Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the game of the year

Author's Rating:

Pros: graphics, sound, atmosphere, depth, stealth, melee combat.

Cons: switching to third person in a dark area.

The Bottom Line: 
A whole new genre that combines aspects of FPS, stealth action, RPG, Platform adventure, and Beat-em-up with one of the most intensely cinematic stories yet told.

Author's Review
If there's one thing that can make every videogame reviewer cringe in unison it's the news of a game release based on the next big summer blockbuster to hit the big screen. This was the reaction most people gave to the news that Universal were all set to release a game based on the feature film The Chronicles Of Riddick, that was already looking like a second rate summer flick itself. Imagine my surprise then when I actually got around to playing the game and discovered a product with the words 'sleeper hit' plastered all over it. A game with the skills to revolutionize the way games are made, to become the game of the year, the best game on X-Box, and one of the all time greatest games without so much as breaking a sweat.

The secret to the success of The Chronicles Of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay is a complicated thing to explain since it never really comes down to any one thing. What makes this game so memorable is that it's not just another First Person Shooter (FPS) with stealth action elements, but that it's a whole new genre that combines aspects of FPS, stealth action, Role Playing Game (RPG), Platform adventure, and Beat-em-up with one of the most intensely cinematic stories yet told.

As Riddick you have just one simple objective! You've been captured and taken to the triple maximum security prison of Butcher Bay and you need to prove wrong all of those fools who call the place "unescapable". Of course Butcher Bay hasn't received it's reputation from the fact that any nutter with a gun can shoot their way out. No Butcher Bay is a dark, high tech, space based penitentiary that will require wits, cunning, and more than a little luck to escape from. At the start of the game; after a brief but enjoyable training/dream sequence, you will find yourself thrown weaponless into a cell in the Maximum security section of Butcher Bay. (Minor spoiler-your antics will inevitably find you being escorted to the similar but infinitely harder double maximum security section, and even a brief stint in the seemingly impossible triple maximum security section, better known as being cryogenically frozen-end spoiler) Before you can even think of formulating an escape plan you'll need to familiarize yourself with your surroundings. This is achieved through a series of RPG style conversations and side quests where Riddick will provide his own brand of services in exchange for information on the prison.

Fans of traditional FPSs will likely find this section to be disappointingly slow as the only weapon at your disposal is a shiv (the name given to any pointy object you find in a prison) and the security cameras/gun turrets make fighting in the corridors suicidal. Like I said though this is not just some FPS, and with these early sections Universal have proven that they've been playing their beat-em-ups. While not even close to having the complexity of Tekken these parts still show a depth that blows any unarmed combat in other FPSs clean out of the water. Riddick has his small array of punches and melee attacks, but on top of that you can also make use of his various counter attacks. Manage to time your attack to the exact moment of your opponents and you can deflect their punch and snap their neck, grab their shiv and slash their throat with it, and even turn a guards gun against him. That final one is an intensely satisfying but incredibly risky move that you may want to limit, but nevertheless the counter still adds a sense of strategy that is mostly lacking from your bog standard FPS melee attacks.

With all of these mini missions completed you can start to formulate your plan and the fun really begins. Once again though you'll find balls to the wall action is limited due to the fact that the guns are DNA encoded to the guards and you wont find any other guns until around the last 30 minutes of the games 10 hour run time. In the early stages you are able to access a terminal and enter your own DNA structure, but this limited access to guns is there merely to get you through a quick action stage that hides a lost surgeon who will perform the now infamous eye shine that makes Riddick so cool.

More than just some cheap gimmick Riddick's ability to see in the dark is both an integral part of the games structure, and the games biggest advancement. As a stealth action game Chronicles Of Riddick adhears to the Splinter Cell style of gameplay. There are no magical radars to tell you where a guard is looking, the guards can see more than 3 inches in front of them, and they are incredibly intelligent. However because it is in the first person perspective then Chronicles Of Riddick has the added tension from the fact that the only way to see what is coming around a corner is to peek around and hope nobody is looking. Luckily for you Riddick is very adept at hiding in the shadows and waiting patiently for the right moment to strike.

Thanks to the absolutely spectacular lighting effects used throughout the dank areas you can very easily wait for a guard to come to you. The shadows cast by the guards are so realistic that you can use them to gauge what direction a guard is facing, how close he is to your position,and whether or not he is aware of your presence without ever once sticking your head out and giving away your position. Then by combining that knowledge with Riddick's enhanced vision you can very quickly pick your own optimal attack position. You see whenever you crouch down in a dark enough shadow you get a mild blue tint across the screen letting you know that you are completely invisible to any guard that hasn't already seen you. Seeing you is a bad thing because they can and will use a torch, but if you hide well enough then they will happily walk right by you blissfully unaware of the fact that you are coming behind them to snap their necks.

Even more fun is when you find a tranquilizer gun; and like I said some bigger guns later on in the game, and you get to shoot the lights out yourself. Blanketing entire areas in a thick darkness, and then slipping off your goggles to make use of your night vision eyes. The purple tint on the screen is extremely atmospheric at portraying Riddick's point of view, and the ability to clearly see a guard who is struggling through the inky blackness just a few feet away is more than a little tense. Especially as you make your way closer to take him out. Just be careful later on because, when you do gain real guns, if you choose to shoot a guard during these moments then any other guards in the area will be able to see the muzzle flash and started firing on your position.

Of course the fact that Chronicles Of Riddick is a first person game means that it will have its share of intense action stages. Even these are among the best I've seen though thanks to a number of factors. The tactics with the lights are of course one factor, which combined with the games controls (the standard duel analogue controls, but with pressing the left stick in to duck and the right stick in to activate the night vision) produces a fast flowing stealth experience. Other important areas of note are the guards A.I which will use the light against you in the same way that you're using darkness, firing at muzzle flashes, shining torches into every corner, even rolling out of the way of your fire and ducking behind cover. Basically the fact that the enemies are far more unforgiving than the morons of the Metal Gear series makes the game that much more intense.

However one area that I haven't mentioned is the way that the game will occasionally throw platform game obstacles in your path, and the way it gets around this problem. As Riddick you are able to climb onto crates, up ladders, shimmy ledges and swing along the monkey bars. To prevent the usual control issues though using these abilities will briefly change the game into the third person so that you can do what you need without the usual frustrations of accidentally walking off the ladder. Admittedly this does pose the game with it's biggest problem, because when you do this in a dark area you lose the night vision and subsequently can not see what you are doing. Yet the fact that you can not fall or take any missteps in any ways means that this is only a very minor annoyance.

With that being the only major gripe with the game then you are free to enjoy everything it does aesthetically. The story may be a simple prison break story but the superb voice acting from the likes of Cole Hauser, Ron Perlman, and of course the cold and calculating narration from Vin Diesel really bring alive the characters of Butcher Bay. Add to that the environmental sounds; hissing gas valves, chatting guards, distant gun fire, and the slow thumping of Riddick's heart as you sneak through the shadows, throw in a little action stage music straight from your local multiplex (which can at times sound like it was taken directly from Metal Gear Solid II) and mix it all together with some of the best graphics to come out of Microsoft's big black box.

Chronicles Of Riddick makes use of a fairly new technique known as Normal Mapping, which allows the game engine to light each individual object as if it wasn't made up of a series of jagged triangles. Look too closely and, yes, you will be able to find the edges, but because of the dramatic lighting effects used most of the time the only edges you'll see will be the ones that are supposed to be there. Other little details include the fact that Riddick's clothes will dirty as the game progresses, enemies will bruise as you pummel them, the rag doll physics make them bounce realistically when you shoot them, and of course some absolutely flawless motion captured animations. All of these things combine with the strong use of sound to provide an unrivaled atmosphere that permeates each and every level. This, combined with the game mechanics, provides a level of immersion that you wont have seen in years.

If you're still looking for a full on FPS then I'm sorry but you're looking in the wrong place. Both the guns and the enemies are lacking variety and the game will unyieldingly punish impatience. Yet if you've read through this review and thought "yeah, this sounds like the game for me!" then I assure you that Chronicles Of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay is by far the best game of 2004, and a game that deserves to take its place among the Deus Exs of the world!