| From the acclaimed team at Starbreeze Studios comes The Chronicles of Riddick : Assault on Dark Athena. What was originally intended to be an expansion pack add on but soon turned into a full game giving players a brand new 11 hour adventure in the Riddick saga to follow on directly from the celebrated title The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay.
The disk includes a re-mastering of Butcher Bay which will be good news for fans of the 2004 hit game who will be delighted to see the new high-definition pixel-by-pixel remake and a happy surprise for gamers new to the series as it serves as the perfect lead into Dark Athena. You control Riddick an anti hero a stone cold killer. For the most part the game plays as a FPS but it has mixed in large elements of an RPG you will have to make friends and enemies buy and sell contraband as you try to fashion an escape from the high security prison. Butcher bay when first released was criticised for being a little on the short side but by today’s standards of 7-8 hour game play its pretty good but this can be padded out if you decide to do all the side missions and anyway you still have the main game yet to come. Its during Butcher bay you will meet many of the characters from Dark Athena and get up to speed with the back story and Riddick receives his eye shine, which give him the ability to see in the dark which as you would imagine is very very handy.
In The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena picks up from where Butcher bay left off the player again takes the role of Riddick, using stealth and action to overcome the crew of the predatory Merc-ship Dark Athena which awaits its prey in the dark reaches of space.
Are you scared of the dark ? I’m not !! Embrace the darkness it’s your friend and will give you the edge, as you lurk in the shadows out of the view of the passing guards you can quickly sneak up behind them and before he knows your there his neck has been snapped and his lifeless body is being dragged into the shadows. But it’s not all slow paced creeping about you will be involved in quite a few all out gun battles. You will have to decide what the best approach will be, to go in all guns blazing or take out the lights and while you sit there watching them scramble around in the dark you use your eye shine to pick them off one by one.
Along with an compelling story line the chronicles of Riddick boast an impressive voice cast with :
Riddick voiced by Vin Diesel
Vin Diesel first stepped into the role of Riddick in the cult hit movie PitchBlack and the follow up The Chronicles of Riddick in 2004/
Dacher: voiced by Lance Henriksen
A versatile character actor with appearances in big screen blockbusters The Terminator and Aliens.
Revas: voiced by Michelle Forbes
The Texan-born actress is known for playing tough women, a skill which has seen her take major roles in a series of acclaimed TV shows including Battlestar Galactica, Prison Break, 24, and Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Spinner: voiced by Wade Williams
Williams has appeared in numerous top-rated TV series including CSI, 24, Six Feet Under, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and most prominently Prison Break in which he played Bradley 'Brad' Bellick from 2005-2008.
Pavlo: voiced by Morgan Sheppard
The accomplished, British-born actor has made numerous appearances on stage and screen since the 1960’s including most recently 2007’s Transformers film, with an appearance slated in the forthcoming Star Trek movie. Following his voice work on 2004’s Escape from Butcher Bay, Sheppard returns to the Riddick universe lending his voice to the character Pavlo, a schizophrenic prisoner trapped aboard Dark Athena who brings clarity and confusion to Riddick in equal doses
Starbreeze Studios has created an exciting and original multiplayer component. The game features six multiplayer modes, including the original and inventive Pitch Black mode and intense Butcher Bay Riot. Unlike traditional MP modes, Pitch Black features a nerve-wracking stealth hunt through the darkness. A six player mode on all maps, five players take the role of Mercenaries trying to hunt down and kill Riddick across levels swathed in darkness, with only weapon-mounted flashlights to see by. Butcher Bay Riot presents a fast paced three team mode, in which 12 players split into teams of Guards, Prisoners and Mercenaries fight over a power cell.
Over all the story, the graphics and the voice work are all very good and the mix of FPS and RPG gives this game the edge over other games around at the moment as you get the best of both worlds the involvement of an RPG and the quality combat system of a FPS. When you consider you get 2 full games on the disk along with the multiplayer elements this really does offer value for money. Parts of the game can get a little repetitive as there is only so many vents you can crawl through before it starts getting old and the loading times are quite long taking up to 20 seconds at times and as the game loads each area and just that area ( rather than adding to the area already unlocked ) you will find that taking a step backwards will set it loading the previous section you have just come from and then you have to take a step forward and yes you got it it has to reload the area again this will happen more than it should do. With 3 load times you and can end up taking 60 seconds just to get through a door. But these are very minor niggles for what is a very good package.
SCORE : 88% |