A thrilling combination of gunplay, stealth, and hand-to-hand combat that never compromises one aspect for another.
User Rating: 9.1 | The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay XBOX
Apparently, Starbreeze Studios and Vivendi missed the memo: games based on movies are supposed to be bad. It is all the more impressive, then, that the age of weak action franchise games like Enter the Matrix and Terminator 3 has given way to The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. Technically astounding and solidly paced, Chronicles is a heart-pounding first person shooter as good as any action experience in recent memory. Once completed, however, its lack of any multiplayer options and limited replay value will leave players that enjoy the short campaign wanting more. Escape from Butcher Bay takes place before the events of both 2000’s Pitch Black and the upcoming film Chronicles of Riddick. The player takes the role of the chillingly monosyllabic Richard Riddick, a convicted murderer bartered to the maximum security prison Butcher Bay. Unsurprisingly, your purpose is to escape and just as in Pitch Black, the narrative here is not to be found in the paper-thin plot, but in the brooding, cinematic atmosphere and mysterious inhabitants. Riddick is ostensibly the main character, but the true star is Butcher Bay itself, and like Black Mesa in Half-Life, it takes an ominous center stage. In fact, like many post-Half-Life shooters, Riddick owes much to Valve’s masterpiece, down to the cinematic opening credits that recall Gordon Freeman’s tram ride. The pleasure is not in the story, but in the telling; and while the references to the upcoming movie can be puzzling, players won’t need to be familiar with the film franchise to enjoy the game. Your job is to get Riddick out and the game wastes no time in getting started. This is not a typical first-person shooter: Chronicles requires as much expertise in hand-to-hand combat and stealth as it does in gunplay, and thankfully, none of these elements are given short shrift. You can peek around corners using the D-pad, climb along railings, move and hide bodies, and sneak up behind guards and drop them with a few efficient slices... or a dramatic neckbreak. The brilliant sneaking scheme bears special note: crouch with a click of the left thumbstick and with a soft whoosh, your senses are heightened. Your field of view widens and environmental noises intensify, making you acutely aware of your surroundings. The screen will also take on a blue hue, letting you know when you are successfully hidden, and you will hear your heart pound when enemies are aware of your presence. Riddick is also capable of “eyeshine,” which allows you to see in the dark, unnoticed by enemies and adding another layer to Chronicles’ stealth elements. You can even shoot out lights, giving you extra cover when you need it. The hand-to-hand combat is perhaps the best seen in any game of this type, with punch combos and effective blocking and a few different melee weapons at your disposal, such as shivs and brass knuckles. All of this is made simple with a smooth control scheme that allows the player to transition in and out of stealth seamlessly and the almost complete absence of a HUD. Every cue the player needs is presented deftly through sound and vision. It isn’t a shooter without guns, and while Riddick doesn’t have a huge array of weapons available to him, they pack a definite punch. They include the simply-named “gun,” a standard assault rifle, minigun, and shotgun, all of which deliver satisfying damage and are well-balanced. They each have legitimate uses and those partial to the shotgun will find it particularly useful in close-quarters combat, delivering satisfying booms and a smattering of entrails. Players will not be able to rely on a single weapon, just as they cannot rely on a simple balls-out all-action approach; there are a variety of different enemies and they will not take your punishment without dishing it back. Unlike many games focused entirely on stealth, giving yourself away is not an immediate death sentence and you can still battle your way out of trouble. The AI of your human adversaries is mostly top-notch and they will hide in the darkness, shield themselves with the environment and when in trouble, run for help while they cry out such classic lines as “I don’t deserve to die! OK, maybe I do, but I don’t want to!” There are some idiosyncrasies, however: we encountered moments in which enemies were oblivious to our presence, even when we were crouched directly in front of them, and other times when enemies were hypersensitive to our location when seemingly hidden from view. Non-human enemies, such as sewer dwellers and guard robots, follow a discernable pattern and their challenge comes not from their intelligence, but from their sheer numbers or tough armor. This all plays out in a genuinely frightening and mature vision of a futuristic intergalactic prison. Butcher Bay is gritty and disturbing, and in RPG-like sessions between missions, you will encounter prisoners and guards that alternately threaten and bargain, infusing their speech with plenty of four-letter words. These characters all have individual names and voices, and can be seen doing a variety of activities, such as dealing drugs in a corner or doing sit-ups in a prison cell. The environments are eerie and claustrophobic, making for a tense and strained atmosphere with plenty of surprises lurking around corners. Much of your trek is linear in nature, which is forgivable to an extent; this is a prison, after all and there is little call for expansive environments. There are still plenty of labyrinthine corridors and ventilation systems to explore, and the varied mix of stealth and action makes for some nail-biting gameplay. Escape from Butcher Bay is challenging but rarely frustrating. Controls are elegant and while save checkpoints are common enough, they are not so frequent as to make you feel secure. Health is regenerated at Nanomed stations and they are also interspersed conservatively through the levels, keeping the mood tense but never overwhelming. It’s unfortunate that as great as the single-player campaign is, there is little to see once the 10-hour game is finished. There is no multiplayer mode and while Chronicles is Xbox Live aware, it does not support downloadable content. There are extra items like concept art and movie scenes to be unlocked by finding packs of cigarettes scattered throughout the game. You can also choose from three difficulty settings, but these additions may not be reward enough to warrant a replay even though the hardest difficulty is a significant challenge. The somewhat open-ended missions will help alleviate this and help soften the game’s relative lack of lasting value. Still, considering the satisfying multiplayer stealth of Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow and the online action of other titles, it’s a noticeable blemish on an otherwise superb game. Chronicles of Riddick looks fantastic. It touts the use of “normal mapping” to make textures and surfaces reflect light realistically, and the results are nothing short of brilliant. Gritty textures look rough to the touch while others are silky smooth, and lighting and shadows are incredible. You cast your shadow on walls and objects, and it will elongate, shorten, move or disappear as the lighting changes. When you crouch or drag around corpses, you will see your shadow change accordingly. Butcher Bay itself is richly detailed, down to the flickering lights and profanities scribbled on the grungy walls. Character models are perhaps the best yet seen on a console, as Riddick’s muscles bulge and flex as he climbs, and inmates and guards are incredibly detailed, down to their tattered clothing and expressive faces. The game runs at fast and fluid framerates with few noticeable glitches, and only the occasional loading pause disrupts the immersion. If possible, Chronicles sounds even better than it looks. It features some of the best voice acting heard in a game, with actors from the films reprising their roles, including Vin Diesel himself. He is menacingly deadpan, which adds to the sense of dread as you progress through Butcher Bay, although there is no true weak link where voicing is concerned. Ambient sound is unequaled; you will hear the chilling steps of your enemies before you see them, the cries and shouts of distant prisoners and the clanging and creaking of doors and walkways. Music kicks in during action sequences and it is atmospheric and never jarring. There is little music at most other times, since it would be out of place in Chronicles’ dank setting. Effects are equally impressive: explosions are dramatic affairs and weapons discharge with a noisy ruckus. It’s to the game’s credit that its primary drawback is not what it is, but what it’s missing. Still, it delivers a thrilling combination of gunplay, stealth, role playing, and hand-to-hand combat and never compromises one aspect for another. Challenging but rarely vexing, bleak and unnerving and technically extraordinary, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay represents another step in the evolution of single-player action games. As Riddick would say, “The dark: my favorite.”
