Remember in the film Pitch Black, when we're first introduced to the convict named Riddick? We first see him confined in a stasis chamber, with some guy named Johns watching over him. Brief mention is made in the film The Chronicles of Riddick regarding a place called Butcher Bay. What happened in Butcher Bay? How did Riddick escape? What is his history with the man named Johns? How did he wind up on that ship at the beginning of Pitch Black?
Some of this background is at least partially explained through the video game Escape from Butcher Bay. You, the player, can take control of Riddick from his incarceration to his inevitable break-out. As an inmate of one of the toughest slams in the universe - a place where you never see sunshine again - you're made to fight with other inmates, sneak around the heavily-armed guards, and overcome the high-tech security. The game proves to be a tough challenge: one wrong move, and just a few bullets will kill you instantly. It can actually be frustrating a lot of the time, as one slight misstep could alert the guards, who then shoot you in the face with annoying accuracy. However, once you get a better weapon (shivs being the biggest goal at first, since all guns are DNA-locked Judge Dredd style) and your "shine job" done, you finally get to do what Riddick does best. Once you're able to see in the dark, using the same funky POV effects from the Pitch Black film, it's a pretty simple and rewarding manner of taking out all the lights, then stalking your prey from the comfort of darkness. Stealth is the cornerstone of the game; it's tricky at first, but after a while, darkness becomes your ally, and you're able to tap into the bestial potential of the Riddick character.
The game goes through a pretty standard prison-break story, which sends you on various missions to help others and help yourself. At times, it's just a simple manner of fetching silly quest items and bringing them back to someone to proceed to the next major plot point. What's really neat (and potentially frustrating) is that, just when you think you're doing good, you're often caught and put into an even more secure facility, just so you can break out again. It culminates with a massive rampage and showdown in the warden's office, before you're finally able to make the daring escape. The actual connections to the Riddick films are strongest thematically, given the game's use of shadow and the harsh prison settings. Direct plot and character connections are pretty light though; the best that can be said is that you'll learn how the man got his unique eye sight and how he escaped from jail. Other than that, it's not totally necessary to understanding the films.
The game has always looked pretty rough around the edges: cut-scenes look pretty hazy and awful, and character animations and lip movements are still and awkward (both in-game and in the cut-scenes). The fighting and acrobatic moves are pretty simplistic and clunky, but moving overall is smooth and feels groovy; it's especially sublime the way the screen transits when you move from a brightly-lit place to shadow, to show that you are effectively hidden. I think the game's most frustrating aspect is that it's very easy to get stuck in a few spots, mostly because the game could have benefited from more checkpoints, some areas are so bright and too heavily-guarded that they become impossible, and it can be hard to find ammo and health when you really need it. The levels have okay layouts and designs. The graphics quality can be a hit-or-a-miss; the settings look great, but characters tend to look pretty murky and bad. The game's biggest asset is its lighting mechanics, which provides some extremely high-contrast light and shadow that react realistically to your movements, and provides the necessary stealth mechanics for the game. Voice-acting (chief among the cast being Vin Diesel) is pretty awful. Sound design and music are good.
Riddick fans should give this game a try, to see a little more on the character's origins. However, be warned that it can be a rather frustrating game at times, and it hasn't aged all that well (even as an HD up-convert, available on the PS3 disc for Assault of Dark Athena).
3.5/5 (Experience: Pretty Good | Story: Average | Game: Pretty Good)
All this being said, I think the game could be better in a lot of ways. The biggest thing I can envision is that a more open-world environment would be awesome for a prison-break game of any kind. This game plays out pretty linearly, even though you do get a few side-quests and some free-reign on the areas. A prison-themed game with the play style of Assassin's Creed would be awesome, in my opinion. As it is though, this first Riddick game does have some merit.
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