The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay

"Chronicles of Riddick breaks the bad movie game license stigma!"

Over the past few years, movie licensed videogames have truly been some of the worst products to hit retail shelves. We've had to endure awful videogame renditions of awful Batman movies (the ones Joel Schmacher directed), an embarassing translation of Blade into a beatem-up, and a highly unpolished, overhyped game known as Enter The Matrix which served as a required suppliment to the Matrix films. Those aforementioned titles are just a few of the more recent excuses for movie licensed games we've had to put up with. As of late, things seem to be looking up for those types of games. We've already been blessed with two great Lord of the Rings console games. The Van Helsing game turned out well. Now it seems as if movie licensed games are finally being developed with more tender-loving care. Now one other movie licensed game has completely smashed the movie licensed videogame curse. That game is none other than Starbreeze and Vivendi Universal's The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay.

The Chronicles of Riddick videogame (which I will refer to as TCOR) is not actually based on the action flick of the same name, but serves as more of a prequel to the sci-fi horror flick Pitch Black. In the film Pitch Black we see Riddick for the first time and aren't really given much information about him other than that he is a murderer, has shined up eyes to help him see in the dark, and is a total badass. In TCOR we play as Riddick before he gets the shine job on his eyes and afterwards as well. This game fills fans in on the details of Riddick's past that was not revealed in the two films. And now the $1,000,000 question people really want to know: How does TCOR play? Read on.

TCOR is a mixed bag of some of the most popular game genres. There is more than enough stealth, gunplay, and even hand-to-hand combat to appease fans of each genre. For the homicidal maniac character of Riddick this mesh of gameplay styles is just perfect. The whole game is presented in true first person view, unless Riddick activates an object or interacts with something. In an early part of the game Riddick must escape the Mainframe area and get to Cell Block A. Upon entering the area Riddick (thankfully also voiced by Vin Deisel) states, "Mainframe. Security will be tight. I like a challenge." That statement holds true depending on how players decide to go about doing things in the game. Seriously, TCOR has that much depth and replay value that even in that lone mainframe room I entered I was able to use a least four different tactics to kill about three or four enemies.

One example would be my first time through when I wasn't being very stealthy at all. I jumped down on some crates and then dropped to the floor as a scientist was messing around with a prison DNA sampler. He noticed me and since neither of us were armed it was time to try out TCOR's hand-to-hand combat. In TCOR the hand-to-hand combat allows for blocking and punch combos. Various punches are executed by moving the left analog stick up, down, left or right while using the right trigger. Blocking is down with the left trigger. Needless to say I beat the living crap out of the scientist as he tried to block a lot, but still ended up eating my combos.

Hand-to-hand is very realistic in that the enemies react to the hits as they should by moving in the same direction of impact and such. Visually, it is realistic too, as the enemy model's face got deformed with every solid blow it received. I dragged the scientist's battered corpse into a corner with two metal barrels and proceeded to pick up the rifle I saw sitting by his toolbox. Upon touching the rifle I got shocked and lost health because it was DNA coded. I go over and activate the DNA sampler and the computer alerts the guards that an unauthorized DNA sequence has been sampled. So I grab the rifle that I can now pickup and go hide in a dark corner between consoles. Pushing down on the left analog makes Riddick enter stealth mode and when he is hidden well the whole screen turns a light purple color. Two armed guards walk in, one backing up the other from the rear, and notice the dead body in the corner. They sound the prison alarms. The first soldier goes to check it out and says, "This guy didn't die here. He was dragged here." The other guard says, "I'm going to try and find the killer." and starts walking around the room. Yes, the AI talks to each other depending on the situation and even discus tactics. I shoot the barrels near the corpse, causing an impressively light explosion and kill the first guard as he was kneeling down checking the corpse. The other guard starts shooting at me and I shoot out the two of the lights in the room causing nearly a pitch black effect. Needless to say the guard lost me in the darkness and fell victim to having his neck snapped from behind when walked into the an area with enough light for me to see his position. This whole dynamic becomes much easier when Riddick's eyes finally gets the "shine job" and there is no light at all (which is truly represented as pitch blackness onscreen).

In another example I was able to jump down unnoticed, snap the scientist's neck from behind, and hide him in another corner under a light. I used the DNA sampler, got the rifle, shot out the light over the corpse, and the other light by the door the guards enter from. They never find the body, but walk around the room in the darkness searching for me. I sneak up and snap one guards neck and drag him into a small bit of ambient light so his friend can find him. When the other guard kneels down to check the body, snap goes his neck too. Just plain fun and in the full game Riddick gets to use shivs and other items to kill quietly.

The FPS elements of TCOR are great too. The AI of the enemy guards is actually on par with the likes of Halo AI and in some ways better. The AI will attempt to hunt you down when it sees you and other times it won't. In the darkness, they will use the lights mounted on their weapons to search for you and should you use your weapon's light it will give away your position as well. TCOR also features locational damage and ragdoll physics. In other words, headshots usually kill. That is a must in today's FPS though. Weapons like the pistol, assault rifle, and shotgun are modeled very well and kick serious butt in action. Seeing someone flying from a shotgun blast never gets old. Also worthy of note is that there are items in the environments that can help take out multiple enemies. The aforementioned explosive barrels are one example, but the wall-mounted fire extinguishers are also highly explosive in TCOR.

TCOR is also not a game for those who shudder at the sound of foul language. This game is definitely deserving of its Mature rating when it comes to the violence and foul language used. Let's just say that the guards love to use the a 12-letter word that starts with an 'M' and ends with an 'R'. The AI could've used more lines voiced though. The AI tends to repeat itself way too many times while looking for Riddick. It makes me want to kill then so I don't have to keep hearing the same lines over and over.

Graphically, I would have to say that TCOR is about as visually appealing as the Doom 3 which means that this game looks pretty damn good. The lighting effects alone are unrivaled by anything else on the XBOX currently, except maybe Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow. What I noticed though is how Riddick's use of the shadows to stealth is more realistic than Sam Fisher's. Riddick can be in a shadow and still not be hidden from sight depending on the lighting nearby. Also worthy of note is the highly detailed models of the characters, especially the Riddick model which is a deadringer for Vin Deisel. In fact, I can see people making strong comparisons between TCOR and Doom 3's graphics in coming months. The faces of videogame characters just don't get anymore realistic than this. TCOR's use of Normal Mapping is a truly thing of beauty.

The Chronicles of Riddick is in my opinion the definitive game that breaks the stigma of horrible movie licensed videogames. Even with the minor issues it is still better than many of the other lackluster movie licensed games on the market. In fact, it is better than a lot of the other unpolished games on the market period. Congratulations to Vivendi Universal's The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay for being the game that does right what Namco's lackluster Project: Breakdown did wrong.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/21/04