The Chronicles Of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay
[Xbox]

Platform: Xbox
Publisher: Vivendi Universal
Price: 49.99
Genre: Action
ESRB: M for Mature

I was a fan of Riddick almost immediately as he made his first appearance in Pitch Black. Maybe I’m just a softy for the anti-heroes but I continue to believe that he is one of the greatest characters ever created. Would he be as appealing if not played by Vin Diesel? Probably not. That’s why Vivendi picked him up, and like a stiff left jab, out of no where came The Chronicles Or Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay.

The opening cutscene for this game kind of had me confused as to what exactly was about to unfold. There’s a bearded man in a snowy drift, and it just so happens that it’s Riddick. Well, the first thing that crossed my mind is that this is a prequel to both Pitch Black and The Chronicles Of Riddick, so why is my man all bearded and hairy? It turns out this is Riddick in the present and as he enters a cave, a mysterious voice asks him about Butcher Bay and the story begins with him recalling the events of the inescapable prison.

Chronicles is another one of those games that can’t really be summed up with a single genre label. It has elements of first-person action, stealth, and adventure. The opening tutorial is neat.. The way it is implemented in to the game while still getting across the basic control layout of the game across to the gamer is sheer genius. Most of the time you are given a goal, and it’s your place to figure out how to go about obtaining what’s necessary to advance to that goal. There’s no real direct line connecting point A to point B. This makes for a very open ended experience. At first it may be something as simple as deciding whether to silently crack a guards neck, and then take on the hoards...but later it gets more along the lines of deciding whether to shoot out the lights and advance in the darkness with your shine vision, kill a mechanic and use his vent tool to make your way through the air-ducts, or just destroy everything in site. There are so many ways to get from A to B that I’ve played through the game three times and I’m still finding new possibilities. NPC’s all have a distinct personality. This goes for guards and prisoners. Guards get antsy and smack you with the butt of their gun. Some prisoners will straight up tell you to "f*ck off." Others will offer you information and tools or money for completing tasks for them. You can accept or reject their offers. Most of the time they just give you a pack of smokes which is how you unlock all the bonus material. Other times they’ll hook you up with money, a weapon, or a password. All of these quests are logged in your journal for you to access at any time.

Moving on to the actual core of the game, the robust combat and stealth is where it’s at. Not only can you link up hooks and uppercuts, but you can blast away with a gun, stab away with a screwdriver, execute stealth kills, and there are reversals for just about every situation. There are so many ways to kill, it requires a few plays to have an opportunity to see them all. The aggressive A.I. will do their best to keep you from doing anything. They work as a group, noticing sounds or out of place prisoners and go about duties accordingly. Prisoners do the same. Each one reacts to situations differently. Most will put up their dukes or pull out a blade and come at you while some may run for cover. Every NPC (with guards being exceptions) has a distinct way of taking action. There’s even a retard! I love it. The number of guard models is kind of low, as you’ll only come across a handful of types. There are a few basic guards, a couple riot guards in battle armor, a few creatures, and of course there’s always turrets to keep you in line. Riddick isn’t without a small rebel-reducing arsenal though. You’ll come across custom shivs, knuckles, clubs, pistols, shotguns, assault rifles, mini-guns, tranq guns, and grenades. You don’t get to kill anyone with a frying pan, but sequels do make room for improvements like that. With this game’s aggressive enemies, you’ll definitely be needing health refills. Chronicle’s unique take on health is a machine called NanoMed. The party at hand presses their hands against a panel and large needles are thrust in to their neck to replenish and revive. These machines are scattered throughout the game and each one offers 4 tanks of health. As you advance you get more health tanks, so NanoMed cartridges can also be found and used to refill the NanoMed machines. One of the few problems I had with the gameplay was saving and loading. Load times occur, sometimes ridiculously often. Each load takes about 10 seconds. Saving is automatic, but the problem here is that it’s triggered by checkpoints. Sometimes it doesn’t save for the longest times and when you end up dying and restarting way back in a different area, well it can get frustrating. The map is pretty useless, but don’t fret. You won’t need it too often. It comes down to this just being a wonderfully laid out game; a living, breathing hell prison.

The visuals are what drew the most attention to Chronicles, and rightfully so. This is a gorgeous game, but I don’t think it should be the focal point. For every beautiful piece of scenery or amazing character model, there’s a glitch or fudge up in the appearance of something. Don’t get me wrong. This easily the best looking game on a console. There are wrinkles on faces, rippling abs, floppy titties, stretched skin, scars, and as soon as Riddick is done - there are lots of bullet holes, cuts and bruises. Bullet holes actually leave enter and exits spots. Seeing blood spray out of a guy’s cranium and painting a wall is very different. It’s gruesome. The shadow and lighting effects are equally impressive. Watch approaching enemies and know there where-a-bouts just by looking at there shrinking or growing shadow. The variety of settings is astounding considering the locale. Who would think a prison could encompass so many variables? Very refreshing level design. When you obtain shine vision, it’s like a whole new game. Going to work in the dark is unexplainably cool. The coolest thing is that lights off of a guard’s gun or in general can blind you. Vivendi worked out the sensitivity well. First person is where most of the game is viewed from, but third person is involved. When climbing a ladder, using a security card, or shuffling across a ledge - it will shift flawlessly in and out of third person. It was a great idea, allowing the gamer to see the environment and setting outside of Riddick’s eyes. The most reoccurring problem graphically lies in the cutscenes. There are numerous glitches and silly mistakes. Sometimes the character models get really grainy like they’re behind a gasoline filter or standing on a desert highway. There are lots of little jaggy black shapes that appear in the form of shadows too. Those problems aside, the graphical nature of this game is one to cherish.

Obviously Vin Diesel is the draw here. He does such a good job voicing this character, it’s almost weird. Vin just really let loose on this one and it’s easy to tell he feels like this character is part of him. Like I said earlier, Riddick is one of the best anti-heroes there is, and Vin gives him the attitude to back it up. Anybody else that was casted for the movie is also voicing the appropriate character in the game. Xzibit makes an intimidating appearance, er...sound. His role as Abbot is a well acted one. All the other talents in Chronicles do an excellent job setting the mood for their character, giving them each distinguishable personalities. I love the fact that NPC’s go about conversing even when you’re not involved in the conversation. There is a ton of foul language with I rather enjoyed because it’s just so cheesy and action film cliched, it makes me laugh. Those aside, guns a' blazing, necks a' cracking, and creatures a’stirring...it all sounds perfectly fitting. The musical scores weren’t anything special but they aren’t ever noticeably bad which is a good thing.

A must for a solid first person shooter of any type is a good control scheme, and Chronicles executes to perfection. The tutorial at the beginning not only gets you prepared with the basics, but manages to do it in a creative manner. Both hand to hand combat and shooting feel equally slick. Toggling weapons, environment interaction, reloading, and jumping are all mapped to face buttons for quick use. The triggers is used for hand to hand combat. The right trigger, in cahoots with the left thumbstick, will let you throw a variety of punches while the left trigger acts as your way of blocking and reversing. The triggers are also used for stealth kills and gunplay. The thumbsticks are used for crouching and toggling shine vision off and on. Oddly enough, the D-pad is used for peaking around corners or over crates. It’s a different control layout that will be picked up almost as quickly as learning to tie your shoes. The only problem I had with the control scheme was accessing hangrails. Occasionally Riddick would decide he didn’t want to jump on to a hangrail, leaving me vulnerable to attacks. It’s also kind of awkward learning which directions make you go which way on the hangrails. Thankfully, it’s not something you’ll be partaking in very often.

The plot comes together nicely, and believe me when I say there is absolutely never a dull moment. Whether you’re getting to know the unique prisoners in one of the triple max sections, searching for a list of snitches, or getting patted down by guards for contraband; it’s always just as intense. Back to the story though, Johns is transporting Riddick to Butcher Bay in hope of receiving a big reward from Hoxie. Hoxie knows that Riddick is the Universe’s most wanted man, but because of Johns’ prior problems with him, he gives Johns didly squat. Now Riddick’s madness is let loose upon a triple-max security prison that is home to much more than just killers and guards. This would have made a much better movie than what got released in theaters...

So one would think that after one play through a game like this and that’s that, right? Wrong pal. In a short period of weeks I’ve played through Butcher Bay 3 times completely, not to mention having immediate access to every checkpoint in the game. This means you can start just about anywhere in the game and replay your favorite parts with out the hassle of playing the whole game again (which I opt to do). It’s a short game at 5-8 hours, but it has enough entertainment value to keep gamers sneaking in the shadows for a long time. For once, it’s not the extras that draw the gamer in, it’s the gameplay.

While you’re waiting for me to sum this game up in a nice little paragraph, I’m drooling at the possibilities of another play through. Please do yourself a favor and get a hold of this one. Escape From Butcher Bay is quite easily one of the greatest consoles games of this generation.

Graphics: 9.5 | Sound: 9 | Control: 10 | Replay: 9 | Overall: 9.5/10

---Frayed