The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay

"The prsion life has never felt so good......"

Ah, the Chronicles of Riddick, a movie which garnered mediocre reviews from the media, and never really went anywhere. So, according to the law of movies to video games, this game should be terrible, right? Hah, that's what I thought too, however, it seems that this is one of the few games which surpasses the movie and makes for some excellent gaming. Now, I really want to stress to people not to take the demo of this game that was released, as the final word for the quality of the game. I did that, and ended up passing this game up until I finally caved and rented it. The demo, which did nothing to impress me, is of one of the worst parts of the game in my opinion. The true style of Riddick is nothing like the run and gun gameplay of the demo, and again, should not be taken as the final verdict on this game's quality. Now back on track, if you, like I did not take the time to view the films, than do not fear. Nothing in this game did not make sense to me, and nothing ever felt like a viewing of the films were necessary.

Alright, time to start on the game itself. The plot of Riddick is simple, yet complicates itself later on, but never does anything too baffling. Riddick begins with a monsterous man named Riddick, who is being taken by a bounty hunter(John) to a holding cell entitled, "Butcher Bay". Now, the trick here is that no one has ever escaped Butcher Bay before, and the guards and traps there are going to try their best to make sure that no one ever does. That is where you come in. After being thrown into an action packed introduction that is sure to keep you on your toes, Riddick is than thrown into the meat of the game, which is his prison cell. The beginning of the game has a nice cinematic feel to it, that really helps boost the feel that you are the star of your own action movie, and it doesn't end there. The cinematic flair in this game is out of this world. Be prepared for some moments when you have to make decisions like an action hero would, and be prepared to feel a great sense of accomplishment for having thought up that idea by yourself. Yes, there is really no question about it, Riddick opens with a bang, and than shuts you in the slammer, for one exciting life sentence.

Now what would a videogame be without its villains? Nothing, so of course some great characters were added, to place just a touch of evil into the game. The one you will be most concerned about, is a hardened, loudmouthed, guard named, "Abbott". This man will make you hate his guts, trust me, you will not be able to wait until you can finally get your hands on him. Yet, at the same time, he seems so cool, and rough. That is exactly how you should feel about a villain. The other main villain is named "Hoxie". Not a lot is known about Hoxie, so I will not get into him here, and you will just have to experience his story for yoruself. While on the subject of characters, let us divulge into the many, and beautifully designed characters in the game. Each and every different prisoner seems to have his own personality and face. It is amazing, as is the voice acting that supplements it. However, I will save all this gushing for when I get ot the graphics.

Alright, so the game's got a great introduction, and fantastic characters, but what else does it hold for you? Well, allow me to enlighten you! Oh, the sweet gameplay, how I love thee. This is where all games are made and broken, and where most gamers feel the most work should be put into. Chronicles of Riddick, while not without its flaws, passes the gameplay test with flying colors. Let me start out by saying that this game crosses many genres, and is pretty hard to place on just one, but the game IS MAINLY an FPS. During the course of this game, you will fist fight, you will gun fight, you will knife fight, and even have a few stealth moments, ala Splinter Cell. Ok, make that a LOT of stealth moments. This game really revolves around stealth. No matter where you are in the game, there is ALWAYS the option of using stealth, thanks to the ability to shoot out the lighting. Yes, almost all lighting can be changed. Now you are probably thinking to yourself, "if there is no lighting how do I see?", well hold on there buddy, I am getting to that. At the beginning of the game, it is true, using stealth in the dark is a tough matter. However, very near the middle, you get something called the "eye shine", which enables you to see in the dark. Eye shine is not usable in the light, but when all the lights are off, you can see just like a cat, where everything is, while the guards simply bumble about trying to find some source of light, or trying to find you even. Yes, eye shine makes the world go round, and this is indeed where the game truly starts to pick up, and the fun begins to roll in. Now this is not to say that Riddick is boring, aside from the stealth. In fact, far from it! During Riddick, you will encounter spots where heavy stopping power is needed, and this power comes in the form of various guns. Most guns are DNA encoded, meanin that you cannot touch them, which reduces the amounts of gunplay spots. However, in bits and pieces the game will require you to pick up a gun, and start the fireworks. Now, in my opinion this is the weakest part of the game. While, extremely satisfying, it just doesn't feel like much thought is going into the mindless blasting. "Woah, wait why is it so satisfying? Why did you say that?" Well I am glad you asked. The reason it is so satisfying using a gun, is the sound and the feel. Yes, the sound and feel! When discharging a shotgun shot, you literally feel the recoil, and a VERY meaty sound blares out. These guns sound like big boys, and is enough to get the tostosterone flowing. The guns are all used with a laser sight as the targeting reticule, and this works fine aside from a few occasionally problems with the chunky aiming. Sometimes Riddick is a little stiff with his movements, but you get used to this as you play on. Now, for my favorite part of the whole game. The fist fights! Oh this is the most glorious first person fist fighting I have ever encountered(haven't played Breakdown yet, so don't bug me). So here it is, you move the thumbstick in a direction while hitting the R button, and you do a different punch for each direction. Go to the right, and Riddick does a left jab. Go to the Left, and Riddick does a right jab. Now chain them together and what do you get? That's right, someone's head going right and left as your fists create indentations in their skull. I haven't even gotten into the upper cut and fierce punch yet either. It's not really the amount of punches at your disposal that makes it so darn fun, it really is the way that the character models react to the punches. This is the most satisfying thing I think I have ever done in a videogame. When you connect a punch, you know it. The head bobs up and down realistically, as well as from side to side. Very cool! Also, a very nice touch added to this, which gives some more fun to the knuckleblazing, is the fact that the faces of your opponents beign to bruise up, and even bleed with punches. So, a left jab sends the opponents head to the side, than followed up by an upper cut, his head violenty rears up, a black eye now apparent on his face. As he begins to lower his head, I follow it up with a fierce punch, which knocks him lifelessly into a wall, rag doll physics and all. Wow, do you feel pumped after a moment like that. What a great stress reliever. Alright, alright enough on that. Aside from these elements, the game also mixes in RPG elements that seem to to make an appearance from time to time, and even become a highlight to many. In a few cases throughout the game you will be dropped in certain prisons where other cellmates will ask you to do quests for them, or trade stuff with them. These kind of remind me of RPG like villages. Most of the quests that the prisoners give you are not repetive and not boring in the least. You will fight in a fight club type thing, poison some food, and catch bugs, in the many diverse sets of quests. Very cool feature. The gameplay is fast and furious, and accomplishes its goals of making you feel like you are the top dog.

Now for another obvious highlight of this game, the graphics. These are some of THE best graphics I have ever seen put on the Xbox. Absolutely stunning, I even found myself sitting and staring at a few of the desolate, lonely, but beautiful environments a few times. The bump mapping does its job of making everything look like its sticking from the walls, and the character models are the cream of the crop. Yes, not one face was reused throughout the entire game. The only thing you oculd even say was reused, were the guards wearing helmets, but does that really count? Now the environments, are really made by the incredible lighting that this game employs. The lighting streams into a room leaving little streaks and beams, and leaving a sort of haunting glow that is sure to add atmosphere to any room. This isn't a very bright game, and most of the lighting is fairly dim, which adds a great deal to the pretty rooms that this game creates. Now, pretty is only used as in I mean they are very well done, not that they are actually beautiful. No, far from it in fact. As this game takes place in a prison, many of the enviornments are gritty, dirty, vulgar, and cold. Graffiti is splattered on almost every wall in the form of vulgar slang words, or curses at the guards. Flies buzz around the trash boxes found on walls in random hallways. Even moths flutter about the light in a jail cell far down into the earth. Yes, the environments do their job of making sure you feel like you are in a prison. The prisoners are of course rightfully rude, and will occassionally take out a smoke, or sell you drugs. Indeed, this is a gritty place, and not somewhere you want to stay for long, which is why you are trying to escape. However, that shouldn't stop you for sitting around and staring at some of the amazing environments a few times like I did. One place in particular, where all the cops hang out, looks like a shopping mall, only the sunset type lighting really makes it look stunning. Also, the eye shine is a very cool graphical effect, which when used when there is light in the room, puts a huge pink tint around everything, making you basically blind. It actually looks really cool though. Point is, the graphics are perfect, only complaint could be minor slowdown, and a few jaggies that appear every once in awhile.

Alright, so the sound! The sound in this game is mostly quiet, and atmospheric type noises, such as guards talking amongst one another, or a creature growling in the darkness. Much of the sound is based on situation. If a guard sees you, a stirring number will rise into the foreground, until that said guard, decides to forget about you. Overall the music that does occur, fits right in, and gets you in the mood for a fight. The sound effects themselves, are brillaint. The voice acting is very well done, with Abbott being a highlight voice for me. Each prisoner seems to have his own voice, and Riddick himself is voiced very well, making him out to be a very hardcore type guy. The guns make an immense amount of racket, and mechs grind and whirr as they move. Not much to say on this front except that its really as good as it could be for a game like this.

Now with all this gushing, why did I give it an 8? Well there are really two flaws that are sort of big. First off, the AI. It's not that the enemies are stupid in Riddick its just that....yea ok the enemies are stupid in Riddick. You see the enemy will juke, roll and strafe in head on combat, but it is when they begin to search for you that the stupid factor rolls in. Many a times, a guard would have his flashlight on, and look straight at me, and than just turn his back so I could snap his kneck. Or other times, a guard would actually run into me in the dark, and than just keep walking. Can't these guys feel anything? This is only the beginning. I have had guards that just freeze I try fighting them with melee, and other times guards would just freeze for me to cap them with my handgun, when they were at a very long distance. So in the end, it isn't gamebreakingly bad AI, but definitely not AAA AI(HAH).

Now for flaw number two. The one you have probably heard a lot about, and that would be the replay value and length. I can say that I rented this game, and finished it in about 7-10 hours, not sure of exact time though. I am a slow gamer people, I stop and look at things, I take things in, I try to enjoy my games as much as I can, and I finished it in 7-10 hours? Yes indeedy, this adventure flies by, and you can bet its a sweet, errr I mean mean, and hardcore one. The replay value, while trying to be forced in through cigarette packs, is just not enough to keep you playing. I don't think I would take my time going through the game looking for some fiendishly hidden concept art. I really enjoyed it, and I would proabably go for a second play through, so as just to get a taste of some of the other choices I could have made, but I don't think most gamers would. Oh, and speaking of choices, let's go on a small tangent here and talk about the different choices. Riddick is full of them. Want to go into a room and just bust a cap in everyone's head? Hey it's your life sentence! Want to go in and surprise everyone with a kneck massage of doom(aka kneck snap)? Woah, go right ahead there cowboy!! This game is ugly when it comes to the methods of killing, and I mean ugly. Now ugly can be cool my friends, and trust me most of the ugly in this game is cool. Take the fact that you can turn a guard's rifle up towards his face and than shoot it. Now how cool is that? If they hold a pistol, you bend them over, put the pistol to their stomachs and make them shoot it twice. SWEET! Now I won't spoil all the different methods of killing, you will have to figure that out yourself, but some of the knife fight kills, are truly gratuitous!

Well to conclude this I just have to say that this is truly a diamond in the rough, and people who were fortunate enough to get this on release, good job. I honestly thought that this game would turn out horrific, and instead ended up in my top 10 Xbox games. Well done Starbreeze, and cheers to many more excellent games.

JUDGE'S SAY: 8/10(HEY YA THAT'S GREAT) - little to no replay value, and short, on the negative side. Great atmosphere, best first person fighting I have ever experienced, and an intense and gritty ride that fuses stealth with gun play and fists, for one rocking experience. In the end I would suggest renting the game, as I find it just to short, and not enough reason to play again to buy it. If you had the ability to find it under $20 than hey, it just might be a good pickup. However, for me a rent was enough, for I got what I needed out of it, which was a good weekend of fun. At the end, it really felt like I had just watched a really really good movie, and I was the star. Cheesy? Yes. True? Would I lie?

(NOTE: I use the word "you" a lot, and I know that it is not right in formal writing, but guess what? This really isn't formal writing, and seeing me write "one" over and over again really gets irritating. So, bear with me folks!)

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/22/05