The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay Review (Xbox)

I've never seen Pitch Black or the sequel (prequel), so any references or plot ties to the movie are totally lost on me. I don't know if this game follows the film's plotline closely, runs parallel, or fills in gaps like the Matrix game.

That said, the game is a cinematic experience in and of itself. It has a good number of cutsences which are very well animated and acted (Vin Diesel acting anyway). The HUD is relatively uncluttered by health bars, ammo count, etc., making even the normal game feel like an interactive movie. There isn't much story to speak of, you basically just have to escape Butcher Bay prison. The title says it all. Once you do, the game is over.

And it's a short game. I beat it in about two fairly long sittings. It probably added up to about seven or eight hours.

I'm a fan of FPSs, and I was kind of hoping for the standard run and gun gameplay of most in the genre. I was wrong, though I won't say I was disappointed. There is just as much action, stealth, platforming, and RPG elements as there is gunplay. This is handled fairly well for the most part. Interacting with other prisioners is interesting and colorful. You kind of feel like you're really in prison for awhile, minus the assrape (though that is eluded to a couple times).

The only parts I had difficulty with were the stealth sections. You can hear heartbeats when people are close to you and some guards carry lights, but sometimes as soon as you round a corner (in "stealth-mode" or not) you're spotted, and subsequently screwed. Most of the time I just found myself running up on armed guards and either beating them to death or countering their strikes and putting thier shotguns up to their heads and killing them. These parts were frustrating to say the least.

RPG elements like accepting missions from other prisioners, and collecting moths (?) and cigarette packs add something different to the game, but alot of time to complete these you have to backtrack alot. It's not that big of a deal seeing how most of the levels are rather small, but the five to ten second loading times between sections of the level get rather tiresome.

The shooting levels are fun, but they're short and sparse. There are a very limited number of weapons (pistol, shotgun, assualt rifle, minigun) and most of the game you'll only want to use the assualt rifle. The controls are rather counter-intuitive and there's no way to customize them. You're stuck using the black button to zoom, while the right stick activates your night vison. Weird.

There's no multiplayer, which blows. The game is Live Enabled for some reason, though I can't find out why. If I ever do, I'll get back to you.

The Chronicles of Riddick is definitely a unique and fun game. It's worth a rental alone just so you can experience it, and unless you completely suck or get too frustrated with the stealth sections, beat it. The replay value basically lies in trying to find the cigarette packs so you can unlock game and movie art. If you're a Riddick fan (which I'm not), it might be worth buying to get all this stuff, which I'd imagine would require a few playthroughs.