Chronicles Of Riddick
How you take a crappy license and turn it into one of the best games of the year
Tags: Chronicles Of Riddick Categories: Reviews, Xbox Reviews
Posted by Jake McNeill on Jul 16th, 2004
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Chronicles Of Riddick (title page) | 1 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Action | No | ||
I am not a fan of this franchise. I think Pitch Black was decent but overrated, and I think the new Chronicles of Riddick film was a piece of crap with some nice special effects. I haven’t seen the direct-to-DVD anime, but I don’t have much interest in seeing it, either. This is perhaps why it’s so outstanding, incredible, and just plain mind-boggling that a game based on such a crappy license would be have me so incredibly riveted.
 |
 |
If I were to make a list of the top five Xbox games ever made, this game would be in it. If I were to choose the best console game to be released so far this year, this would be it. This is a game that every Xbox owner must play, regardless of whether or not they like the movies. Remember, I basically just told you the movies suck, and I’m still raving about this game. That’s how strongly I feel about it. Let me try and explain why:
 |
The Chronicles of Riddick almost seemed like a joke from the get-go. Here we have an actor (Vin Diesel) who’s had a few good movies, and decided that he’s gonna’ go start a game company (Tigon Studios). Not only do we have a development studio seemingly formed on the whim of a movie star, but their first project is a licensed title starring the guy. “Oh, let’s make an Xbox first-person shooter based on one of your movies, boss!” …. Seriously, this project seemed doomed.
However, it seems that these people deserved a lot more credit. The Chronicles of Riddick: The Escape from Butcher Bay was designed by a team that seems like it had to have an extensive understanding of great games and what makes them work. Throughout the game, you can see the influences of titles like Half-Life, Breakdown, Metroid Prime, Halo, Metal Gear Solid and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell meshed together beautifully. Riddick is none of those games, but instead, uses some of the best qualities of those titles to create something completely new and wonderful in its own right.
 |
It should be mentioned that The Chronicles of Riddick: The Escape From Butcher Bay is very likely the best-looking game on the Xbox. The game’s designers used every graphical trick in the book: You have your bump-mapping, your real-time lighting, your ragdoll physics, you have large environments, detailed environments, great lighting effects, and the character models in particular are phenomenal. Riddick himself looks more like Vin Diesel than any game character ever looked like any actor. I suppose that the animations are good but not great, and there are a few (but only a few) situations where the graphics do something funky, but that’s nitpicking.
Players assume the role of the game’s titular character in a plot line that takes place before Pitch Black, fleshing out the backstory of Riddick. Throughout the game, you come to see how he came to be at Butcher Bay (and naturally, how he escaped), you’ll see how he got his “shine” (his night-vision eyes), and you’ll come to better understand his strange relationship with Johns, who constantly seems both a friend and enemy to Riddick.
 |
Vin Diesel and Cole Hauser reprise the roles of Riddick and Johns, and the rest of the voice cast is an eclectic bunch, ranging from rapper Xzibit to Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Dwight Schultz. Despite the strange assortment of voice actors, every single character, down to the last insignifigant guard or cellmate, is beautifully acted. I could do without a few lines that are repeated a tad too often (”Hey, prisoner!”), but that’s a small gripe in what is otherwise a beautifully directed game.
The game’s level structure is very similar to Half-Life. Riddick moves through one continuous world, with his goals adapting as the situation changes. The storyline is mostly told to us through conversations with other inmates and even 95% of the cutscenes are done in the game engine (and with a game engine that looks this pretty, you’d want to put it to use). Like Half-Life, Riddick’s story is very simple (you’re in the pokey and want to get out), yet told with such style and finesse that it comes off as almost epic.
 |
The gameplay doesn’t settle for the usual, either. Through more than half of the game, Riddick will be unarmed, as guards’ weapons shock any inmate that tries to use them. To make up for this, Riddick has some good hand-to-hand fighting skills comparable to those in Breakdown. Furthermore, when unarmed, Riddick can quietly sneak up behind foes and give them a good old-fashioned Solid Snake-esque head-snap. Also, those that time it right can counterattack an enemy with their own gun while they’re still holding it, turning it back on them and injecting some lead into their skull.
Also like Breakdown, every action Riddick makes has the first-person camera moving reastically (though Riddick doesn’t take this to the often ridiculous extremes Breakdown did). Furthermore, like in Metroid Prime, the camera automatically changes to a third-person view when appropriate, such as when Riddick climbs up on a ledge. This intuitive camera works beautifully, and goes a great way towards pulling the player into the game.
 |
While Riddick is formidable even when unarmed, he has to be as enemies are far more numerous and carry superior weaponry. Stealth quickly becomes a vital part of the game, and players will do best to stick to the shadows, emerging only at the opportune moment. Later on, you’ll be able to shoot out lights with guns like in Splinter Cell, to which the guards can respond to by pulling out their flashlights, turning the situation into a game of cat and mouse. And when Riddick eventually gets his “shine”, this element takes on a whole new light (no pun intended).
Toss in some optional side-quests and RPG elements, some cool boss battles, a portion of a game that plays like the crazed last level of Halo, and a final area that’s cooler than words can describe (although the final boss is sort of stupid), and you have a game that’s one of the most surprisingly awesome titles to see release on the XBox this year and… Well, ever.
Complaints? A few. The game is a tad on the tough side (although apparently learning how to effectively counterattack makes the game far easier), and a few areas with endlessly-spawning enemies seemed beneath the rest of the game. Also, it was a tad on the short side, although it might just look that way because I still want more.
 |
 |
Really, any complaints I have are minor compared to the extreme enthusiasm I have for this game. You don’t have to be a Riddick fan to enjoy this game. Quite the contrary, actually. Anyone who owns an XBox should play this game even if they think the movies are a pile of crap. This isn’t just a game that does its license justice. This is a game that supercedes its license.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ It's really frickin' good. No, really. + Dude, you need to play this game. |
9.5 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- OK, so the balance sways from too hard to too easy here and there. - A few areas with endlessly spawning enemies are a tad annoying - Too short. I want more! |
|
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| You must play this game, even if you hated the movies. It's that good. | |
[ Post the first comment | View related posts ]
Tags: Chronicles Of Riddick
Posted by Jake McNeill on Jul 16th, 2004 and is filed under Reviews, Xbox Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
