Strap-On Vin Diesel
His Riddick Video Game Is Extra Medium
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
dev. Starbreeze
Now available on Xbox.
Stranger Personals
There's this guy named Riddick, and he's some kind of badass mass-murdering ex-con anti-hero with a supernatural destiny. His first appearance was in the little-seen film Pitch Black, a grade-B sci-fi flick that marked hunky ex-bouncer Vin Diesel's first starring role. In that movie he had these weird blue eyes that let him see in the dark, which was handy since, coincidentally, he was trapped on a planet with long periods of complete darkness in which light-phobic monsters would kill everyone who wasn't a badass mass-murdering ex-con anti-hero with a supernatural destiny.
Riddick is now also the subject of the ponderously titled new film The Chronicles of Riddick, as well as this even more ponderously titled video game, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. Indeed, the new DVD reissue of the original film is now labeled The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black, and if you are one of the people who clamor for more chronicles of Riddick than have been brought us to this point, perhaps it's time you sat down and had a long talk with yourself about the choices you've made in life.
Escape from Butcher Bay is a prequel to both films, and it tells the story of how Riddick broke out of prison and got those crazy blue eyes. The designers have melded four different game styles: first-person shooter, stealth, platformer, and RPG. You play most of the game from a first-person perspective, as in Doom or Unreal; you move quietly and hide in shadows, as in Thief and Splinter Cell; you climb crates and shimmy along ledges, as in Tomb Raider; and you interact with a large cast of characters who offer you missions in exchange for favors or rewards, as in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
This melding is ambitious, but it also feels unnecessary. Most of the game styles are lackluster: Failing to use stealth carries little consequence besides yet another quick combat, the platformer stuff is really arbitrary and adds nothing original to the game, and the RPG elements are just busywork--you might as well accept every mission you're offered because there's no penalty for failure and no sides to join or oppose. The only area where the game gets clever is with the shooter stuff; for much of the game you can't use firearms and have to fight with your fists, shivs, clubs, and other objects, making for a very down-and-dirty combat experience.
Still, the flaws in the other game styles are easy to overlook; you're changing from one style to another all the time, and the changes are seamless. The flaws don't become so glaring and repetitious that you're annoyed--unlike, say, the climactic battle in Splinter Cell, where a great, moody stealth game suddenly becomes an awkward and frustrating action shooter.
Visually, the game is superb. It uses a new graphic technique called normal mapping, which makes everything look a lot more photo-realistic. The lighting and detail are excellent, and the futuristic prison setting is appropriately grotty and unpleasant. There are some nice touches: If you look down, you actually see your legs and feet, and when turning sometimes your left hand will stray into view--it's unusual in these sorts of games to feel like you actually have a body.
The controls are fine. You can peek around corners, crouch to sneak, perch on ledges, and generally move anywhere you want to without a problem. Your movement even feels like a person, not a Steadicam, so that when you start crouch-walking there's a brief lurch as you rise up and shift your weight. Combat with fists, shivs, or clubs is pleasantly simple and varied.
Escape from Butcher Bay is no Halo; it's good enough not to be frustrating, but it never captivates you or gets your juices going. The enemies are mostly all alike, and many of their actions are preplanned, so all your stealth means nothing if they're scripted to attack you anyway. The game's impressive visuals are hamstrung by the art direction, since it's just one beautifully rendered industrial-prison level after another. There is no multiplayer feature, which is a shame since it would have been great to watch four Vin Diesel clones shivving each other endlessly. This one's really only worth a rental. Much like Vin Diesel's acting style, it's neither bad nor good: just a muscular, well-toned shrug.
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