Title: The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
Developer/Publisher: Starbreeze AB / Atari
Platform: Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Release Date: 04/7/2009
Number of Players: 1 single player, 2-12 online
The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is a sequel to 2004’s Xbox exclusive Escape from Butcher Bay. Dark Athena plays almost identically to Butcher Bay, featuring the same first-person perspective and including many similar mechanics, but naturally having a unique storyline which follows Riddick on a quest to escape a prisoner ship and the clutches of some ruthless mercenaries. Not only does Dark Athena feature this all new adventure, but it also includes the original Butcher Bay game, except newly remastered with enhanced graphics, as well as some online multiplayer.
Dark Athena’s gameplay sways back and forth between shooter and stealth, which can be frustrating for those thinking this is a FPS. A large part of the game has you sneaking in the shadows, stalking your prey before bludgeoning or stabbing them to death with some melee weapon. At least half of your inventory space can be stocked with melee weapons, from a combat knife and bat, to the classic ulaks. During these large segments of the game, you will want to stay crouched and in the shadows so your enemies can’t see you. Then you can sneak up behind them and take them out with a quick finishing move. If you aren’t very stealthy though, and alert multiple gun-carrying drones, you are pretty much done for. You will know if you are hidden, as your health meter will turn blue. Here, enemies without a flashlight can’t see you at all, even if they are two feet in front of you. If your stealth skills aren’t up to par though, or during certain areas where you are forced to fight, you can do some hand-to-hand combat. These fights play out the same whether or not you are armed, and can be very simple and boring once you know what you’re doing. You can block with the L button, but it’s unnecessary as you can relatively easily counter any attack by pressing the attack R button whenever they go in. If you mindlessly hit the R button, most of your attacks will be blocked and counter and you will go down quickly, but if you are patient and counter attacks, you shouldn’t have too much trouble, even on bosses.
The entire game isn’t stealth though. The drones that you dispatch, who are like cyborgs being controlled by humans elsewhere, carry guns which you can use. You can both drag these bodies or hold them upright and use their weapon to take out other enemies or break through glass windows. Eventually, you will have to fight actual human soldiers who carry weapons that you can take with you, like a shotgun or assault rifle. At this point, the game turns into a shooter, having more enemies appear in situations where you can’t use stealth, so you can unload with your guns. Another few hours into this, and you’ll lose your guns, and the game reverts to you traversing a landscape and exploring and being more stealthy and cunning. But then you find some weapons again, and a cool one at that, that shoots out remote mines, and of course the game goes back to being a shooter.
This dichotomy between stealth and shooting works out fairly well. While the whole story may not make complete sense and is bland, and it seems stupid how you lose your weapons and such, the fact that you can do both is good, as it doesn’t make one thing constant and mixes gameplay up, keeping things fresh.
While Butcher Bay was much more focused on character interaction and getting missions from a variety of interesting people, Dark Athena is more linear and singular. There is only one major area where you talk to people in the first half of the game, and you only have one major objective. There is other chatter between characters, but it isn’t some ‘talk to everyone and get information’ stuff. If you get stuck on a puzzle or don’t know where to go, Riddick will say something useful to put you in the right direction. Vin Diesel did a good job of taking up the role of Riddick again, as his voice lends well to the character. The other voice work is commendable, but nothing amazing. And when you get into a melee-fight with a boss…you should put on some music or something; the enemy will repeat the same two or three lines over and over again; very annoying.
Riddick is still a badass, having some killer finishing moves, literally, and his shined eyes allowing him/you to see in the dark. Depending on the weapon being held, you can dish out some serious carnage to enemies if you sneak up on them or perform a well-timed counter. The shining comes in handy when making your way through vents and other dark areas, as well as helping you spot bounty cards. These cards act as unlockables, bagging you some artwork or bio-info for each one you procure. They are relatively easy to spot, although most are hidden, and display what I would think to be pictures of developers, as well as a few dirty deeds they performed and how much the price on their head is.
The developers also tried to make the purchase more worth your money by throwing in some online multiplayer. There are a few standard FPS modes, like deathmatch and capture the flag, but there are also some more unique modes that go along with the Riddick story. One such mode has every player, minus one, play has a mercenary with a standard weapon, while one player gets to be Riddick. The other players get a standard weapon, with a flashlight on it, and they must hunt down Riddick in a huge, dark cave, while Riddick gets to use his Shine and take them out. Unfortunately though, the connection is very laggy and character movement is jittery. Also, when I played there weren’t very many people on, so it was almost impossible to find a ranked match.
The Review
Storyline:
The story is pretty lame actually, but follows the story of Butcher Bay. Riddick’s ship gets attacked and captured by the Dark Athena, but he evades capture and must then escape the ship. Then he must escape a planet. And yeah. It’s not very well developed or enticing.
Gameplay:
The gameplay follows that of its predecessor and has many of the same mechanics. Half of the game has you sneaking around in the dark and silently taking out drones, while the other half gives you some guns and allows you to shoot people. The multiplayer is a shooter. Overall, nothing too special to see here in this day and age.
Sound/Music:
Vin Diesel takes the role of Riddick again and does a phenomenal job. The other voice work is pretty good, but not as familiar, and unfortunately, enemies use the same one-liners over and over again.
Graphics:
The graphics are good, but they don’t seem to be as impressive as Butcher Bay was back on the Xbox.
The Good:
A decent game in itself, plus a revamped version of Butcher Bay and some online multiplayer.
The Bad:
Not quite as revolutionary as Butcher Bay.
The Ugly:
I think the online multiplayer connection has cerebral palsy.
Overall:
The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena isn’t anything too spectacular, but it’s a solid game. If you played Butcher Bay, then you know what you’re getting, and if you haven’t, well then you can with this 2-for-1 deal, as Dark Athena comes with a remastered Butcher Bay. It’s exciting to play as Riddick, but Dark Athena is a bit bland, with only a few enemy types and relatively similar environments. There are a few interesting things here and there to keep you engaged, but nothing extraordinary. Luckily, Butcher Bay has some more edge to it, and the multiplayer is admirable, but the connection is a bit sluggish.
Final Vote: 3/5
Editor’s Note by Ryan L. Lopees:
While it seems Zach and I had very different experiences while playing through Riddick, I have to give the game a higher score. Both Riddick games set the bar in providing the player with the definitive first-person brawler/first-person shooter/stealth/platformer game. It’s hard enough for a game developer to pull off any one of those genre with any sense of grace, but to combine all four without breaking a sweat is a feat indeed.
For official record, since it’s been debated many times, the Riddick-verse timeline is as follows (and I will even go as far as provide you with the reasons WHY this is official):
1- Game: Escape From Butcher’s Bay (Johns is alive, Riddick has no eye-shine at the beginning)
2- Game: Assault on Dark Athena (Riddick has wicked, shiney eyes. Johns still alive)
3- Movie: Pitch Black (Riddick uses cool eyes to beat up creatures of darkness, says “beautiful” a lot. Johns gets impaled after a tussle with Dick B. Riddick)
4- Movie: The Chronicles of Riddick (Eyeshine there, Johns not. Title of movie used for games)
5- Impending Game: “You keep what you kill…”
While Zach didn’t enjoy the story, and I hold him to no fault in that, I did. One of the biggest things any Riddick fan knows is that running through and killing everything you see at high speed may be fun, but sitting back and listening to the dialogue of the NPCs before you gut them can provide a good deal deeper storyline. It’s safe to say that if you did not enjoy either of the films you may not care much for the games and their storyline. But, if you did enjoy the films taking control of Tricky Dick is a dream come true.
My multiplayer experience was a different ordeal also. I did have some issues getting IN to some games, but once in everything was fine. And I have to take time to note that the Riddick mode was a blast to play. I haven’t had this much fun since I got to play the “Alien” in multiplayer Aliens vs. Predator (the original, of course).
All in all, giving games the remastered version of Butcher’s Bay is icing on the cake. I’d love to see more developers follow in these footsteps. For that reason alone Starbreeze earned 20 cookie points in my mind (Note: Cookie Points cannot be redeemed for review score points. However, I will send cookies to the devs if they ask for them).
Editor’s Score: 4/5
What Others Thought:
TestFreaks: 8.7/10
MetaCritic: 82/100
GameRankings: 81.77%
Tags: Atari, Chronicles of Riddick: Assualt on Dark Athena, Dark Athena, PC, Playstation 3, Review, Riddick, xbox 360
