Console: X-Box 360, PS3, PCGenre: 1st Person Shooter/Adventure
Players: 1 ( 2-12 Online )
Rating: Mature 17+
The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena comes with a nice remastered version of the X-Box original, Escape from Butcher Bay, a nice addition for those who didn't have the chance to play it when it first came out. While each campaign takes on average 6-10 hours to complete, players will find the dark chronicles of Riddick, a thrilling and well formulated blend of hand-to-hand and firearm combat, stealth, and platforming, all tied together with a deep story, making for a truly well crafted game.
Story
To those unfamiliar with the series, the players will become Riddick, a ruthless murderer, not to mention resident, and escapee, of over a hundred prison facilities. Strong, stealthy, and resourceful, Riddick is a no-nonsense anti-hero, that won't hold any punches against anyone that crosses him.
The first campaign covers Riddick's arrival and escape from the titular Butcher Bay Correctional Facility, and the second, occurs almost immediately after, as his escape ship gets intercepted by a rogue mercenary vessel, the Athena.
By interacting with prisoners, stealthily creeping through the shadows, and climbing around obstacles, Riddick keeps moving to find his way out, by any means possible.
Gameplay
In both scenarios, the gameplay is mostly the same stealth based action. Players will usually find themselves underarmed, stuck with melee or improvised weapons, forcing them to be resourceful, either in eliminating, or sneaking around them.
Fistfights are well animated, and opponents of all sorts are there to trade blows with Riddick wielding a variety of weapons. Through trading with someone for a weapon, or borrowing it from a dispatched enemy, players will make use of brass knuckles, shivs, and tranquilizer guns before moving up to more useful weapons, falling back on their stealth to take out enemies with deadly stealth takedowns.
Once Riddick gets his “night-eyes” allowing them to see in the dark, a world of tactics open as enemies stumble about in the shadows with their flashlights. Hiding in the dark, and shooting out lights, it'll be up to you to decide whether to quietly kill opponents with a neck snap, or go all out with a firefight.
As a reward for that sneaking, players get to take control of mech, and droid units at certain sections, allowing them to mow through anything in their path with a near infinite amount of ammo, and hell of a lot of armor!
Most importantly all the sections are well balanced, and both chronicles flow perfectly from one firefight to the next, with only the 15-20 second loading times between levels to get in your way.
Graphics & Sound
Most of your sneaking will be done among metal corridors, with futuristic doors and walls, and well detailed ones at that. These sharp graphics only come in at 720p max, but they're beautiful enough for all the intense firefights and in-game cutscenes you'll be experiencing.
The shadows are most certainly affected by the lights in the room, which can be shot out to completely darken an area, making it more suitable for sneaking. Through Riddicks Night-Eyes, the world is changed, as your depth of field changes, shadows turn into well lit corridors, and any source of light becomes an over exposed patch of bloom, hindering your vision.
While excellent in theory, players will end up switching back between views to make sure they don't overstep into the light, as shadows completely disappear from view.
The most impressive aspect of this game is it's perfect voice acting, bringing each character you interact with, to life. From bloodthirsty lunatics, to civilians each character has their own story, and Vin Diesel does a hell of a job voicing the titular anti-hero.
Overall
Despite of it's abrupt ending, players will find Riddick hard to put down, thanks to it's intense action, enjoyable stealth mechanics, and well paced action, while fans of the series will love seeing more of the space-faring criminal dishing out his brand of justice.
Review by Johar Aston, TheLAG
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Copyright 2009 Johar Aston, TheLAG
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