass and master of raspy yet witty quips. This release not only offers up a new game but also restores the classic Escape from Butcher Bay and adds online multi-player.

Story

Escape from Butcher Bay begins with our favorite anti-hero, Riddick, being led to one of the toughest slams in the galaxy by his Captain Ahab, bounty hunter William Johns. Prisoners are a hot commodity and bringing in a bounty with the reputation of Riddick is a sure way to make an impression. Thrown to the dogs in the infamous Butcher Bay, you as Riddick find yourself surrounded by murderers, rapists, thieves and other charming people who probably weren’t breast fed as children. Nothing to worry about; Riddick has a way of dealing with any situation, usually with something sharp and pointy. From your initial incarceration, Riddick must work his way through the bowels of the prison, acquiring a unique ability to see in the dark, and give a little thank you to those who brought him to the Bay before making his polite exit.

—For anyone who hasn’t played Escape from Butcher Bay, minor spoiler ahead—

Out of the frying pan and into the fire, Riddick finds himself with another opportunity to practice his Ginsu knife precision in Assault on Dark Athena. While Johns and Riddick enjoy their little cryo-nap in their ship after a long day of busting out of Butcher Bay, their ship is hijacked by the behemoth mercenary ship, the Dark Athena. As Johns’ ship is being pulled into the Athena, Riddick climbs from his cryo-tube, leaving Johns sleeping below. The hatch doors open and we meet Captain Revas, the tough head of Dark Athena and a former acquaintance of Riddicks’s. Escaping direct capture while Johns’s unconscious body is taken to the cell blocks, Riddick begins working his way through the ship, learning the secrets of the Dark Athena and her growing army.

Lynn, the 'Newt' of Assault on Dark Athena

Gameplay

The game-play between both Escape from Butcher Bay and Assault on Dark Athena is essentially the same. There are three major components to the gameplay. The combat system is much like other stealth infused first person shooters (think The Darkness meets Splinter Cell). Staying in the dark and moving in stealth-mode is key in this game; sure you can survive in a run and gun bloodbath if you want, but Riddick is all about creep, creep, creep, stab, stab, STAB! Climbing also plays a large part in Riddick. Often you will be left in large store rooms full of crates, dodging spotlights and hoping to reach that high vent or rail before the sirens blare. Fortunately, the levels involving repeated climbing and maneuvering are sparse as to not interrupt the flow of the game. Not to be forgotten is the questing element. Throughout the game, despite Riddick’s I-don’t-need-anyone-but-myself attitude, he needs the assistance of those around him; be it sadistic criminals or anxiety ridden scientists. You need something? Of course they will help you…if you do something for them. Generally you’d think that someone confronted by a mass-murderer telling them to help him would just do whatever he’d say instead of trying to barter a favor, but maybe that’s just me.

The controls handle very well in Riddick, offering you many opportunities for you to play the way you want: stealthy ninja or blat-blat-blat. The weapon selection interface is easy to navigate so even first timers to a FPS will have a an easy time picking it up. My initial concern for the weapons (primarily the melee weapons) was the need for the animations to finish their sequence when repeatedly slashing at a character. While it does happen on occasion, the game is relatively unaffected by Riddick’s human blender action. While both games have a essential progression to follow, Dark Athena seems a touch more linear than Butcher Bay. You will also find yourself not only backtracking to find items you are questing for but to figure out what you have missed. Many a time, I found myself stuck trying to find where to go as my journal did not give me enough information to progress.

These ain't your Star Trek Borg drones; these guys are packing

The AI for both games is sadly a little wanting, and it’s a little disappointing that Assault on Dark Athena didn’t improve the AI. The guards and drones seem to operate under the ‘detection bubble’ method of AI: if you’re within their bubble, they will gun for you with both barrels blazing. When you are just out of reach, they will look for you for a little bit then either duck and cover or slowly forget that you are there. “No, Jim. We must have been imagining that rapid gunfire a few seconds ago. Let’s go get a latte.”  There was one instance when I was spotted as I was just about the crawl out of a vent.  I crawled back expecting the guard who spotted me to back up and shoot down the vent.  Instead all I saw were the guard’s legs as he kept repeatedly running at the vent, ranting on about how he was going to get me.

Graphics

Ulaks: the best way to julienne Mercs

When Escape from Butcher Bay originally came out, it was staggeringly beautiful. The character models and animations were impressive and almost eerie. Vin Diesel in particular was about as life-like as it got back then. And now, remastered and HD, Butcher Bay is once again gorgeous. The dirt, the grime, the blood splatter on the walls; the levels have life to them. You aren’t playing a video game level, you are exploring a digital world. Assault on Dark Athena doesn’t disappoint either. It maintains the impressive digital standards that Escape from Butcher Bay set and pushes the envelope on immersing you in the name game’s world. The dark and dirty levels are equally as impressive visually as the rare glimpses into an outer space littered with stars and colorful nebula. Character models and animations are reaching the point of not just being impressive but eerie. Characters such as Jaylor exhibit so much life through their eyes and the small seemingly inane movements and facial twitches, it just pulls you deeper in.

Audio

The Chronicles of Riddick Escape from Butcher Bay and Assault on Dark Athena both exhibit some of the best audio in games. The voice acting has always been really good, the cast featuring some well established actors, even two from the original Riddick film, Pitch Black. Vin Diesel always heads up the games as the wise-talking, murderously comical Riddick. Actors Ron Perlman, Michael Rooker, Cole Hauser and even rapper Xzibit bring their voice talents to Escape from Butcher Bay while Assault on Dark Athena welcomes classic cult actor Lance Henrickson and the return of Cole Hauser as Johns. The dialogue is at times a little awkward, particularly with Riddick, but who am I to argue with the humor of a man sporting two serrated Ulaks?

The ambient sound of both games is impeccable as well. Throughout Escape from Butcher Bay, you will not only hear the perverse conversations of the criminally insane and malicious guards but the steady hum of the prison’s fans, the sound of footsteps on metal grating and the understated but integral background music make Butcher Bay come to life. For games set in outerspace, the instinct would be to have little to no sound, but the Dark Athena has a life and sound of it’s own. The machinery that keeps this mercenary ship running is constantly droning along as you explore it’s corridors full of surly mercs ranting about their lot in life, mindless drones plodding along through the corridors and the desperate sound of prisoners soon to join the ranks of  Captain Revas’s minions. So much atmosphere is accomplished with so little audio-wise in both games.

Multiplayer

Assault on Dark Athena finally brings what most gamers crave to the table: multiplayer. The game offers up four classic modes (Arena, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch & Capture the Flag) and adds on two new modes: Pitch Black and Butcher Bay Riot. Sadly, no one was playing Butcher Bay Riot during my review period but the meat and potatoes of the online multiplayer is really Pitch Black. Here one player plays as Riddick while the other players are the mercs hunting him; when you kill Riddick, you become him for the next round. While a variety of weapon options are available to those playing the mercs, the submachine gun or assault rifle are the weapon of choice, being that they are two of the only guns that have a flashlight. With the right number of players, Pitch Black makes for great online multiplayer, but have one too many people playing Pitch Black and you will find yourself very bored and a in fighting tedium. So many times, a new round would begin and end within six seconds; someone had already gunned down Riddick, and would find yourself quickly respawning for the next round.

Peekaboo, I see you Riddick

The other multiplayer modes are decent enough; the graphics hold up very well, controls remain consistent and the frame rate is steady, making for happy killing time. The problem with these other modes is that there is absolutely nothing unique about them. My cohorts and I realized a staggering similarity to classic multiplayer games such as Unreal Tournament and it begs the question: why couldn’t there be some new features added to the classic mulitplayer game modes? The announcer for these modes also sounded like a blatant rip off of the Unreal Tournament announcer which made me wonder “Why aren’t I just playing Unreal?”.

Along with the frustratingly unoriginal voice overs in the multiplayer comes some other little quirks that just take away from the experience. While I am grateful Riddick is not plagued by the infamous one-footstep walking sound, the sound of bullets ricocheting off body armor just sounded ridiculous and comical. More like the sound of a dinner bell being rung, the bullet impact sounds just sounded flat out silly and took away from the edginess that shooting people with high powered weapons is supposed to bring. Coupled with that is some weak animations. While there are no significant glitches in the multiplayer animations, a few offending moments take more and more away from the grit and carnality of the game. Often, leg movement was twice as fast as the body movement which looked just plain silly and the over exaggerated bobbing of the guns while walking or running added insult to injury.

Those minor complaints aside, the multiplayer is decent but nothing special. Taking a well known online game and slapping it with a fresh coat of Riddick-ness does not make for a multiplayer that will keep you hooked, but it definitely serves it’s purpose. In the least, this will save the studio heads from hearing the reviewers and gamers rant, “Where’s the multiplayer?”.

Recommendation

Collectively, The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is an impressive package. Remastering the classic Escape from Butcher Bay will not only make it’s previous fans happy but will definitely keep the newbies coming back for more. While Assault on Dark Athena itself may be a little more diluted than the previous game, it still offers enjoyable gameplay with a great character to inhabit. The addition of multiplayer neither hurts or really helps the game but it is definitely a great addition to the package. Two great games full of grit, violence and psychotic wit coupled with online play makes The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena not only worth the play but totally worth the purchase.

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
Systems: Xbox 360, PC, PS3
Developer: Starbreeze AB
Publisher: Atari
Find: Amazon, Gamefly, EB Games
All reviews are based on retail code unless otherwise noted.

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