Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena - multiplayer

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is composed of three parts. A remake of the original game: Escape from Butcher Bay and the sequel Assault on Dark Athena - single player campaign of the same length as the original game - and finally a multiplayer component.

- In The Darkness multiplayer was more of an add-on and we didn't really have the time to make it what we wanted it to be, but with Dark Athena we got multiplayer up and running even before the single player, we've been playing it for more than 12 months, says Jerk Gustafsson, Game Director at Starbreeze Studios.

Twelve players will face of in four standard modes; Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and Arena. Emphasis is on quick ronds, and fast paced gameplay in the spirit of Quake. But it is the other two multiplayer modes that are most interesting.

In Pitch Black there will be one Riddick (makes sense there is only one him...) facing a whole bunch of mercs. He can see in the dark and has a pace advantage - they cannot see in the dark but can equip themselves with assault rifles and other weapons before going after the man with few words and the deeeeep voice. The round ends when Riddick has killed everyone or if he gets caught and killed. The player who catches Riddick will be Riddick in the next round. Starbreeze did not want to reveal exactly how the scoring system works at this time. Perhaps they are still weighing their options.

- I think Pitch Black is the mode that will attract the most attention at the start, but Butcher Bay Riot is definitively the most popular at the office, says Samuel Ranta-Eskola, Producer Starbreeze Studios.

Butcher Bay Riot involves three teams of four people that chase after power cells from an opponents base to your own. Before each round you can buy your weapons (Counter-Strike style). The three teams, prisoners, guards and mercs are identical in terms of gameplay, but there is an interesting dynamic when one side is about to win and the other two teams have to concentrate on preventing that team from winning.

There will be a total of 20 multiplayer maps in The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena. There will be plenty more on The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena in the coming weeks on GRTV.