The world of Riddick has been a rather flimsy in the mainstream media. Pitch Black wasn’t considered a good movie and Chronicles of Riddick took a huge loss at the box office. As a mainstreamer when it comes to comics, which is where Riddick apparently grew up, I have never heard of it and I won’t even consider looking at that animated movie. So, I suppose that leaves the world of gaming. Luckily, Vin Diesel doesn’t have to be stuck on crappy merchandise for failed movies, but can now be stuck on crappy merchandise for a decent game.
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay takes place in the era before the two movies. The game lets the players experience the events that led up to Riddick’s famous eye shine that turned him into the ultimate nocturnal killer.
The gameplay in Riddick is very refined, especially for a game based on a group of movies and comics. The gameplay is smooth and easy to get into. The shoulder buttons are the mainstay of combat: the right trigger attacks and the left trigger defends. An interesting aspect of the control scheme occurs when the player is engaging in hand-to-hand combat: movement of the right stick creates a number of different combos you can perform. The shooting portion is fairly similar to other console shooters. There is nothing too complicated here; the left stick moves and the right stick aims. Traversing the world is simple, and the player can interact with objects via the A button.
The environment can also be altered in minor ways, most notably by shooting out lights, which greatly helps you move around unnoticed. None of the vehicles can be operated, though; they simply sit there just out of your reach. It would have ruled to use a driller to impale some opponents.
Sometimes, lining up for certain moves, like climbing up a box or onto an overhead ladder, takes a bit of work to get right. I’ve fallen off overhead ladders into bottomless pits enough times to get irritated by it.
The stealth mode manages to be both cool and irritatingly stupid at the same time. In stealth mode, you can move around and do stealth attacks; they usually involve you coming up behind someone and snapping/slitting their necks. The problem with the stealth mode comes from the hideously stupid AI. When the lights are on, the AI behaves like a second-generation shooter; the enemies run at you and shoot. Sometimes they’ll flank or do strategic retreats, but they are generally average. Unfortunately, the AI has “peek-a-boo” syndrome, which refers to the first stage in a baby’s mental development during which you cease to exist if the baby cannot see you. The same thing occurs in the game when the lights go out. In a stealth game like, say, Thief: Deadly Shadows, bumping into someone alerts them to your position. Unfortunately, the enemies in Riddick don’t even notice you. A memorable event involved four soldiers in a dark hallway. I walked up to the end guy and snapped his neck. Backing away and assuming they would be alerted to it, I watched. To my surprise, they turned around and began bumping into the body and not one of the remaining soldiers thought to take notice of this event. I walked up to the second soldier and ran right into the back of him without so much as a flinch. This was absolutely pathetic. However, if I were to so much as stand up out of stealth mode, in a 100% pitch-black room, I would appear as if the light of day shone in.
The sounds in Riddick are the positive standpoint. The ambient music is very well done, but the effects are somewhat average. To be fair though, the effects sounds have likely been maxed out and cannot get any more real than they are. The voice acting was surprisingly good, with the exception of Vin Diesel; anyone can do Riddick without breaking a sweat.
Visually, Riddick is very well done. Character models are detailed and so are the environments. Texture work is limited, but given the fact the game is on a desolate rock and an old prison, lots of rust red is to be expected. Lighting is also very well done and works wonderfully on mobile object and shadow casting. Unfortunately, a few of the usable objects like ladders and boxes fail to cast shadows, leaving the impression that you are floating mid-air.
While the game is fairly decent and presents a well-told story, it is way too short of a game. Even when playing on the highest level of difficulty, Riddick only presented me with a six-hour romp to get out of Butcher Bay. Some maximum-security prison Butcher Bay turned out to be; it was easily penetrated in the course of a couple of short hours.
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay could have been a classic in the world of gaming if it had better AI and been quite a bit longer. Unfortunately, like most movie games, parts of it fell short. Overall, the game still presented an entertaining, story driven shooter that is well worth a rental.
