The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena

It's been just over four years since Starbreeze launched their biggest title to date The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. A brilliant game with a wonderful mix of genres and gameplay, a forerunner to the modern action game but also criminally overlooked at the time. It fell into the trap of being a licensed title, where the license didn't really help in terms of sales and veteran gamers jaded by passed experience with games based on movie licenses passed on it.

Fast forward to present times and Starbreeze have finally finished the remake of Escape from Butcher Bay, the new campaign Assault on Dark Athena, and a brand new multiplayer component.

For those of us who played the original Escape from Butcher Bay, the remake adds little value except for the chance of replaying a classic in HD. Obviously the genre has evolved since it was released and the game design appears very rigid at times, but overall it has managed to remain surprisingly fresh. The main feast, at least for me, was the new campaign - Assault on Dark Athena - that lets us experience what happened after Riddick escaped from Butcher Bay. The gameplay and the pacing remains unchanged as Riddick finds himself aboard a slave ship in an uncivilised part of the universe.

Once again his goal is to escape and in his wake he leaves a trail of dead people friends and foes alike. Thus the story stays true to the franchise. The mix of gameplay elements is both the strength and the weakness of Assault on Dark Athena. There are parts that I feel aren't as much fun, dodging a spotlight while climbing large steel boxes for one, and there was an area where you faced two mechs and I for one could not manage to sneak by them. I ended up having to make a run for and I made it, but it felt like cheating in a game where stealth is supposed to be your best friend. The game doesn't feature the best shooting I've experienced either, but the shooting sections are relatively few.

Richard B. Riddick is an ideal video game character. He is the perfect anti-hero. His one liners, whispered by Vin Diesel with his deepest possible voice (so low it could damage your speakers if you're not careful), are ideal rewards for overcoming a hurdle in the game. Rewarding the player is something Starbreeze do well in Assault on Dark Athena. You get new toys around almost every corner, and although some are more fun than others it reeks of ambition.

I mainly played the game on my Playstation 3 although I also tried it on Xbox 360. The latter version is superior from a technical point of view with fewer glitches, frame drops (rare as they are) and better blending of light and darkness. However, the differences are not as pronounced as with The Darkness and as far as gameplay goes they are virtually identical.

Great as Assault on Dark Athena is it also comes with the same limitations as Escape from Butcher Bay. First built as a short extra chapter, then extended into a full campaign, it makes no giant strides when it comes to level design. Although the setting and the tasks may be different it is still the same principles at work with no major changes. It is no major knock, as Escape from Butcher Bay still holds up well, but given that Assault on Dark Athena is shorter and slightly less inspired, I came away less satisfied than I was hoping for.

The multiplayer adds extra value to the package, but Riddick isn't really ideally suited for multiplayer in my opinion. The gameplay mechanics just aren't up there with Halo, Call of Duty or Gears of War when it comes to multiplayer. That is not to say that you can enjoy what is on offer. The exclusive modes and perhaps Pitch Black in particular will give those who invest time in it plenty of entertainment.

It is a bit hard to score The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena. It is one hell of a package and will provide you with more hours of entertainment than most single player action games these days, but it does feel aged in certain areas. Let's hope Starbreeze get to do a full on sequel someday in a not too distant future.