XBox Solution

Brutality comes in many flavors, but is best served raw. The Chronicles of
Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay featuring the voice and likeness of Vin Diesel
delivers just that; raw, visceral action to quench your thirst. In the game
your character, Richard B. Riddick finds himself captured by mercenaries and
locked down on the way to the most complex and toughest prison in the galaxy,
Butcher Bay. This facility has a reputation of no prisoner ever escaping alive,
but then again, they never had a prisoner the likes of Riddick before.

Your primary role, escape from Butcher Bay. Sounds simple, and in the beginning
of the game you’re presented with a very unique tutorial on how to utilize the
controller and make your way around the areas unseen, use weapons, and most
of all snap necks! The interesting way Vivendi Universal and Starbreeze decided
to do the introductory sequence got my attention from the start, and kept me
going til the end. Riddick (from this point on we’ll refer to the game as
Riddick) not only offers intense action in a first person perspective,
with occasional 3rd person action sequences, but it also tackles the job of
really getting you into the game. If nothing else Riddick gets the award for
the most creative use of foul language in a console game, but you know me better
than that, this one has much more to offer, read on.

Set before the events of both Universal Pictures’ upcoming summer release The
Chronicles of Riddick, starring Vin Diesel, and the 2000 breakout hit Pitch
Black, which first introduced Diesel as enigmatic antihero Riddick, the
game tells the story of Riddick’s dramatic escape from the previously inescapable
triple-max security slam Butcher Bay, home to the most violent prisoners in
the universe. Through the use of excellent graphics, intuitive interface, and
compelling story and presentation Vivendi Universal and Starbreeze let you tell
the story of the escape. Riddick is a cold and calculating killer with the physical
and mental skills to meet the challenge of escaping, it’s up to you to make
it happen. At the onset of the game you’ll find yourself taking small jobs and
doing other prisoners ‘favors’ in return for something, you’ll do just about
anything so be prepared for everything.

Riddick is a fairly complex game that encompasses elements from more than four
different genres. Your first introduction to the prison system will show you
elements from an RPG title, where you have to talk to different people and do
things for them if you choose, learning the ropes of the prison system is key,
as is killing anyone who is in your way. Initially you’ll have no weapons, and
you will rely on hand to hand combat to stay alive (note the Fighting game element
mentioned here), steadily the game works it’s way up to the point where you
have access to the more powerful weaponry(FPS). One of your best friends in
the game is darkness, and that being the case later in the game you will learn
what is called ‘Eyeshine’ – this allows you to see in complete darkness. Stealth
will be a very crucial part of your escape, but not so much that the action
is dull, it won’t get to that point. It’s interesting to note the way the developers
decided to present the game, I don’t plan on ruining it for you, but it’s very
movie-like, and there are obvious portions of it that will tie into the upcoming
movie. My point here is that you have a sense of accomplishment while rising
through the ranks in the prison system and making your way from cell block to
cell block.

As mentioned above Riddick is played from the first person perspective. I must
admit I was a bit hesitant to accept the challenge knowing in my mind that I
would have preferred the game a bit more in the third person perspective, but
once you play it for a while it starts to grow on you. By nature, this type
of gameplay which includes hand to hand combat, the use of melee weaponry, and
stealth has been more widely accepted as a third person title. So why does first
person work so well for Riddick? It’s closer, plain and simple. The combat is
up close and personal, in your face, live or die action, and it works quite
well. Moving and attacking in the darkness will become a vital key to your success,
when in darken areas and crouched down you will go into stealth mode, where
the screen turned a blueish hue to indicate your invisibility from others. One
of my favorite aspects of the game is coming up behind someone and snapping
their neck, or slashing it with a shiv (a knife), it becomes very gratifying.

Hand to hand combat at first seems to just be a bunch of trigger and button
mashing, but once you become familiar with the controls a bit more and get the
hang of pressing the controller a certain way to perform a critical blow, it
becomes more of an art. To really experience it fully you’ll need to play the
game on more than one of it’s three difficulty settings. I started out on easy
but quickly restarted on a higher setting once I had the controller down, a
bit of wasted time there so go straight for the mid level when you pick this
one up. In addition to hand to hand combat and melee weapons you also have access,
or will have access to rifles, shotguns, and assault rifles. Now the FPS thing
starts clicking a bit more! In the earlier areas most of the guns are secure
by a stun feature (they’re DNA protected) that will not allow you to get them,
but you’ll gain access later on and the real full on assault begins.

Here is the full line up of the default controller scheme:

• Right Trigger: Shoot / Punch / Loud Neckbreak
• Left Trigger: Block / Sneak Attacks
• Left Thumbstick: Move / Press in for Crouch / Stealth Mode
• Right Thumbstick: Look / Press in for Eyeshine
• A Button: Jump
• X Button: Activate / Use
• Y Button: Change Weapon
• B Button: Reload
• D-Pad: Lean Up / Right / Left / Duck
• START: Game Menu
• BACK: Journal / Inventory
• WHITE: Flashlight
• BLACK: Zoom

Riddick utilizes groundbreaking technology called Normal mapping, where by
creating a wireframe model of an image and then layering it with a texture or
skin to give the object depth and color. The great thing about normal mapping
is that it allows the use of a high number of polygons while up close, and limits
the usage while farther in the distance. This is important to keep the framerate
solid, and in most respects it does a fantastic job at keeping the game going
steady throughout the most intense action sequences without any slowdowns in
the framerate. The characters and objects in Riddick have good depth and detail,
the areas are plain and simple, the walls are filled with graffiti and have
the gritty look you would expect from a futuristic lock down center. For those
gamers with HDTV the game supports 480p for your viewing pleasure.

The game’s audio is delivered with full in game Dolby Digital support, so everything
sounds crystal clear on the right system. The voice acting is well done and
for in game animations the lip syncing is pretty spot on for the most part.
At some points you get the feeling that Vin wasn’t giving it his best effort,
others will tell you that’s just him. Either way he fits the role well. Ambient
sounds are done nicely and the sounds from weaponry is top notch. I almost feel
compelled to mention the use of foul language in this title since there is so
much of it. As a warning, this is not a game for younger children. On the other
hand the use of foul language just adds to the realism of the title, it brings
it one more step closer to what the developers vision was.

Replay value suffers a bit in this game with no multiplayer and no Xbox Live
support for upcoming downloadable content, once you’re finished the game you
may have nowhere to go. Lucky for us there are plenty of unlockable goodies
in the game for those of you that just can’t stop playing until you’ve unlocked
everything. While there are three difficulty settings the Easy setting is like
a walk in the park so we’ll have to discount that one. Finish this bad boy off
and what do you have? A great experience with an excellent game, and a better
view on the upcoming movie.

Overall Score: 9.0/10 [not an average]

It’s been a long time since I picked a game up and played it straight through
to the end. Riddick is a game that once you start you won’t want to stop, the
action is paced perfectly with the storyline and it keeps you engaged the whole
way through. My recommendation if you are uncertain, pick it up as a rental
and see for yourself, and be sure to check out the movies.

• Official Chronicles of Riddick:
  Escape from Butcher Bay Site
• Chronicles of
  Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay Screenshots
• Chronicles of Riddick:
  Escape from Butcher Bay Cheats and Hints
• Buy
  from EB Games
• Buy
  from Amazon.com

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