The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay is perhaps one of the best sleeper titles we've every seen. What this means is that this is a game that really wasn't hyped up too much and not too many people were looking forward to it, but it sure kicks ass. Although the film of the same name didn't do too well at the box office, the game was praised by reviewers and gamers alike as soon as it hit the Xbox earlier this year. Not only is the PC version obviously better than its Xbox counterpart, but it definitely stands strong against some of the best shooters all year.
Escape from Butcher Bay puts you in an area of the Riddick universe taking place before the events of the Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick films. Your location and objectives are quite clear, and are explained in the subtitle. You must escape from Butcher Bay high security facility which is a level 3 security prison. Throughout the whole course of the game you'll escape from custody a number of times until finally finding the right way out.
This is, in a sense, a movie-based game. Therefore it's working from a movie-based license, and as we all know unless it's the Lord of the Rings series, movie-based games are generally poor. However, that's not the case here. Escape from Butcher Bay coexists with the movie despite not following the events of the movie. It's essentially its own story and does somewhat relate back to the film. What it does well though, is to provide a background story for Riddick, and you'll even find out how he gets those bright eyes that let him see in the dark. Butcher Bay was mentioned once in The Chronicles of Riddick film at a brief spot, but now you actually get to go back in time and relive Riddick's breakout. This definitely provides some insight for fans of the series. Surprisingly for us, it's done in a way that doesn't get boring and with a touch of action, stealth, and RPG elements that have been seamlessly blended together to create an overall great experience.
As you arrive at Butcher Bay you are presented with what really does look like real prison life. You're capable of leaving your cell at anytime in a locked down area. You can then approach any of the NPCs and talk with them by using dialog trees as seen in any RPG. This RPG element of the game is quite small, but provides for some varied gameplay and allows you to feel more involved in the game environment. The action portion of the game is what takes up most of the gameplay, and is no different from your typical shooter. You find yourself running around and shooting the crap out of anything that moves. However, the shooting does seem a bit sloppy. For example, you could be shooting straight at a guy's head and it would take a while for your bullets to actually hit the guy. All the bullets seem to hit everywhere except for your enemy. Maybe Riddick is just a bad shot or maybe he's drunk, but luckily it's not too noticeable.
Some of the weapons you get include a shotgun, assault rifle, grenades, tranquilizer gun, and a handgun. It's disappointing to see such a limited selection of weaponry, but throughout many parts of the game you rely heavily on hand-to-hand combat. Hand-to-hand combat is rarely ever done right in a first person shooter. Escape from Butcher Bay , however, has managed to get it just right. This is perhaps one of the most innovative areas of the game. You're capable of fighting your enemies with many different handheld weapons. Some of these include shivs; which can be anything from a screwdriver to a piece of sharp metal, different types of clubs, and of course your fists.
There are different fighting moves for each of your weapons. For example, when fighting with your fists you're capable of performing right and left jabs and even uppercuts by simply pressing the correct key in combination with the 'Fire' button. With each of these hand-to-hand combat weapons, you can also block your enemy's attack. Other moves can also be performed at just the right moment. These can include taking a gun away from your enemy and then making him shoot himself with it, and the same can be done with shivs. This is definitely the best addition of hand-to-hand combat that we've ever seen in a first person shooter. It all works out well and gives you some more variety concerning how you can kill your enemies.
Escape from Butcher Bay also delivers to fans of stealth games. Almost anytime that you come across an enemy, you can try and sneak by or stealthily take them down. This is accomplished by simply sticking to the shadows and knocking out any nearby lights. In order to enter 'stealth' mode, all you have to do is simply crouch in a darkened area. Once in stealth mode, instead of providing you with a meter that tells you how visible you are, such as games like Splinter Cell and Thief, your view changes to a somewhat darker and more blue color. From here you can sneak up on your enemies and perform a number of moves on them that involve you snapping their necks, stabbing them in the back, knocking their legs out with a club, or slicing their necks. It all leads up to a very satisfying stealth approach throughout the game. Going back to the fact that there is no stealth meter on the screen, it seems as if developer Starbreeze wanted the player to feel more like Riddick by not having much on the screen at all. While playing, you'll notice that there really is no permanent HUD on the screen all the time.
Unfortunately, there is no multiplayer to compliment the single-player campaign. So when you have finished beating the 10 hour single-player campaign you may think that there is little more to do. Luckily, Escape from Butcher Bay provides for great variety of gameplay, and its open-endedness warrants at least a couple of times of playing through the game.
Also, throughout the game you can unlock bonus concept art and movie stills by simply finding special cigarette packs laying about. One of which is actually the making of the game that you can watch (this originally appeared on G4TV). After beating the game, you are given the option of playing through the game on Commentary mode. In this mode there are small icons floating through the air in specific levels. When clicking on one of these icons, you can hear commentary from the developers that talks about that specific area and how they made it. This certainly allows you some insight on the development process of the game, and it is an awesome feature that we would like to see added to every game.
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay includes the best of the best when it comes to graphics. It combines the amazing style of advanced lighting and shadows that we've seen from games like DOOM 3 , but also includes such visual spectacles as Normal Mapping which we've seen from the likes of Half-Life 2 . All of this combined with real motion captured animation provides for one heck of an amazing look. All of the character models and weapons are extremely detailed and lifelike. Speaking of lifelike, Vin Diesel's appearance in the game is frighteningly realistic. He perhaps looks a little too lifelike when compared to the real life version. The rest of the animations from all of the characters are all portrayed very well and realistically.
When playing as Riddick you can actually see your legs and arms. This is a great change of pace from other first person shooters where you can only see your gun and not the rest of your body. Also, when climbing up onto surfaces or shimmying across ledges, your view changes to a third person perspective to help him navigate easier.
The sound effects, voice acting, and music are all topnotch. Among the actors lending their voices to the roles in the game are Xzibit and of course Vin Diesel. After all, who else could do Riddick's voice other than Diesel himself? This gives Riddick the exact same feeling and attitude that's seen in the movies. The sound effects are of a high quality and act much the same as any other shooter. You're able to distinctively hear the sounds of guards running about, bullets ricocheting off metal surfaces, and the voices of the guards searching for you. The music is also quite nice as it goes perfectly with the action, and picks up and slows down depending upon what moves you are taking. The sound in this game is especially important later when you face some nasty alien creatures. It's these later levels that are obviously intended to creep you out and somewhat terrify you.
The AI in Escape from Butcher Bay is very smart. They take effective cover when being fired upon and roll around to dodge bullets like most shooter games. However, they don't run directly towards you like in what we see from most shooters. Instead, they know to keep their distance and fight you from afar. They can also see your flashlight when you're sneaking around in the dark. So luckily later in the game you receive your glowing eyes and are capable of seeing in the dark by the press of a button.
Conclusion
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay falls nowhere short of being one of the best action games all year. Sure it may not have multiplayer and it does have some minor annoyances, but it provides for one awesome action experience. Not only does it have some of the most advanced graphics and AI, but it's also one of the best console ports we've ever seen of a game. All signs of it first being a Xbox game are truly gone. And that's what we love to see in a console port.
Escape from Butcher Bay puts you in an area of the Riddick universe taking place before the events of the Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick films. Your location and objectives are quite clear, and are explained in the subtitle. You must escape from Butcher Bay high security facility which is a level 3 security prison. Throughout the whole course of the game you'll escape from custody a number of times until finally finding the right way out.
This is, in a sense, a movie-based game. Therefore it's working from a movie-based license, and as we all know unless it's the Lord of the Rings series, movie-based games are generally poor. However, that's not the case here. Escape from Butcher Bay coexists with the movie despite not following the events of the movie. It's essentially its own story and does somewhat relate back to the film. What it does well though, is to provide a background story for Riddick, and you'll even find out how he gets those bright eyes that let him see in the dark. Butcher Bay was mentioned once in The Chronicles of Riddick film at a brief spot, but now you actually get to go back in time and relive Riddick's breakout. This definitely provides some insight for fans of the series. Surprisingly for us, it's done in a way that doesn't get boring and with a touch of action, stealth, and RPG elements that have been seamlessly blended together to create an overall great experience.
As you arrive at Butcher Bay you are presented with what really does look like real prison life. You're capable of leaving your cell at anytime in a locked down area. You can then approach any of the NPCs and talk with them by using dialog trees as seen in any RPG. This RPG element of the game is quite small, but provides for some varied gameplay and allows you to feel more involved in the game environment. The action portion of the game is what takes up most of the gameplay, and is no different from your typical shooter. You find yourself running around and shooting the crap out of anything that moves. However, the shooting does seem a bit sloppy. For example, you could be shooting straight at a guy's head and it would take a while for your bullets to actually hit the guy. All the bullets seem to hit everywhere except for your enemy. Maybe Riddick is just a bad shot or maybe he's drunk, but luckily it's not too noticeable.
Some of the weapons you get include a shotgun, assault rifle, grenades, tranquilizer gun, and a handgun. It's disappointing to see such a limited selection of weaponry, but throughout many parts of the game you rely heavily on hand-to-hand combat. Hand-to-hand combat is rarely ever done right in a first person shooter. Escape from Butcher Bay , however, has managed to get it just right. This is perhaps one of the most innovative areas of the game. You're capable of fighting your enemies with many different handheld weapons. Some of these include shivs; which can be anything from a screwdriver to a piece of sharp metal, different types of clubs, and of course your fists.
There are different fighting moves for each of your weapons. For example, when fighting with your fists you're capable of performing right and left jabs and even uppercuts by simply pressing the correct key in combination with the 'Fire' button. With each of these hand-to-hand combat weapons, you can also block your enemy's attack. Other moves can also be performed at just the right moment. These can include taking a gun away from your enemy and then making him shoot himself with it, and the same can be done with shivs. This is definitely the best addition of hand-to-hand combat that we've ever seen in a first person shooter. It all works out well and gives you some more variety concerning how you can kill your enemies.
Escape from Butcher Bay also delivers to fans of stealth games. Almost anytime that you come across an enemy, you can try and sneak by or stealthily take them down. This is accomplished by simply sticking to the shadows and knocking out any nearby lights. In order to enter 'stealth' mode, all you have to do is simply crouch in a darkened area. Once in stealth mode, instead of providing you with a meter that tells you how visible you are, such as games like Splinter Cell and Thief, your view changes to a somewhat darker and more blue color. From here you can sneak up on your enemies and perform a number of moves on them that involve you snapping their necks, stabbing them in the back, knocking their legs out with a club, or slicing their necks. It all leads up to a very satisfying stealth approach throughout the game. Going back to the fact that there is no stealth meter on the screen, it seems as if developer Starbreeze wanted the player to feel more like Riddick by not having much on the screen at all. While playing, you'll notice that there really is no permanent HUD on the screen all the time.
Unfortunately, there is no multiplayer to compliment the single-player campaign. So when you have finished beating the 10 hour single-player campaign you may think that there is little more to do. Luckily, Escape from Butcher Bay provides for great variety of gameplay, and its open-endedness warrants at least a couple of times of playing through the game.
Also, throughout the game you can unlock bonus concept art and movie stills by simply finding special cigarette packs laying about. One of which is actually the making of the game that you can watch (this originally appeared on G4TV). After beating the game, you are given the option of playing through the game on Commentary mode. In this mode there are small icons floating through the air in specific levels. When clicking on one of these icons, you can hear commentary from the developers that talks about that specific area and how they made it. This certainly allows you some insight on the development process of the game, and it is an awesome feature that we would like to see added to every game.
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay includes the best of the best when it comes to graphics. It combines the amazing style of advanced lighting and shadows that we've seen from games like DOOM 3 , but also includes such visual spectacles as Normal Mapping which we've seen from the likes of Half-Life 2 . All of this combined with real motion captured animation provides for one heck of an amazing look. All of the character models and weapons are extremely detailed and lifelike. Speaking of lifelike, Vin Diesel's appearance in the game is frighteningly realistic. He perhaps looks a little too lifelike when compared to the real life version. The rest of the animations from all of the characters are all portrayed very well and realistically.
When playing as Riddick you can actually see your legs and arms. This is a great change of pace from other first person shooters where you can only see your gun and not the rest of your body. Also, when climbing up onto surfaces or shimmying across ledges, your view changes to a third person perspective to help him navigate easier.
The sound effects, voice acting, and music are all topnotch. Among the actors lending their voices to the roles in the game are Xzibit and of course Vin Diesel. After all, who else could do Riddick's voice other than Diesel himself? This gives Riddick the exact same feeling and attitude that's seen in the movies. The sound effects are of a high quality and act much the same as any other shooter. You're able to distinctively hear the sounds of guards running about, bullets ricocheting off metal surfaces, and the voices of the guards searching for you. The music is also quite nice as it goes perfectly with the action, and picks up and slows down depending upon what moves you are taking. The sound in this game is especially important later when you face some nasty alien creatures. It's these later levels that are obviously intended to creep you out and somewhat terrify you.
The AI in Escape from Butcher Bay is very smart. They take effective cover when being fired upon and roll around to dodge bullets like most shooter games. However, they don't run directly towards you like in what we see from most shooters. Instead, they know to keep their distance and fight you from afar. They can also see your flashlight when you're sneaking around in the dark. So luckily later in the game you receive your glowing eyes and are capable of seeing in the dark by the press of a button.
Conclusion
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay falls nowhere short of being one of the best action games all year. Sure it may not have multiplayer and it does have some minor annoyances, but it provides for one awesome action experience. Not only does it have some of the most advanced graphics and AI, but it's also one of the best console ports we've ever seen of a game. All signs of it first being a Xbox game are truly gone. And that's what we love to see in a console port.
