The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay

"Vin Diesel as you have never seen him before."

The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay
The Chronicles of Riddick is a game about Riddick a charcter from the up and coming movie The Chronicles of Riddick and also Pitch Black which hit or screens back in 2000. The game is set before the two movies and gives a little back story to the events before the movie and explains how Riddick becomes the person he is in the movies.
Riddick himself is seen as a dark or anti-hero, he kills his enemies without a second thought, none of this super hero style hand the bad guy over to the cops . He is cool in all situations and always has snappy comebacks when in threatening situations.
The game itself has amazing graphics and the Vin Diesel model is very life like. The levels are very impressive with good textures and excellent lighting. Your character's shadow can be seen at all times. The facial expressions of enemies are well done and are easily on par with CGI graphics that we would have seen five years ago. The animation is smooth and characters are well articulated. The game is quite dark which adds an atmosphere to play, most rifles come equipped with a torch to light up these darker areas. In the later stages of the game Riddick will game a new ability that allows him to see in dark areas.
The game is played in a first person perspective much like Doom or Half-life. Although the game uses the same perspective as other games it is quite original in many aspects. The first original idea is hand to hand combat, although this has been used before in FPS games none have done it as well as Riddick. Press the L trigger and Riddick will hold up his fists to defend himself, now tap the right trigger and Riddick will punch his enemies. Using the R trigger combined with the right Analogue stick will allow Riddick to perform different styles of punches and also combinations. The later of these being very satisfying and almost feels like playing a boxing game.
Riddick can also break the necks of enemies if he sneaks up behind them and executes one of two moves. When behind an an opponent pressing the L trigger will allow Riddick to ready himself for the attack which can be performed by pressing either the R trigger to perform a quick but noisy kill (this will alert near by enemies), or by pressing X which results in a slower quiet kill.
As for weapons there is a whole host of weapons in this game ranging from knuckles dusters right up to an impressive but heavy (Riddick will move slower when carrying this) Mini/Chain gun. The standard FPS weapons are all here to pistol, shotgun, assault rifle. An interesting feature is that most weapons are DNA encoded so only guards can use them although Riddick eventually gets around this problem.
In the later stages of the game you will only have a tranquilizer gun at you disposal, which as the name indicates only knocks enemies out for a short time. What Riddick can do to a stunned enemy is run up to him and stomp him when he is on the ground by pressing the L trigger resulting in the enemies instant death.
As parts of game see you either unarmed or with limited weapons stealth comes into play. Pushing the left analogue stick in allows Riddick to duck and go into stealth mode which is indicated by a blue lint to the screen. As long as you stay out of sight the screen will stay blue and you'll be ok. Once spotted things get tricky as the enemies all have weapons, don't worry Riddick is a clever guy and has a set of counter moves. By pressing the attack button just as your being attacked Riddick will grab an enemy's weapon and use it on him. This varies a little if your carrying a melee weapon such as a shiv, Riddick will grab the enemies weapon much like before but now he will use the shiv to slit the guards throat which is pretty impressive.
A new move which i have never seen in a FPS game is the ability to hang on to ledges, shimy along them and also pull yourself up to higher areas. This is the type of move you would generally find in a third person adventure game so how does it work in a FPS game? Thats easy, during these actions the game switches to a third person view so you can move you character with greater ease. Riddick can climb into ducts, he can also climb overhead rails. When climbing such rails Riddick can drop on enemies and kill them instantly.
Levels. The beginning of the game sees Riddick being captured by a bounty Hunter (who Riddick has a history with) and taken to butcher bay (a high security prison).
Once in the prison Riddick is assigned a cell and allowed to walk around with the prison grounds where you will meet other inmates. These inmates can be friend or foe. Some inmates will ask you to do them favors (missions) this element gives the game a RPG feel. There are missions which will progress your play through the game and must be completed and there are missions which can be completed if you wish and will get you items which will help you in the game. The main missions are to kill a gang leader within the prison and escape the prison itself.
Riddick escapes into the pit below the prison which is occupied by prisoners who have been thrown out for bad behavior. These prisoners have become almost like wild animals due to the lack of light and food. Riddck must battle his way through these enemies to find a man named Pope Joe who grants Riddick with a new power to see in the dark.
The next stages see Riddick fight his way through dark tunnels and then the guard quarters. In the guard quarters Riddick is captured while trying to kill Abbot who is the head guard in the prison.
Riddick is the thrown into a high security prison which sees him participate in prize fighting to get out, then its off to the mines to cause further havoc. The final stages see Riddick in an abandoned equipment center, loading Docks, fuel Transport , Hanger, and finally the cryo pyramids where Riddick must escape to the take off platform. On the way Riddick gets the chance a pilot a robotic battle suit which makes play quite interesting.
Overall the game is fun to play and full of nice touches but doesn't really have enough in it to warrant more than two play throughs and as the game is lacking any form of multi-player which lowers the longevity even more.
If your a fan a FPS game you'll probably enjoy this if your new to the genre and like adventure / stealth game its defiantly worth a look.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/02/04