The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay - Review

Added June 15th, 2004 by James Bolan

Introduction:

Vin Diesel is an actor who has made his way to the big time with movies such as The Fast and the Furious, Pitch Black and the newly released The Chronicles of Riddick. He has now made his way into our living rooms on our beloved green machine. The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay takes place before both of the Riddick movies and illuminates the darkness of Riddick’s past. Riddick has been captured by Johns (seen in Pitch Black), and brought to Butcher Bay prison. Naturally being in the dark with Bubba isn’t a happy thought for Vin (or is it?) so he intends to get out.

Welcome to Butcher Bay, the toughest triple-max security prison in the universe. Impossible to escape; or so they say. Inside these walls are dank tunnels, dimly lit corridors, and other hazardous areas filled with guards, savage inmates, and deadly creatures that prowl the darkness. Chaos, madness, and death lurk around every corner. Only the cunning will survive. You are Richard B. Riddick, and only you can break out of this hell.

Gameplay:

After a series of movie sequences you’ll begin the tutorial. The tutorial for Riddick is set up as a dream sequence to teach you the game without actually making any progress in your escape. I thought this was a great idea especially since I was forced to kill a movie character I didn’t want to in the first minute of play. Riddick combines stealth, FPS action, and Breakdown style fighting with a mission based RPG feel (like Deus Ex 2). Does this combination actually work? It sure does.

One of the first things you’ll do in the prison is get ambushed in the cell by two inmates and your only choice is to beat them to death with your bare hands. There’s a simple jab along with a cross for each direction (left cross, right cross) and an uppercut. You can make a few combos by chaining these together and boy is the end result brutal. You gather info by going around to other inmates and asking them how you can acquire a weapon and escape Butcher Bay. Before giving you information or the item you require they may give you a task. These tasks range from debt collection to murder. After fiddling around in the prison for a while the real action starts. You’ll soon have to either pick up a weapon and give the guards some payback, sneak up behind them and thrust that knife into their side, or just snap their neck. The numerous methods of killing people in this game are all so fun and unique that I have a hard time choosing.

The game becomes even better when Riddick acquires his “eyeshine” which allows him to see in the dark without the aid of a flashlight. This adds ease to the stealth elements of gameplay and the effect just looks damn cool. In Riddick you’ll find yourself navigating through vents, climbing ladders, and overhead pipes to complete your tasks. In certain areas you can choose between being stealthy by murdering 1 guard at a time quietly and hiding his body or wage an all out war with the guards using your assault rifle. The weapons in Riddick include: a pistol (known as a Gun in the game), tranquilizer gun, shotgun, assault rifle, mini-gun, grenades, brass knuckles, shivs (prisoner made knives), and clubs.

Graphics:

This game is simply gorgeous. The lighting and mapping of the environments truly is a sight to behold. Butcher Bay is a desolate dirty prison with bloodstains, flickering lighting, and obscenities written on its walls. The developers did such a great job with ambience that you want to escape the prison because it’s so dark and disgusting but at the same time you’re amazed by just how gorgeous it is graphically. The character models look just as superb. There are some problems with the shadowing by the corners of their lips but you really wont care. Damage taken by the characters is also impressive. After a few punches they will bleed and their cheeks will get bruised. When you fire bullets at them, blood will spray and the bullet holes will remain on their bodies. Eyeshine and stealth also add to its appeal visually. When you are crouched and in the dark, your screen will zoom a bit and take on an eerie blue color letting you know that you cannot be seen. Eyeshine can be toggled on and off later in the game and gives everything a purplish color. Darkness turns into a dark purple and light turns into a bright purplish pink that hurts the eyes.

Audio:

Audio and voice acting for this game are great. Stars such as Vin Diesel and rapper Xzibit lend their voices and do a fantastic job. The voice acting from the supporting cast and prison inmates is quite impressive also. Weapon fire and hand to hand style combat each has its own type of unique sound, and is really convincing. You can tell the sound director knew what he or she was doing.

Controls:
*I just have to let you know that Halo Legacy users got screwed on this one. Sorry guys.
Right trigger- Shoot/Punch/ Loud Neckbreak
Left trigger- Block/Sneak Attack
Left thumbstick- Move
Press left thumbstick- Crouch/Stealth mode
Right thumbstick- Look
Press right thumbstick- Eyeshine
A Button- Jump
X button- Activate/Use
Y button- Change weapon
B button- Reload
D-pad up- Lean up
D-pad left- Lean left
D-pad right- Lean right
D-pad down- Duck
Start- Game menu
Back- Journal/Inventory
White button- Flashlight
Black button- Zoom

Replay:

After you complete Riddick you will say two things to yourself. 1. Damn that was a good game. 2. Why the HELL isn’t there multiplayer? That is a question I’ve asked myself many times since purchasing this game. This game could have rivaled some of the best Live titles out there with Live multiplayer support. Sadly no reasoning can magically give it to us so I’ll have to score accordingly. Adding insult to injury this game is Live aware. But gee golly, thank heavens you can tell when your friends are online while you play Riddick!

Summary:

Quite frankly The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay is a great gaming experience that I recommend to anyone. I haven’t played a quality title like this is in quite a while and that’s a shame. A multiplayer mode could have made this title game of the year worthy but it wasn’t meant to be. Pick this one up for a great single player experience; you won’t regret it.