The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay review:4 stars (Science fiction grim and gritty) - The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay is a videogame based on the recent science fiction film character portrayed by actor Vin Diesel. It's a first-person perspective game that skillfully merges elements of the shooting, stealth and adventure genres.

As Riddick, you initially find yourself being incarcerated at a maximum-security prison bearing the moniker of Butcher Bay. The facility is science fiction grim and gritty: dark, isolated, immense and expansive with no real sense of shape, a seemingly primeval construct, yet full of brutal science fiction modernism designed to contain and control the prisoners. It's dismal and harsh; sheer gloom and hopelessness saturates every corner of the facility. If one word could be used to describe Butcher Bay, it might be oppressive. But Riddick is not you or I; he is the fiction, the ultimate antihero, the larger-than-life character that can exist and thrive and possibly even overcome such environments and the human and inhuman horrors that exist within.

The earliest thing striking the player here after inserting the Riddick disc into the Xbox console is, surprisingly, the menu screen. Infrequently is there reason to mention menu screens, but this one I found exceptionally cool: the gyratory, silvery Borg-like cube featuring all those raised and lowered menu options that click-click-click with a metallic chinking sounds when selected. It's almost soothingly hypnotic to just scroll around the options, watching and listening to it over and over again.

Not to be outdone by a mere menu screen, the player is soon introduced to the game-engine graphics; this game is visually stunning, likely the finest looking game the Xbox has in its library. The characters are drawn and animated in such a fluid, lifelike fashion it's almost unsettling. Facial animations easily match the best of the genre, those found in Half-Life 2 and Doom 3. I can remember very early on in the game just staring at a prisoner's bald, brownish head from different angles, entranced by the nuances of it. I just couldn't believe the depth of detail present in just the skin rendering. Facial animations during conversations reveal even further vigor and feature, enough so that you stop paying attention to it and almost begin believing in the reality of the NPCs. The characters' bodies animate just as naturally, whether it's rocking back and forth in the ebb and flow of conversation or in the violent throws of a combat scenario. Beyond the characters, most of Butcher Bay itself is equally dazzling and spectacular to behold, albeit in a murky and sinister way. Apparently, a technique called "normal mapping" is used to great effect here. The entire conception of the prison is darkly beautiful; everything from the sickly green and orange lighting to the jagged cracks in doors. Even something such as rust on prison bars is so deep and penetrating it seems you can almost feel the rough texture of it on your hand. There is so much detail and realism to the grit and grime of the place that you can almost feel a layer of it permeating your skin after playing for a while: a thick blanket of shadowy atmosphere that really made me feel genuinely uneasy sitting in my living room late at night with an Xbox controller clutched in my hands. Real-time shadow and light effects, reflections and an occasional lustrous sheen are also employed to enhance the already exceedingly imposing environmental renderings. The music and ambient audio effects are also disconcertingly efficient, everything from the staccato pelting of gunfire to the echoing of voices to the musical score. Even if the gameplay were lacking, this game would be memorable for the visual representations alone. Fortunately, that is not the case.

Riddick begins like a slow-paced adventure game. You amble through the prison corridors, into various cells, scrounge around prison courtyard. You interact with all manner of prisoners and guards around the facility, and promptly begin to ascertain the sheer quality of the production going on here. From the visuals to the varied, cinematic-quality voice acting (Vin Diesel and the others do a killer job with the voiceovers) to the mechanics of gameplay beginning to form, it's readily evident that this is a top tier product. A few minor objectives are given early on, mostly in the form of finding certain objects for certain characters: retrieval and acquisition. Eventually, you're given your fist objective that includes and element of danger and risk, and shortly thereafter a second gameplay mechanic is introduced, that of the first-person brawler. Admittedly, the concept turned me off initially, but it's applied sensibly to the gameplay. It grew on me with time, and they didn't overuse it. So you've got slow-paced adventure interaction, first-person brawling and next you're introduced to stealth. As Riddick, you can use the shadows and darkness as an ally, a place where you can see and not be seen, for early in the game you undergo a process wherein the eyes are "shined," something that enables Riddick the ability to see in pitch black conditions. Stealth and melee combat can be combined as well, in the guise of a technique you'll find yourself employing repeatedly: crouching in shadows, sneaking up behind a guard and incapacitating him from behind. At a perhaps surprisingly late point in the game, you're actually given the chance to wield some cool firearms in standard FPS tradition. But once again, each gameplay technique is used for a certain span of time, and then circumstance and changing environments necessitate change. For most of the game, this modulating of adventure/stealth/shooter keeps things moving and fresh for the player. Having said that, I did find the long action sequences leading up to the game's conclusion somewhat trying in the sense that they broke from the formula employed so well by the rest of the game for the sake of all-out action. By the time I got to the mech-suit combat sequence, I felt as if I was replaying Red Faction II. But that small qualm notwithstanding, the pacing and gameplay mechanics of this game were all a player of the genre could ask for. It walks the line between originality and mass-market appeal.

And if anyone was worried about it, here--as in seemingly every FPS game ever created--you will indeed spend a considerable amount of time crawling through ductwork. Heh.

At the end of the night, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay emerges as a true sleeper hit, the best game that surprisingly few people have played. It looks as good as and plays better than the mega-hit Doom 3. It's not flawless by any means, but it's a high-quality, well-designed, challenging, immersive--and oftentimes unsettling--gaming experience that gets under the skin and stays there.

5 stars (Great Game from a Movie!) - Great graphics and great gameplay! The only problem is the aiming of your weapon, but overall this is a fantastic game! Superb storyline, great levels, good replay, this is just great. Get it!5 stars (Hey! Its actually a good movie licensed game! ) - This game is awesom. Just purly awesom. Probably one of the best X-Box games ever. The gameplay is verry fun, it mixes FPS with meeley and stealth. Verry fun stuff.

Not only is this game fun to play, its one of the best looking games ever made. The animation, the character models, enviroments, everything. Its just awesom.

The sound is great as well. There are voice overs by Vin Deisel, Xzibit, and many more. The music is top notch as well.

I have to say that this is one of the best playing games on the X-Box ever as well. It plays as good as halo. Its that good.

The only real downfall is that there is no multiplayer for he game, so its just single player. The campaigh is also fairly short.

Overall, this is a must buy game destined to become a classic.

Concept- Make a good movie licensed game

Presintation- 9.25- The box art is perfect, but the menues are kinda weird.

Graphics- 9.8- One of the best looking games on the X-box, you really have to see it to believe it.

Sound- 9.7- great, Good voiceovers by Vin, and the music is good too

Playability- 10- Its like Halo without the vehicles. In other words, perfect

Entertainment- 9.6- extreamly fun to play, verry entertaining

Replay Value- 7.5- You will play the single player again and again, but no multiplayer hurts
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay Features:
Great Deals (Outlet store)
Video Games
Xbox (x box)
Microsoft
Action
Adventure
featuress the likeness and voice-over talent of Vin Diesel as Riddick
Explore over 30 levels, 20 enemy types, and 15 different weapons
For 1 player
Become Riddick and break out of the galaxy's most deadly prison in this 1st person action experience
Fight with fists or knives or use stealth to defeat your enemies

The Chronicles of Riddick- Escape From Butcher Bay is the Video Game version. The full version can be purchased by clicking on the "CLICK HERE TO ORDER" button below for around 29.99USD.