First Look The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay

Riddick is the upcoming prison-action game from Vivendi Universal and developer Starbreeze. It serves as a prequel to Pitch Black and its sequel, the upcoming Chronicles of Riddick. The game is being developed by Starbreeze, a Swedish developer whose most recent console effort, 2002's Enclave, garnered it some favorable attention. We had a chance to look at an early version of the game to see how it's coming together.

Riddick's story is told via the time-honored flashback convention, which helps its tale serve double duty in the prequel department. The game's story opens with Riddick in the present day, shortly before the upcoming Chronicles of Riddick film begins. The flashback, however, which makes up the core of the game's action, finds everyone's favorite space prisoner thinking back to his prison escape, which took place right before the events seen in Pitch Black. While it may be a bit highbrow for some, the gist of the setup is that you'll be running around killing many people, so it's all good.

The game follows a linear structure that opens with Riddick making his way through various areas in the prison in an attempt to escape. The journey is fraught with all sorts of trouble, such as guards, malformed inmates who are slightly crazier and cannibalistic than the normal ones, odd and deadly creatures, and security robots, to name just a few. Riddick's adventures will start out considerably low-tech, since he doesn't have the ability to use firearms because of pesky DNA tagging in the prison. As a result, the early sequences help you become acquainted with the first-person combat, which is similar to the action seen in Namco's Breakdown, though it has some unique elements that keep it from being derivative. You'll be able to sneak up behind people and snap their necks or stab them with whatever's handy. You'll also be able to perform an array of counters that will let you use your enemies' weapons against them. You'll eventually be able to use weapons, once you've done a little tinkering with some computer systems.

While Riddick's gameplay contains a satisfying amount of physical action and gunplay, the game also owns up to harsh reality. There simply aren't enough bullets to mow down everyone in the prison. As a result, you'll find stealth gameplay incorporated into the experience. You'll have to stick to the shadows and sneak about when you're unarmed and trying to get by a guard in a high-powered mech. If you're familiar with the character of Riddick, you'll probably be expecting these sequences to take advantage of the unique enhancement to his eyes, which was seen in Pitch Black, called "shining," which lets him see in darkness. While his eyes have indeed been enhanced in this game, you won't be able to use the ability immediately. As the game's story unfolds you'll see how Riddick came to have this enhancement, and then you'll be able to use it.

The graphics in the game are shaping up quite nicely. Starbreeze is running with the first-person work it started with Enclave and is refining it quite a bit for Riddick. While the game will be played primarily from a first-person perspective, the developer has wisely thrown in some third-person elements to keep the action from getting too frustrating when you're trying to climb or negotiate tricky areas. The level of detail in the game is looking very impressive, thanks to the game's robust graphics engine, which makes use of normal mapping to bring the dark environs of Riddick's prison home to disturbing life. You'll see bullet holes glow red right after the bullets hit and then slowly fade as they cool off. As for Riddick himself, his character model looks pretty stunning, and the impressive modeling has resulted in a near-photo-realistic virtual Vin Diesel. The game's almost total lack of a HUD lets you appreciate the environments and the assorted special effects used for lighting and Riddick's vision. The only hitch to be seen in this early version of the game is the frame rate, which tends to get inconsistent when there's too much action on the screen. However, we expect that this will be tightened up as development progresses.

The audio in the game is shaping up pretty well. The version of the game we played already had a good assortment of prisoner chatter (which takes full advantage of the game's M rating) and weapons fire and an unsettling collection of screams and gurgles to accompany all the dying that goes on.

From the looks of things so far, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay should be an interesting spin on the character and his mythos. The game's unique approach to the standard action elements you typically find in games should keep it fresh. Riddick is currently slated to ship this June for the Xbox. Look for more on the game in the coming weeks.