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The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
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Graphics & Sound:
If you are a next-gen console owner who missed out on 2004's The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay for whatever reason, you no longer have an excuse. Atari and Starbreeze Studios have released The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena for the next-gen consoles. This package features a retooling of the Xbox classic, a multiplayer mode, and as the title implies, a whole new campaign. These three components vary in terms of quality, but whether the package is worth buying or renting depends wholly upon whether or not you played the original game. The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena isn't perfect by any stretch, but it remains the undisputed king of licensed games.
If there's one thing The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena gets absolutely right, it is the presentation. The environments represent the perfect fusion of bleakness and technical brilliance. Escape from Butcher Bay has received a graphical overhaul, but one small problem has escaped fixing. When characters speak, their lips barely appear to move at all. This is kind of baffling, because it's not a problem at all in Assault on Dark Athena. Visually, the new chapter is better than its predecessor. The lip-synching is absolutely perfect, the lighting effects are great, and the load times are short. In both campaigns, you see nearly everything from Riddick's perspective, and everything is animated so well that you remain immersed throughout. This game is unabashedly brutal, and it features a number of extremely violent moments. If you can handle the mature subject matter, you will get a rush out of it.
The voice acting is universally excellent. All of the voicework from Escape From Butcher Bay appears to have been completely retained from its original release in 2004, but that's a good thing. It was perfect then, and it's perfect now. Vin Diesel offers a frighteningly good performance as Riddick; being in complete control of the man behind the growl is quite empowering. Cole Hauser voices William J. Johns, the bounty hunter who is always neck-and-neck with Riddick. Johns has a minimal role in the new chapter, but he shines in the original game. He always sounds like he's thinking "Ugh. I want to be somewhere else," which is actually perfect for the role. The inmates and guards are also extremely well-voiced, although many of the guard voices sound the same (John DiMaggio is always instantly identifiable, no matter what role he is in). There are a few recognizable cameos, as well. Ron Perlman voices Jagger Valance, king of the mines. Lance Henriksen also turns in a good performance as Dacher, a captive aboard the Dark Athena.
The soundtrack is outstanding. When you are exploring the prison or the Dark Athena, the music is moody and oppressive. When you're engaged in combat, it ramps up to an awesome blend of orchestral music and industrial sounds. The game knows when you're raising hell, and the soundtrack has a way of awakening your animalistic side. |
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Gameplay:
Both campaigns included in The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena are well-written and intriguing to the end. They both act as a collective prequel to the 2000 science-fiction thriller Pitch Black. You play as Richard B. Riddick, a violent sociopath who is as intelligent as he is powerful. Escape from Butcher Bay chronicles the events implied by the title, but there's much more to the game than Riddick's escape. The prison has its own food chain. You will have to work to the top of that chain and upset the established order if you want to survive the ordeal.
The new campaign, titled Assault on Dark Athena, begins shortly after Riddick and Johns make their escape. They find themselves floating in the Aguerra System, which is not exactly a peaceful region. I have to quote Obi-Wan Kenobi when describing the Aguerra System: "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy." Long story short, Riddick and Johns are captured by Gale Revas, captain of a mercenary ship called the Dark Athena. There is a distinct difference between the plots of Escape from Butcher Bay and Assault on Dark Athena. In Escape from Butcher Bay, Riddick finds himself among the dregs of human society - a group that he belongs to. In Assault on Dark Athena, Riddick represents the hope of an enslaved planet. It's interesting to see this happen to a character like Riddick.
The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena blends several different types of gameplay to form a wholly unique experience. The game is equal parts action, adventure, and stealth. That's not to say that both campaigns offer a perfect mix of the three. Escape from Butcher Bay contains a lot more adventure than Assault on Dark Athena. You are let loose to explore the (limited) open world of Butcher Bay, and there is a lot to do. You can obtain money, weaponry, and special items by helping your fellow inmates. These quests are all perfect for this kind of gameplay. Some will require you to kill someone in cold blood, but others will require you to be sneaky. Regardless of what kind of missions you choose to complete, they are all great. However, the Assault on Dark Athena campaign focuses primarily on the action. You spend 90% of the Dark Athena campaign fighting an army of clones (oops, I mean drones), and although it fits in with the story, it makes this new campaign feel less satisfying than Escape from Butcher Bay.
The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena includes a Xbox Live/System Link - supported multiplayer component, and it is mediocre at best. First off, it's incredibly difficult to get into a functional Xbox Live match. Once you get into it, however, you'll probably wish the time spent on multiplayer development was spent on something else (for starters, polishing the Assault on Dark Athena campaign). Most of the multiplayer modes are standard for the genre, but there are some fresh ideas at work here, particularly in the Pitch Black and Butcher Bay Riot modes. In Pitch Black, one player becomes Riddick, and other players become guards. Riddick's job is to blend into the darkness and kill off the guards, while the guards have to locate and kill him. It's cool at first, but it wears thin pretty quickly. Butcher Bay Riot pits three teams against each other. It includes a Counter-Strike-esque shopping system, which makes it unique. Overall, the multiplayer is easily the weakest part of this game. There are a lot of server issues -- you will rarely come across a game that is not laggy. The multiplayer is neither bad nor good: it's just there. |
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Difficulty:
The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena contains several challenging moments. There is a lot of trial-and-error in this game, and it may take some time to figure out exactly how to approach each situation. The artificial intelligence is quite adept at flanking you, and you will find yourself overwhelmed at times. Be that as it may, the game usually gives you the tools you need to survive.
I say "usually," because the second half of Assault on Dark Athena can be very frustrating at times. Without spoiling too much, the game introduces a new enemy - the spider bot. These fiendishly annoying enemies attach themselves to walls and sweep a barely-visible laser beam around the environment. That laser beam is the only way to detect these things, so you must keep your eyes peeled. If you find yourself in the spider bot's line of fire, consider yourself a goner -- a single spider bot will shoot you dead in a nanosecond. These enemies are absolutely no fun, and they make the game's stable of faceless drones appealing by comparison.
You'll probably be able to beat The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena (both campaigns) within a rental period, but there is some replay value. The multiplayer isn't strong enough to keep players coming back, but there are a few reasons to play this game again. Starbreeze Studios always loads their games up with quality bonus content, but you've got to work for it. Hidden all over Escape from Butcher Bay and Assault on Dark Athena are cigarette packs and bounty cards. The cigarette packs often sport some witty box art, and many of the bounty cards are laugh out loud funny. These collectibles unlock artwork and videos, which can be accessed from the game options. In short, the game offers just enough incentive for a second play-through.
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Game Mechanics:
The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena makes good use of the outstanding control scheme introduced in Escape from Butcher Bay. If I had to choose one part of this game that really helped it stand out, it would undoubtedly be the melee combat. Pulling the (Right Trigger) while holding the (Left Analog Stick) in a certain direction will allow Riddick to attack in that general direction. The inclusion of melee weapons results in an impressive number of first-person combat animations, all of which are awesome. Timing your attacks correctly will result in one of several counter-finishing moves, and they are all extremely gruesome. The combat is fast, intuitive, and viscerally satisfying.
The control scheme makes it possible for stealth to work well in a first-person game. With a touch of the (X) button, Riddick will crouch into a hunting posture. When you are hidden away in the dark, the screen is tinted blue. Of course, this is Riddick we're talking about -- what would a Riddick game be without his trademark eyeshine ability? You acquire this vision enhancement a few hours into Escape from Butcher Bay, and you'll use it throughout the rest of both campaigns. The eyeshine is toggled on the D-pad, which makes it extremely easy to use. It's thrilling to lurk around enemies who obviously can't see you, and it's even more thrilling when you finally go in for the kill.
So here's the big question: is this game worth buying or not? If you've played Escape from Butcher Bay on Xbox or PC, you should rent Assault on Dark Athena. There's just not enough new content to make it worth the full retail price. If you have not played Escape from Butcher Bay, you should stop reading this review and get the game right now. Over the past five years, some licensed games have come close to Escape from Butcher Bay's level of quality (although I can only think of Peter Jackson's King Kong at the moment). However, the man with the goggles is still the master, and The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is proof.
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-FenixDown, GameVortex Communications AKA Jon Carlos |
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