By Jim Rossignol on August 18th, 2008 at 11:11 am.
One particular game seems to have come up a great deal in our gaming discussions from the past couple of months, and so I decided it was time to go back and play it. 2004′s The Chronicles Of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay (TCOREFBR?) is one of those games that sits at the back of my mind, silently benchmarking everything else that has appeared since. It is one of those action games that really doesn’t seem to have had much influence over the course of gaming, and yet is a splendid comparative high-watermark for anything with guns, or fists. Weirdly, for a first-person action game, the fists are actually what is most important.
Perhaps what I recalled most clearly about Riddick was the nagging sense that my review at the time (86%, PC Gamer UK) failed to capture what was most interesting about the game. I remember marking it down because it spiralled off into a medium-quality shooter in the later stages, but it was one of those times when I should have ignored my most recent impressions and returned to what was most compelling about the game: the ultra-violent action adventure in the three prisons of Butcher Bay.
Returning to the game in 2008 the first thing that strikes me is just how smooth and clutter-free the game world is. There’s almost no HUD, except for name tags on characters and the odd conversation tree.. yes, conversation trees in an action game. Hell, it even begins with a dream sequence (or is it some kind of a memory?) as a tutorial. Riddick is quite unlike anything else from that era. It’s dead linear in its direction – and not an RPG – yet much of the game deals with wandering around talking to in-mates and getting on the right side of tattooed convicts. There loads of fighting, but also a good amount of talking, investigating, wandering and sneaking.
In fact this is a rather low-key game, nothing like the hyperbolic storms we’re constantly being served by the action-game fraternities. It’s a science fiction game in which the futurism keeps its head down – utterly unlike the film that came out around the same time. The game story acts as a prequel to Pitch Black, explaining Riddick’s supernatural eyes, but that almost doesn’t matter. It’s a prison-drama in which story-telling takes a back seat. You’re simply dealing with being imprisoned: looking for an exit. As a result the tone is closer to a hyper-violent Thief game (stealth being a major feature; Thug: The Dark Project?) than it is to other games from the same era, say Far Cry or Half-Life 2. The themes are close-up and fleshy: shattered faces in fist-fights, broken vertebrae from stealth kills. The gunfights are generally a disappointment, although they’re just about brutal and noisy enough to be interesting.
Even Diesel’s muttered one-liners don’t seem as overwrought as they so consistently are in his Riddick films. It’s just your character muttering to himself, as you suspect habitual murderers might end up doing.
The prison setting is remarkably convincing. The in-mates are wonderful grotesques, muscular and weathered, and cast starkly in Starbreeze’s remarkably beautiful game engine. The play of light and the cast of shadows made this a game that would not age rapidly, and remain impressive even now. The level of detail in the prison was balanced with a lack of general mess: it’s some how just enough to give you an impression of a living world, and yet starkly minimal. Perhaps it’s the life of the characters, the peerless idling animation of thug smoking a cigarette and then idly stubbing it out on the ground, that make it so convincing. A behavioural trick of the brain: if it moves like it’s alive, it’s alive. These motions are supplemented by a huge cast and excellent voice-acting (Vin Diesel, Ron Perlman, Xzibit). No squeaky-voiced comedy character here, just hard men… and even harder men. Oh it’s macho, but the fact that they’re all imprisoned, or about to be beaten to death with your fists, mean it’s no Gears Of War.
There’s also a strange tension in the prison itself: action games are about empowerment, and yet you’re always controlled and hedged in by the game world. In this particular case that is easily explained away by your environment: the layers of a planetary prison.
Anyway: those fists. There’s an indistinct, messy quality to the fist fights, but that doesn’t seem to matter. The wild physical action of battering someone to death /shouldn’t/ seem as controlled as using a rifle at thirty metres. Riddick gets across the brutality of melee better than almost any other first-person game I can think of. I love the fact that it’s so low-down and dirty too: tackling soldiers at close range and blowing off their heads with their own shotgun is exactly how Riddick should operate. The broken necks, the facial injuries on your fist-fight opponents – their tumbling, broken bodies. Riddick is long on the nastiness. It’s horrible stuff. Great stuff.
In fact this game so much right – from the tone of the environmental design and the characters, to the balance between action and atmosphere – that I’m surprised it comes across so modestly. Despite Diesel’s ludicrous Riddick character, this is not of the same bombastic magnitude of over-the-top adventure that so many games want to give us. I see it rubbing shoulders in the same shadowy bar as Stalker, Thief. Riddick taps a vein of gaming that is something like Film Noir.
Finally, I should note that I have no idea how to get Riddick working on Vista: although apparently that’s just me. Comments report working Vista installs. Hopefully the PS3/360 remake of the game will bring us a Windows DX10 version too, because for now I have to revisit Riddick on my cranky old laptop. That’s okay, but it’s not exactly my preferred experience.
If you’ve not played Riddick yet, I suggest you do so. You can pick it up on Amazon for about $6.
18/08/2008 at 11:19 lukasz says:
I bought Riddick recently because of RPS comments. thx guys, it was a very good purchase! (20 dollars though i paid. silly Australia)
I really liked the moment in one of the tunnels full of gas. You couldn’t see shit. neither could soldiers. but you could see a light shadows of your enemy. the slaughter by Riddick was epic!
18/08/2008 at 11:22 Sarin says:
Great game.
Is the ps3/xbox one actually a remake a honesty-to-goodness sequel?
A sequel would be great but they’d have to slot in a reason to use fists and shivs :D
Also, wasn’t the game dropped by Actizard?
18/08/2008 at 11:29 derFeef says:
It was a great game. One of the finest movie-to-games adoptions.
Oh and, is this Peter Moore on the second pic? :)
18/08/2008 at 11:30 Joe says:
Awesome game, but I did kind of prefer the melee in Condemned tbh.
18/08/2008 at 11:31 Jamie says:
Are they still working on the remake? I haven’t heard anything about it for a while
18/08/2008 at 11:34 Ash Firelord says:
Any chance it’s available trough Steam? I don’t like the Amazonians, they are evil and will devour your children in the middle of the night, some day.
18/08/2008 at 11:38 El_MUERkO says:
not being an xbox owner my first experience of riddick was the PC directors cut, I have to say I was stunned by the quality of the game, it dripped atmosphere and immediately entrenched itself in my list of best FPSs ever
starbreese went on to do The Darkness which was a bit ‘meh’ but still did some clever stuff with the TV channels to add a sense of solidity to the experience, i like forward to their next release :)
18/08/2008 at 11:40 PetitPrince says:
You missed “Developer’s Cut”. So it’s really “The Chronicles Of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay – Developer’s Cut (TCOREFBBDC)”.
18/08/2008 at 11:44 Diogo Ribeiro says:
@Ash:
I actually bought my copy – the Director/Developer’s Cut edition, even – from Amazon. I believe the trick to acquiring it is to not have any children at all :D
Riddick – great game. I was pretty much taken by the same reasons: melee combat is compelling and actually done right, as opposed to most other games, specially those that suffer console to PC conversions, rendering the action and controls somewhat imprecise and ‘floaty’. Using an NPCs weapon against them is also something I’d like to see more often, and the stealth was pretty rewarding as well.
It’s a shame it went so below the radar for most gamers.
18/08/2008 at 11:49 Ash Firelord says:
My experience with Riddick:
1 – Oh how nice, looks like the Xbox game is good; I’ll wait to buy it at an affordable price.
2 – Oh great, waiting payed off, there’s an improved PC version, I’ll buy that once I get my PC the upgrade it deserves.
3 – Finally, a new, game-capable PC! Oh what’s this? They’re working on an improved version of Riddick…?
18/08/2008 at 12:00 Mr. Mechanical says:
Always nice to see Escape from Butcher Bay getting its just dues. Such a great game, I love how it’s constructed. It’s basically just one man’s series of attempted prison breaks, and each time he gets caught and sent to an even higher security area of the prison. It all leads up to a wonderful finale as well. I love it when games have that kind of narrative flow and payoff to them. With satisfyingly sharpened gameplay mechanics to match!
The remake, Assault on Dark Athena ought to be interesting. Updated visuals and AI, plus a multiplayer mode. The singleplayer portion will also be expanded to carry on from Riddick’s eventual escape at the end and then show how he infiltrates some sort of space frigate called the Dark Athena. I won’t be surprised if it all somehow leads up to the beginning of Pitch Black.
18/08/2008 at 12:11 Naseer says:
Starbreeze are all but finished with the remake (not sequel btw – but with added content) – according to this swedish interview: http://gaminglife.se/?p=530
If there is a publisher or not, that I don’t know.
18/08/2008 at 12:24 Feet says:
Great game. Thoroughly enjoyed the fighty parts and the talky parts.
18/08/2008 at 12:31 Optimaximal says:
I think the muted reception was down to the later PC release and the fact that it had relatively high requirements to play well at the time.
The Xbox copy was released parallel to the awful second Riddick film and was notable for being several shades better in plot, action and a distinct lack of pretentiousness, facts that almost every review pointed out repeatedly.
18/08/2008 at 12:31 CrashT says:
How much of the game is left after the Mech sections? As I got that far before my PC when casters up, and am trying to convince myself to play it again, but not sure if I should if I’d almost finished it anyway.
18/08/2008 at 12:41 BaconIsGood4You says:
God I played the crap out of the demo for it. I’d try and spook the AI buy hiding in the shadows and leaving trails of bodies. So much fun.
The rest of the game was great but didn’t manage to capture the Batman-esque level of power I felt in scaring and defeating my enemies.
Can’t forget the Developer Commentary mode too if you’re talking about innovation. I just wish more games (basically only Valve has done this) did it.
18/08/2008 at 12:41 grinder74 says:
it’s a great game, now i catch up on and play this one :)
recommend for anyone who not played this yet
18/08/2008 at 12:43 CrashT says:
@BaconIsGood4You:
Tomb Raider: Anniversary has a Developers Commentary, handled in the same way it is in the Half-Life 2 episodes.
18/08/2008 at 12:50 Sum0 says:
Ironically I think the film license put me off the game, until I heard how good it was. It’s such a great FPS, it’s a shame it isn’t more well-known.
In particular, the graphics have held up very well indeed.
18/08/2008 at 12:51 Monkfish says:
The game’s release was such a low-key affair, it was almost as stealthy as Riddick himself. Escape from Butcher Bay was the suprise of 2004 for me – well, pleasant surprise, that is.
I love it when a great game is released without any fuss or fanfare and I wish it would happen more often. Modesty of this ilk is such a rarity in videogaming these days.
18/08/2008 at 12:59 RiptoR says:
Just wanted to say that Riddick works fine on Vista here, had no problems playing it on my x64 install.
18/08/2008 at 13:08 Laco says:
My favourite moment in this game (which I understand wasn’t in the original console release?) is the part when you finally get to control a guard mech, after half a game of creeping around in the shadows and basically avoiding conflict as much as possible.
It was just such a brilliant pay-off; I remember coming upon the empty suit slowly, hardly daring to believe I’d be allowed such awesome power.
It felt like the developers looking over, giving a wink, and saying “Oh, all right then.. just this once.. go on, have some fun”.
18/08/2008 at 13:32 Dreamhacker says:
TCOR:EFBB…er Riddick, is probably the single best movie-related FPS yet!
18/08/2008 at 14:23 Ocho says:
The before mentioned developer commentary mechanic as also seen in Tomb Raider and Valve games — I definitely saw it in Riddick first. Also, I enjoyed the use of tinting the entire screen blue to indicate you’re hidden — eliminates hud, breaks up visual monotony, and works seamlessly into the gameplay. They did a lot of things right, looking forward to the rerelease.
18/08/2008 at 14:32 R. says:
“My favourite moment in this game (which I understand wasn’t in the original console release?) is the part when you finally get to control a guard mech, after half a game of creeping around in the shadows and basically avoiding conflict as much as possible.”
No, that was in the original Xbox version too and massively theraputic it was to boot. Stompin’ around the hallways, blowing the hell out of all those annoying guards in your mini-Metal Gear while their panicked chatter dominated the comms systems. Brilliant.
It’s one of a mere handful of games I’ve since returned to and enjoyed just as much. Nice to see others appreciated it too, looking forward to the revamp.
18/08/2008 at 14:40 Bloodworth says:
I loved TCOREFBB! And I agree with pretty much everything you’ve said about it. I just want to add that I loved the over the top portions towards the end of the game.
18/08/2008 at 14:42 hydra9 says:
Beautiful.
I’d been wanting this game for ages. Not quite sure why I hadn’t bought it, but I finally ordered it yesterday. Then by a strange coincidence, your article pops up! Nice.
18/08/2008 at 14:52 Deuteronomy says:
Butcher Bay is probably the best use of a movie license ever, and probably also the best console to pc port ever.
I played it last year and the screenshots in the article do the director’s cut no justice. I’ve heard Diesel actually had a lot of input into the game design. Although he’s not a horrible actor for the kind of roles he gets he’s a hell of a better game designer. I’m actually interested in the upcoming Wheelman game because of his involvement.
18/08/2008 at 15:01 MeestaNob! says:
I’d read this was quite good, but for some reason – like many other games (no doubt to the displeasure of the developers) – I’d never got around to trying this out. I see it in the store for the measly sum of $20 (AUD) and still don’t pick it up.
I think I’m make amends on the weekend and try it out… and yet strangely I feel like waiting might be a good idea if it’s getting a spuce up.
RPS boffins: Any word on the remake heading to PC? Can you ask you pals at Valve to get the old one on Steam too, while you’re making phone calls?
18/08/2008 at 15:13 DSX says:
Tech TV put me on to the game when it came out because of some interviews with Diesel they did, and I was quite impressed at how much input he had into making it more of a story telling game then just a technical achievement. He evidently worked very closely with the writers in developing the riddick canon as well as doing all the motion capture / voice stuff etc for the game.
18/08/2008 at 15:15 Al3xand3r says:
Great game certainly, it had a few sub par scenes but nothing that detracted from the overall awesomity :o)
About as good (but yes, very different) as F.E.A.R I’d say.
I got it after DX:IW and even though Riddick is not trying to be an RPG hybrid, some of its set pieces (prison) were a lot better than the whole DX:IW.
Similarly for the FPS parts being better than many other games’ which relied solely on that, the stealth bits the same, etc.
I hope the sequel/remake is not exact but expands on all of these aspects to make the definitive FPS hybrid…
18/08/2008 at 15:22 dhex says:
riddick was indeed a big old slab of greatness, but one thing bothered me; i loved the way they broke up the stages with your reimprisonment, but wouldn’t you think after a few of these murders and shootings and whatnot they’d just kill riddick? or does the franchise exist in some weird alternate universe where a prison planet is ok but capital punishment is too far beyond the pale? (never seen the films)
18/08/2008 at 15:44 SwiftRanger says:
I got the game working fine on Vista (64-bit, with Ati HD4870 video card), installed the 1.1 Euro/UK patch first though.
Apparently it has something to do with the game using OpenGL while Vista doesn’t support that properly, don’t know for sure if there is a “great for every video card”-fix if the problem still persists (google came up with this link).
18/08/2008 at 15:49 Urre says:
dhex: In the universe of Riddick, slams get money from some governmental types for keeping people locked in, so one could say that they actually make more money, the more damage Riddick does, as he becomes a higher-risk prisoner to keep.
On the other hand I think it’s rather unfair to diss on Riddick or Vinnie for the character, as it’s clearly one of the few interesting action characters the last two decades. Pitch Black being an awesome movie about a bunch of people in the wrong place, with the right bad guy on their side, without any of this magic mumbo-jumbo about destinies and Furians. In Pitch Black, Riddick was just a man who got in trouble one or two a many times, most likely simply because of hardship in early years of his life, leading to a very bitter view of the world, thus taking law and life in his own hands. I can imagine the story in the game would’ve been cooler too, if it wasn’t for the new movie infecting it with the Furian heritage, and the witch doctor just being a regular doctor who had a couple of tricks up his sleeve.
Less Star-Wars, more Star-Trek. Or something.
18/08/2008 at 16:31 ran93r says:
Took me a little while to get out of the FPS mentality and adjust to the ported control system (played on PC) but otherwise first class game. I hope we see more of the character, be that movie or game. I might be in the minority but I actually enjoyed Chronicles of…
18/08/2008 at 16:54 Optimaximal says:
I too was disappointed with the sudden ‘deus ex machina’ of the Eyeshine… Would have been much better had they treated it like Minority Reports eye-swap!
18/08/2008 at 16:59 Deuteronomy says:
BTW Direct2Drive is a great way to get ahold of this game.
18/08/2008 at 17:03 Butler` says:
This game took my by surprise at release. I seem to remember playing it non-stop for several days.
I tried to reinstall it recently to give it another shot, but my efforts were ruined by some kind of graphics error on my new hardware preventing me from starting the game properly, with no apparent fix.
18/08/2008 at 17:14 Kast says:
It’s also a great example of the use of commentary in games. The commentary nodes themselves are probably substantially longer than the game itself! And so interesting, too.
18/08/2008 at 17:17 Man Raised By Puffins says:
I found Dick Riddick Tales: Space Bastard Prison Japes to be decent enough, but I’m not a great fan of it. I can see why people rave about it though, unfortunately it doesn’t quite click with me.
@ R: The PC version has a mech section in the middle which is absent from the Xbox version (see here).
18/08/2008 at 17:47 dhex says:
dhex: In the universe of Riddick, slams get money from some governmental types for keeping people locked in, so one could say that they actually make more money, the more damage Riddick does, as he becomes a higher-risk prisoner to keep.
a ha! so, in one sense, they’re rent-seeking by being a shitty prison.
interesting.
18/08/2008 at 18:01 Whiskey Jak says:
Got this at the same time as Halo 2, Jade Empire and Ninja Gaiden for my Xbox while I was on a shopping spree, and although I really liked the other games (say what you will about that) I think that Riddick was my favorite among them, in great part for being so innovative in the FPS genre. I also liked the movies very much for what they were (although the ending of Pitch Black pisses me off to no end).
This is the game that I used to put in my console to show it off to people who didn’t know much about video games or Microsoft’s console because of the incredible graphics at the time and the individual characters (which is still something that only Starbreeze has done for this kind of game as far as I know).
If I’m correct, the “remake” will feature 40% of new content. And yes, I would/will buy it.
18/08/2008 at 18:29 Horatius says:
I’d like to give another nod to the developer commentary in Riddick. It made playing the whole game again thoroughly enjoyable.
I think what made this game so good was that the developers made a good game, that just happened to be linked to a franchise. Vin Diesel is pretty lame, and the character Riddick is even worse. Starbreeze took a potential train-wreck and made it soar. Kudos.
18/08/2008 at 19:54 Fat Zombie says:
I last tried the demo when my PC was rubbish. I shall try it again, now my PC is slightly less rubbish.
18/08/2008 at 20:21 Dyrwen says:
@Jim
Two words to get old games to work on Vista, it seems: Compatibility Mode. Had to figure out the mode to let my wife play KOTOR on her vista computer. Couldn’t hurt to play it before it gets rereleased.
18/08/2008 at 20:48 Mika says:
From Wikipedia:
“On July 29, Activision Blizzard had announced that The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena along with eight other games in development had been dropped by Activision Blizzard, putting the future of the game into question”
18/08/2008 at 21:51 Down Rodeo says:
I played a demo of this, wish I’d bought it. If this remake thingy happens I’ll be right on there :)
18/08/2008 at 22:06 GeorgeR says:
This came out around the same time as Spiderman 2 the game. Which was also an amazing Movie-Game I remember that year my friends and I were sure the apocalypse was nigh, as good movie games? We’re sure that’s one of the signs in revelations.
18/08/2008 at 22:11 Psychopomp says:
I *rented* Butcher Bay as a “Ah, well. Might as well, all the good stuffs taken.”‘
Needless to say, I was suprised.
Can’t wait for Dark Athena, and I hope we get a sequel one day.
Also, Starbreeze seems to have a nack for good storytelling. The Darkness was equally “Meh” in the gunplay department, but the story was brilliant.
18/08/2008 at 23:26 Erlam says:
I remember playing through the demo about a dozen times, and then somehow missing the game in stores.
Cmon steam, don’t make me order this on line ;)
18/08/2008 at 23:38 absentblue says:
I remember I showed Pitch Black to my brother cause it was awesome, then we went and checked out the sequel, and it was alright, then we went to Block Buster and I rented the game cause– well I couldn’t tell you why other than I thought the screen shots looked good (surprisingly I do a lot of basis on graphics, but I’m usually right).
Needless to say I enjoyed the game a whole lot more than either of the movies. I played through it three times before returning it then went and got it on XBox when it was on sale for $20 shortly after release. It’s the only game I have that I can’t play, and I know I can’t ever play it without an XBox, but I just can’t get rid of it.
And maybe it’s just me, but I thought the cigarette collecting was pretty lame. If I’m going to scavenge a game to satisfy my OCD I’d prefer it to be more rewarding than extra content I shouldn’t have to work for. I didn’t like how the echoed this in Darkness, also a very fun game, but I’m biding my time for Dark Athena!
19/08/2008 at 00:48 malkav11 says:
I *loved* Riddick. It even made me go back and check out Starbreeze’s freshman effort, Enclave, which I remembered looking interesting at the time, but the reviews were poor. And yeah, it turns out that Enclave isn’t great, but you can see the sparks of greatness that caught flame in Riddick.
19/08/2008 at 00:48 lio says:
I really enjoyed the Riddick game… the melee combat beats every other game easily in my opinion – Condemned was close but Riddick pulled it off better.
I also liked how you could see your own body and how well it worked with the game.
Heck, it was released before Doom3 and the technology was at least as good if not better (soft shadows on the pc version) but somehow it didn’t generate a lot of buzz it seems… the director’s commentary feature on the pc was real nice, too…
if you haven’t played the game yet you really missed out…
19/08/2008 at 02:22 Scandalon says:
RE: Commentary: Rogue Squadron 2 on the Cube had developer commentary, and it was released (google google…) end of 2001.
19/08/2008 at 02:56 propanol says:
Riddick is a great game. I bought it (it was cheap) in ’06 or so and my cousin kept nagging me to play it for like a year, but I wasn’t feeling too compelled seeing as movie-licensed games have always (with almost no exception) been crap. I was taken by surprise by the quality of it – very atmospheric, good voice-acting, fun level design (with some over-reliance on the climbing mechanic). A welcome throwback to the FPSes of old which focused on the fun factor rather than being pretentious vehicles for the development team’s crazed ideas (see: everything released since ’05, and a lot of stuff before then).
Also,
NanoMed Plus – we treat you right when the world treats you rough!
19/08/2008 at 04:05 Jetsetlemming says:
My favorite part of Riddick is comparing it to Doom 3. Came out in the same year, same type of setting (Rusty metal semi-neglected complex on a dusty red planet), same genre (FPS), same platforms (PC and Xbox). Riddick is 10x better, with far bigger, more detailed environments, better graphics, better gameplay, and didn’t have to get it’s already small “larger areas” cut out for the Xbox version like Doom 3 did. For all the talk of Carmack being the god of game engines, Starbreeze beat the shit out of him in one hit.
19/08/2008 at 04:55 absentblue says:
@Jetsetlemming
No kidding, id Tech 4 was a big failure and so was Doom III, but give Carmack his due, every other engine he’s made has done incredibly well. And if Rage along with his current boasting is any indication then id Tech 5 will certainly be the amazing piece of tech that the fourth should have been.
However Starbreeze did wipe the floor with him. I remember when it came out that due to the graphical similarities everyone was speculating that Riddick used the same engine as Doom III. When it was revealed false it just made it all the more impressive. Unfortunately it was not so scalable to the PC, but I hear that it’s been improved. It is worth noting though that despite the XBox is a DirectX based system, Starbreeze followed the rare path that id has been vehement about and released Riddick on PC as an OpenGL game.
19/08/2008 at 09:21 The Sombrero Kid says:
i’d just like to say every piece of code in id tech 4 is written by id software, there isn’t another developer in the world who can say anywhere near the same thing, no one has yet wiped the floor, at what he does, with john carmack and i doubt will do before he retires.
i might add that id tech 4 to date is has the only commercial per polygon hit testing and physics system that can handle it without spazzing out to date.
the tech didn’t fail at what it was designed to achieve, you can’t write multiplatform engines and release the source and the world needed a multplatform engine, but id needed to educate and share as much as make money and get lisences, it’s just a shame that trend has probably ended with rage and id tech 5.
19/08/2008 at 09:22 LittleJanJansen says:
Had to do a double take at the sign – No fucking in the exercise yard! (or something to that effect.) The game really nailed the feel of being in a bad ass prison with a certain Oz like vibe. Vin Diesel’s ‘acting’ was understated enough and was probably better than all his movies put together.
Nice mechanic for not being able to use guns for sections too – really made you appreciate the times when you did get hold of one.
Graphics (even on original Xbox) are still pretty good today, I think it was one the first titles to use normal mapping.
19/08/2008 at 09:26 James Lyon says:
I had the pleasure of playing this for the first time a couple of months ago (worked fine for me in Vista – straight out the box). It stands up astonishingly well, even a few years later: dark, gritty, oppressive like it should be.
I’m surprised nobody’s yet mentioned one of the rarer lighter moments, though. For a game that takes itself so seriously most of the time, the GLaDos style admonishments of your mech were pretty good comedy relief.
19/08/2008 at 12:22 Charlie says:
I enjoyed it but never finished it. Personally I found the stealth a little dodgy, and the combat a bit iffy as with all melee in fps’s. I have to completely disagree with you about the setting too. It didn’t feel like a scary prison to me, just big empty spaces with stupid stationary npc’s. And it just didn’t feel like the most dangerous prison on the planet, let alone the universe what with everyone just standing around motionless. A surprisingly roomy maximum security prison it was too!
Also, it ruined my idea of a pitch black prison where Riddick had to get new eyes to save himself from getting shivved. In fact he had to get new eyes so he could do the generic zombie level. Not a bad game at all, I just think it has been over hyped somewhat. Give me The Darkness anyday of the week!
edit: Oh I just remembered that Bender from Futurama was in it. So strike everything I just said, its genius.
19/08/2008 at 16:05 hydra9 says:
It arrived in the mail this morning. Started playing it and it sucked me in straight away. Good stuff.
19/08/2008 at 17:59 hydra9 says:
Ooh, scary. I just emerged into the daylight, went to Asda to buy bananas and stamps. I *felt* like Riddick. I would’ve definitely uppercut a couple of chavs if it had’ve come down to it.
20/08/2008 at 01:10 moonracer says:
I remember hearing good things about this game when it came out but never checked it out. I’ll have to keep my eye out fro the remake or a cheap copy of the director’s cut.
I also think remaking older games that are no longer compatible with modern systems should be more common. I would love to go through a well done remake of System Shock. It would be a much wiser move than trying to make another sequel (though I did like system shock 2 as well).
20/08/2008 at 16:37 Irish Al says:
It was pretty good, even if it did have 2ft square levels due to the XBox’s 16KB memory (say hello Thief:DS and DX:IW)
21/08/2008 at 01:16 Charlie says:
Well I never played the System Shocks as I’m too young, but my bro always says Bioshocks story was almost exactly the same as SS2 so maybe Bioshock 2 will be SS1?
22/08/2008 at 16:27 NickR says:
I recently bought the Xbox version of Riddick. Took a while to get used to the controls (zoom on the black button?) and out of the Splinter Cell/MGS mindset (“this is a stealth game, I want to get through each area without being seen or killing anyone”) and into the Riddick mindset (“I’m playing a psychotic killer, I’m supposed to murder the guards!”) – but once I did, I really enjoyed it.
> TCOR:EFBB…er Riddick, is probably the single best movie-related FPS yet!
Except for that one James Bond thing.
24/08/2008 at 02:48 hydra9 says:
Finished the game tonight. Verdict: REALLY good. A top-notch stealth/action/fighting/adventuring game, that also manages to be one of the best licensed products ever.
What’s even more amazing is that I didn’t think much of the Riddick films, didn’t think he was a very interesting character… but the game managed to make me like him… and it was so much better than the movies that inspired it.
Yep, great stuff.
24/08/2008 at 23:26 The Shed says:
“I won’t be surprised if it all somehow leads up to the beginning of Pitch Black.”
Good call, it would be a clever move to draw the final line between the game and Pitch Black as a little update. Gameplay on the Dark Athena would also still be fresh after the Prison’s three stages. Byline- isn’t the Dark Athena the one from that animation? Or is my memory screwing with me?
Riddick was definately a fantastic game. Pitch Black is next in terms of quality, and the movie doesn’t even rank on this list. EfBB is one of (possible THE most) solid gameplay experiences I’ve ever had. The simplicity of the plot, the game design, and the gameplay itself worked perfectly in tandem to create a perfectly solid, enjoyable experience. The mood was so perfectly set, I think I’ll always remember being sat in front of our big temporary screen at night, playing through the impeccably clean experience. Awesome.
17/10/2008 at 20:41 Sander Bos says:
Just a quick thank you to SwiftRanger, thanks to his link to
http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic62308.html
I now finally got this bl**dy game to work under Vista. My recipe
Install Riddick
Install Riddick 1.1 patch (e.g. http://www.gamershell.com/download_9603.shtml, this is the European version)
Install http://www.gameburnworld.com/dl/dl.php?file=TheChroniclesOfRiddickEscapeFromButcherBayv1.1NoCDFixedexeEng.rar
Install http://www.gameburnworld.com/dl/dl.php?file=TheChroniclesOfRiddickEscapeFromButcherBayNvidiaopenGLFix.rar
Set compatibility mode on System\Win32_x86_SSE2\SbzEngine.exe to Windows XP and run as Administrator.
Run Riddick from System\Win32_x86_SSE2\SbzEngine.exe