The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Athena: the uncomprimising, slightly ominous Riddick is back in another action/stealth adventure as he finds himself taken aboard a mercenary ship where he must call upon all his cunning and some unlikely allies to sneak, stab and shoot his way to freedom.
Dark Athena was a huge prospect for me. I stand firmly behind my belief that Butcher Bay was one of the best originals, with graphics and gameplay that can stand up to some of todays games. But reading around hearing people complain about the new melee system, and the game not living up to hype concerned me slightly. But I shrugged these off and eagerly sat down to play.
The game includes a remastered version of the original Butcher Bay, and upon playthrough I found no problems with the melee system at all, the game was as excellent as I remember and I was thoroughly pleased with the whole game. So, with high hopes and expectations I moved on to Dark Athena...
The gameplay is excellent, in theory. The sneak system is simple, dark is good, light is bad. The movement of Riddick is great, with simple controls and a universal Y button that interacts with inportant things, such as bodies and buttons. The weaponry is very good, a nice selection of guns, clubs, knives, and Riddicks Ulaks, which are a nice addition to your arsenal, and my favoured weapon throughout the game.
The melee system is much more difficult than Butcher Bay, but I do not believe it is 'broken'. After a bit of work I beat Iron lord, and beating Jaylor in a fist fight was quite easy I thought. HINT: I found the best way to fight, is to not block, and as soon as the enemy moves their arm, sidestep right and punch, that's Riddick's quickest attack, you should get it in before they do.
Superficially, the game is good, the characters are sharp and the environment, although very flat, is passable at least. The physics, however is where all of the problems lie. Constantly there were bullets and rockets flying through walls and crates, which really ruined the game in my eyes, because it seems like such an elementary thing that they've neglected, and it really lowers the tone of the whole game.
The storyline is the best part of the game, it's always difficult to take an existing character and put them into a new situation, but it's done very well, and the continuation from the previous chronicle is excellent, and I would definately recommend playing Butcher Bay first just so it's all full circle.
the achievements are very online orientated, with me only ending up with 400 for completing both campaigns on hard, without collectables. I missed a couple of a achievements and frustratingly, the difficulties are not stackable, so you'll have to play through both again for the medium achievements. It's approximately 600 in campaign achievements, and the rest online.
The multiplayer is reasonable, all the standard modes are accompanied by a Pitch Black mode, which pits up to 5 mercs against a single player as Riddick, with his Ulaks, in a 'killer stays on' format where the merc to kill Riddick, becomes him. The mercs having unlimited respawns and scores counted on a points per kill, with bonuses for streaks. The other Riddick-unique method is called Butcher Bay Riot, which is effectively a 3-way CtF, collect the power cell, and put it in the generator.
In Summary, this is an excellent game tarnished by a few problems. The multiplayer is good, the story is excellent, and the general feel of the game is top notch. This game is a definate buy, but my own experiences force me to drop my rating just a little. 9/10
5.0