Game: The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay Publisher: Vivendi Universal Developer: Starbreeze Studios/Tigon Games Systems: XBox, PC N.A. Release Date: June 2nd, 2004 (Xbox), December 7th, 2004(PC) Score: 9.2 (Out of 10)

The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay Review

T HE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK: ESCAPE FROM BUTCHER BAY is not only one of the best games for the original Xbox, it is one of the best LOOKING games for the console, hands down. But Vivendi Universal, Tigon Games and Starbreeze Studios did more than present an amazing game with breath-taking graphics. They created something that raised the standards for the medium.

The game is a prequel not only to the 2004 movie THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK, but also to PITCH BLACK, the sci-fi horror flick that introduced the titular antihero. The game tells a story that was alluded to in PITCH BLACK; how Riddick escaped Butcher Bay, a triple-maximum security prison that was supposed to be inescapable. In doing so, it also gives us an insight into Riddick’s origins and shows us the REAL story of how Riddick got his most distinctive feature, the Eyeshine that allows him to see in absolute darkness.

Though the most of the game is from Riddick’s perspective, and is thus “First Person”, it is not merely a shooter. Instead the game throws in some stealth, platforming elements, and visceral hand-to-hand combat. Since you’re in prison, many of the weapons are of the makeshift variety, such as shivs, knuckledusters, and clubs. Firearms are few and far between, as the guards’ rifles are DNA encoded so that only they can use them, and non-encoded weapons such as shotguns and pistols are found only rarely. Eventually Riddick figures out how to get his hands on the guards’ weapons, and this is carefully integrated into the story. This is where the “shooter” part of the game comes in. But as fun as it is to blow enemies away, the hand-to-hand really steals the show. The combat is deceptively simple but has depth; in addition to basic blocks and attacks, Riddick can also grapple with a guard a force them to shoot themselves in the head with their own weapons or immobilize an enemy’s incoming fist so that he can finish them by stabbing them in the neck, to name but a few options. And this is just in a stand-up fight. When Riddick is being sneaky he can creep up on an enemy and snap his neck in one of two ways: hard, fast, and loud, which is easier and attracts the attention of other nearby enemies, or carefully and quietly. If Riddick is armed, he can use his weapon for a quiet kill, by stabbing them in the spine with his shiv or by clubbing them with a blunt weapon or gun butt. Riddick can also kill enemies by dropping on them from above, either by shimmying out above them on a rail, or by leaping from on high. Once the enemy is dead, you can drag the body into the shadows so that it doesn’t alert patrols later. By the end you will have faced off against inmates, normal and armored guards, riot guards in mechanized armor, walking tanks, robots, and deadly alien species. Each enemy type is unique and has its own strengths and weaknesses.

However, there is a lot to do in the game besides kill people. You can accept jobs from the guards or inmates for fun or profit, get in ring fights for money or prestige, or play craps to make more money for buying things like shivs or clubs. Also, hidden throughout the game are packs of cigarettes, and each one you find unlocks artwork and files from both the game and the movie. There is a ton of this extra content, and it gives you a reason to fully explore your environment. The fact that there is so much else to do other than kill or be killed really makes the prison feel like a real, living prison.

As fun as the gameplay is, the graphics, for their time, are equally impressive. The characters look almost photo realistic, especially Riddick, who looks exactly like Vin Deisel, who voices him and played him in the films. Though you don’t see him too often, since we are looking through his eyes, the game does pull back and show him during cutscenes and when performing actions such as climbing or using the health stations. Amazingly, each prisoner is named and has his own look, mannerisms, and voice. The same is true of most regular guards, although the ones later in the game are wearing armor and thus look the same. The game features a dynamic lighting system that reflects realistically off of every character, surface, and object in the game, and casts realistic shadows. The environment is dirty, depressing, and realistic, with rust, flaking paint, and bloodstains. Bullets that miss their target leave red-hot holes in the wall that gradually cool, leaving charred marks behind. When you get in brawls, every punch you land will noticeably bloody and bruise your opponent, and solid punches will send sprays of blood that will permanently streak the walls and floors. These are just a few examples of the incredible attention to detail that went into the game. To further immerse you in this world, the screen has no meters, health bars, or counters. To tell how much ammo you have left, look at the digital readout on the gun. When injured, your health bars appear temporarily on the screen before fading again, just to give you an idea of how injured you are. When Riddick is trying to hide in shadows, the game uses a subtle effect by tinting the screen blue when you are successfully hidden rather than put a meter on the screen like in similar games like Splinter Cell. Once Riddick gets his Eyeshine, staying in the shadows becomes even more integral to the game, as bright lights can blind him. You can toggle his shades on and off with the touch of a button as you move between bright and dark environments, or just try to break all the lights as you go to keep things dark. Just the way Riddick likes it.

Sound is similarly top notch. Vin Deisel is a self-proclaimed gamer and started Tigon Games, one of the companies responsible for this masterpiece. Deisel puts just as much love into Riddick here as he does in the movies, giving him a deep, menacing voice that is barely above a growl, an effect which is both effective and creepy. Cole Hauser also reprises his role as Johns, Riddick’s nemesis in both this game and in PITCH BLACK. As mentioned earlier, every character in the game is voiced by a separate actor, and most are done well. Prisoners and guards will even talk and interact realistically on their own, and listening in on their conversations can yield useful information. Rapper Xzibit even makes an impressive appearance as the menacing guard Abbott. Every sound effect, from bullets pinging off of a metal wall or steam escaping from a vent to the gurgle of a dying enemy sounds believable. The music is also extremely cinematic and well done, although some of the themes, such as those used during combat and stealth, can get a bit repetitive after a while. The script is also exceptional, giving a strong story, plenty of opportunities for Riddick to be menacing, and some actual laugh-out-loud funny moments.

Six months after the release of the game on the Xbox, a PC version was released as well. Although identical to the XBox version in terms of graphics and pure game mechanics, the PC version included two new levels (though not really all that huge, they were pretty cool), as well as a few new enemy types such as armored riot guards. It also included the ability to wreck havoc in a armored mech suit (which you could do in the XBox original, but only during one woefully short scene). But the best feature was the Developers' Commentary, in which you could walk over certain icon scattered throughout the game in order to get insight into the game design directly from the people who made it. While it did take you out of the story when these were active, it remains a neat idea that I would love to see get integrated into a lot more games.

THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK: ESCAPE FROM BUTCHER BAY is impressive on all counts, and a more worthy successor to PITCH BLACK than the movie that shares its name was. The original version of the game is only available for the original Xbox and the PC, and is not backwards compatible with the 360. The developers who were trying to make it backwards compatible found that it was impossible to do so, do to the fact that the game preloaded from the disk to the hard drive, then streamed from the drive to your screen, minimizing load times and maximizing frame rates. Unfortunately, Microsoft stipulates that every game for the 360 has to be playable without using a hard drive, due to the fact that they suckered some people into buying the 360 Core System, which has no hard drive, and doesn't want to alienate those people by making a game they can't play. The good news is that because they couldn't do so, after they finished with the equally stellar THE DARKNESS (for both PS3 and 360) Starbreeze decided to make a remake of the game using a new, advanced graphic engine and expanded gameplay and storyline that continues where the original version ended. The resulting super-awesome remake edition is called THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK: ESCAPE FROM DARK ATHENA, and is due out during the 2007 Holiday Season for both the 360 AND the PS3. Take that, Microsoft. That is what you get for making stupid business decisions and gimping game developers by making a system with no hard drive. Now your competitors will profit greatly from one of the best exclusive games in the original Xbox's library. But I seriously digress.

Whether you are shivving inmates, sneaking past armored riot guards, or wrecking your way through the hallways in a stolen Mech, this game is guaranteed to make you feel like the ultimate badass. This game delivers so well on so many fronts that Hollywood, as well as the other game companies, should be taking notes. Let's hope that the PITCH BLACK/RIDDICK series continues past the remake of BUTCHER BAY and into rest of the trilogy promised to us before THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK the movie flopped so horribly. Riddick deserves a resurrection, and Tigon Games and Starbreeze Studios are just the ones to do it.