The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay

"The Best Movie Game Since Goldeneye. Just Without The Replay Value."

To start off, I would say, this game is a bit of Manhunt, a bit of The Suffering, and some Mace Griffin with a little Splinter Cell thrown in here or there. That's the best I can explain this original game. Over all, the closest you could get to this game is probably Dues Ex: Invisible War.

Graphics-9.0: The graphics are without a doubt, the best on Xbox right now. The environments are not large like Halo's, but the attention to detail is greater. The real time reflections are great. Blood splatters on the wall. And you can even manipulate bodies after you've killed someone, either buy dragging it around, or by firing shells at it. You can even throw them around, which is a nice effect. The player models are also nicely rendered. In other games, which are made to go along with a movie, you're lucky if the character resembles the real life person. Not so with Riddick. Without a shadow of a doubt, the character of Vin Diesel is probably the most accurate recreation of a movie character I've ever seen. He looks dead on, and it really adds to the feel of the game. Which it needed to be considering Vin Diesel owns Tigon Games. However, I must say, the game does have it's share of issues. Mainly a lack polish in certain areas, which is obviously due to the games needed release by the time the movie hit. There are some clipping issues, and NPC's glitching during cutscenes will annoy you on occasion. But there is nothing to major.

Sound-8.5: The sound in the game is great. From the snapping of necks to the sounds of weapons like shivs, shotguns, and heavy guards, it's all good. And the sound of punching someone in the face is also very well done. It would have been nice if there was a bit more variety in the guards speech, and the game doesn't give off quite as much ambient noise as I'd like most of the time considering it's stealth element.

Gameplay-9.5: This is where this game shines. Rather than take a linear path (which it could have) like most first person shooters, Starbreeze developed a whole new game. There's fighting elements, stealth, some RPG, and of course plenty of action. All seamlessly blended. The fighting is nicely implemented, and there are a variety of projectile weapons to use, like shivs, clubs, a taser, and even poison. What's more, sneaking up on someone was never this fun, not even in Splinter Cell 2. What's more, you can use you're weapon. For instances, if you have a shiv, sneak up on someone, and grab them, you can either snap their neck quietly, or stab them with the shiv. Beat them to death with a club, or simply shoot them in the temple with a pistol round. Being unarmed was never this much fun. No longer are you helpless when without a weapon (which compromises 30-40% of the game) Besides snapping necks, you can run up to people and get in melee combat. Like turning the guards own gun on them, blowing their head off and using you're newly acquired toy against his buddies. You don't use the stealth portion a whole lot, but that's probably just me. You have more freedom. You can choose to sneak around and kill people if you want, or simply blaze through Rambo style (which will likely get you killed in the higher difficulties). One the downside, the game does lack a variety of projectile weapons (guns etc..), there are only a few, a taser like weapon, a couple assault rifles (which look allot alike), a shotgun, and a pistol. As well as a Gattling gun, which is usually conveniently lying around during boss battles (which are few).

Replay value-7: This is where the game takes its biggest hit. And in this case, this games is much like a movie, in that once you go through it once, there really is nothing driving you to play it again besides on occasion. There are a few unlockables, but none effect or enhances the current gameplay, just stills, concept art, and a few movies (for some odd reason, it will show you a short clip of parts of the game they cut out rather than let you play through them). The lack of multiplayer, either offline or online, really hurts the game. Because with a few more weapons, it would have been a lot of fun. To further make that worse, the game is extremely short. I played through it in less than 9 hours on normal. And the higher difficulties don't add much in the way of variety either.

Overall (Not an average)-8: Overall, I would not pay $50 for this game. Not because it's a bad game by any means, but because it lacked replay value. At least Max Payne 2 had unlockable modes and such. I must give this game it's due though. It is the best movie based game since Goldeneye. It also has the best graphics on Xbox out there. And has effectively put “Normal Mapping” on the map (no pun intended). If you don't have Xbox LIVE, this games is warranted a look, even a buy. But you you're a LIVE gamer, Riddick is still worth the rent. Regardless, if you want it, I would wait till the price drops.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/22/04