Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena – Review (Xbox 360)
Richard B. Riddick seems to be the perfect character for a video game. His weapons expertise and ability to see in the dark translates perfectly to the media. 2004′s Escape from Butcher Bay showcased his skills well, but made a few missteps, namely not giving you his eyeshine until halfway through the game and having many levels take place in broad daylight. Assault on Dark Athena sets out to improve on the original formula, and, for the most part, succeeds.
The plot picks up immediately following Escape from Butcher Bay. Riddick and Johns are fleeing the prison and are intercepted by the Dark Athena, a space freighter run by ruthless mercenaries. Johns is captured, but Riddick remains undiscovered (at first) and begins his search to find a way off the ship. This basic setup may not appear to leave much leeway for story development, but things quickly change when Riddick finds a little girl hiding in the air vents who’s mother is a prisoner on the ship. From here, Riddick meets the rest of the prisoners on the ship and uncovers a plot to turn them into remote controlled zombies, of which he fights a large number of throughout the adventure.
It is important to note that this is a stealth based shooter. It could be easy to mistake the game for a straight up action title, but you will either find yourself dead or out of ammo if you try to play it that way. This can lead to some frustration since many of the tougher enemies don’t display their weakness without some trial and error. The difficulty will frequently and unexpectedly ramp up for some of the set piece moments, while others will be a breeze. The inconsistence hurts the overall flow of the game, making it difficult to feel a real buildup to the end.
Boss battles are a bit below par as well. Almost every one of them employs the age old tactic of ’move right until you can shoot them but they can’t shoot you’. Sadly, this problem becomes more noticeable as the game progresses, rather than less like most games. The final two bosses are laughably easy to defeat, with the last not even hitting me once.
Although the big moments can be a disappointing, it is the basic action where Assault on Dark Athena shines. Since most of the game taken place in space, you can shoot out all the lights and stalk your prey in the comfort of complete darkness. Riddick’s one weakness of bright lights can come into play if you aren’t careful. Getting caught in the light without his goggles on will almost completely blind you. Since the goggles are toggled with a single button press, it never becomes a burden to switch between low and high light levels. For the most part, your enemies are blind in the dark unless you get right in their faces. Better equipt soldiers will have flashlights that they can locate you with, as well as blind you if you aren’t wearing your goggles, which helps keep the game from becoming too easy in dark areas. Firing weapons will give away your position and the enemy will be able to see you until you break line of sight. Occasionally, an enemy will inexplicably spot you. This can be annoying, but it also helps keep the intensity up since you are never completely safe.
Since stealth is key, melee kills are usually the best way to approach a situation. Early in the game, Riddick finds his trademark curved blades. Stealth kills with these blades are varied and satisfyingly brutal. The death animations do repeat after a while, but they never get old.
Graphically, the game looks good, but nothing stands out. From a quality standpoint, everything looks great, but much of the environment lacks any style that would make it memorable. It is simply one gray spaceship hallway after another. Character performances, on the other hand, are easily the best on any game to date. Other games have had good voice acting, but the movements and emotion seen from each person are far beyond anything seen in any other game to date (yes, that includes Mass Effect and Crysis). Oddly, the one exception is Riddick himself. His performance itself is fine, but he barely speaks above a whisper and only ever threatens people. I understand he is supposed to be the stereotypical tough guy, but he does have a personality in the movies that isn’t portrayed much here.
The single player campaign clocks in around seven or eight hours. As a nice little shot at games like Modern Warfare 2, there is a false ending at around five hours that makes you start to believe it is ending on a cliffhanger, but just when you expect the credits to begin, the action starts back up. I could make the complaint that the game could have been longer, but the disc also comes with the remastered version of Escape from Butcher Bay, which is another seven hours in itself, and a great way for those that missed it the first time around to get caught up. Separately, each adventure would be a bit shorter than I like, but bundled as a single package provides more than enough gameplay.
Assault on Dark Athena is a faithful translation of the Chronicles of Riddick to a video game format. Fans of the movies shouldn’t hesitate to pick this up. For everyone else, the frustrations could deter some, but they would be missing out on some of the best FPS stealth action to come along in a while.
The Bottom Line
| Pros |
|---|
| Two games for the price of one, Some of the best stealth action to date, Top of the line voice acting and character animation |
| Cons |
| Some trial and error in tougher sections, Boss battles tend to be anti-climactic |
| Verdict |
| A no brainer for fans of the movies or stealth games in general. Rarely does a movie tie-in get this much effort poured into the game. |
| Overall |
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