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Review

The Chronicles Of Riddick Escape From Butcher Bay

8.3

Format Xbox

Developer Starbreeze Studios

Publisher Vivendi

Genre First Person Shooter, Adventure

17-Aug-2004

Vin Diesel is one of those heroes who we regularly see emerge unscathed from even the biggest of Hollywood explosions. This month, indestructible Vin is gonna detonate something pretty huge of his own, with his first starring role in an action game.

The dynamite question is: will this thing totally blow you away, or just gently ruffle your arse feathers? Well, we've played it right through and here's what we think of the show.

Rise And Shine Riddick
A bit like the universe, it all started with Pitch Black. Pitch Black, in case you're some kind of action movie dodging weirdo, was a so-so sci-fi flick that introduced us to deadly convict Richard B Riddick (played by none other than Vincent Unleaded), and his bounty-hunting handler Johns.

Although it was released back in 2000, the film is the second chapter in The Chronicles Of Riddick, and it's worth watching to see Riddick emerge as the cool anti-hero with the ability to see in the dark.

Overnight Success
As you probably know, Pitch Black has a major movie sequel due very soon at your cinema, called The Chronicles Of Riddick. A week before that this Xbox game Escape From Butcher Bay comes out, and is a prequel to Pitch Black, making this the first episode in the Chronicles. The thinking behind this onslaught of all things Riddick is that the hero of the tale doesn't benefit from decades of comic book lore, or trilogies of novels. So, in order for the Riddster to stand tall with the likes of fellow legendary leader types Conan and Luke Skywalker, there needed to be a lot of blanks filling in. Since it's very expensive and time consuming to make a movie prequel, the next best option was to make a game. This explains everything that ends up good or bad with Escape From Butcher Bay.

Everything And More
You can count the really good movie tie-ins on one hand: for every clever Star Wars game, there's an Enter The Matrix dragging you into the gutter. Thankfully, Escape From Butcher Bay is being handled by co-creators Vinnie Petrol and David Twohy (director). They are concentrating on fleshing out the hero at the centre of what would otherwise be a fairly straightforward first-person shooter.

Off To A False Start
The game kicks off with a bizarre flashback or precognition (it's hard to work out which) of Riddick escaping through the sewers of a facility that looks like Butcher Bay. This minutes-long prologue is a snapshot of the action to come - Riddick talking to captor Johns; sneaking up behind him to break his neck; running for cover to avoid deadly perimeter guns; engaging in a shotgun shootout... before he wakes up from what turns out to be a dream. Actually, he's still on board the transport ship to Butcher Bay pen, and still under the watchful eye of Johns. The game never does explain why all this happens, but it's cool, so okay. Anyway it helps us sum the game up in a nutshell: lots of talking, a fair bit of sneaking up on people and snapping their neck, plus lots of running to avoid death. By the end of it you'll feel every bit the bad-ass that dwells inside Riddick.

Dead Don't Talk
Soon as he is officially a prisoner inside Butcher Bay the game works hard to immerse you in the role of Riddick. You do a lot more than just look through his killer eyes, wield the knife and pull the trigger. As an inmate you're given choices to make, a certain amount of freedom to act within the confines of Riddick's character, and this affects how the game pans out.

Conversations, especially early on, are plentiful. From these you're expected to gain information on how to escape. Everyone has something to say to Riddick if you stop by and press the X button, and the big man is full of quips to answer back. You even get a multiple-choice in many instances. The choices mostly relate to how cheeky you want to make the comebacks, but with fellow inmates, you have to choose how helpful you're prepared to be in return for secrets. It turns out you'll be running quite a few little errands before you get the feel of a gun in your hands, so don't expect to be blasting an' a strafing from the word go. Fist fights are a different matter - you get to enjoy plenty of those.

Hey, Did You Know... Oof! Oof! Arrghle!
When you've jackhammers for fists, it's tempting to just punch info out of people. Sorry to break your heart, but this just won't work -
at least most of the time it won't. Butcher Bay has machine guns attached to security cameras just about everywhere you look, and if you're caught brawling you're gunned down in seconds. It's suicide. This scenario can be mightily frustrating, but that's probably the general idea. We guess you're supposed to feel like a tiger in a cage, so that when the chance comes to break loose, you are really itching at the prospect of some serious action.

In any case, there are only a few fellow inmates that really deserve a good shoeing. Most of them don't want any trouble, and would prefer it if you help them sort out whatever their sordid little problems are. There's a drug addict who needs his needle back; one of the smaller factions would like you to retrieve a snitch list, and just about everyone would like the head warden Abbott taking care of!

Bare Knuckle
Without giving too much away, one of the main objectives is to get into a fight with Abbott. Abbott won't show up unless you break enough heads in the Bay-approved fighting area, or be 'stupid' enough to get caught carrying drugs. This is the only way Riddick can find a way out before becoming one of the crazies. And so, for five USDs a pop (USDs being Riddicksville currency), you set about rounding up fellow cons to beat them up to buy respect, each one heftier than the last.

The ringleader gives you a name and whereabouts, then it's your responsibility to seek them out. We guess you could say finding your own prey adds to the tension and adds to the immersing nature of the game, but it's obviously to vary the pace with more walking and talking. The fist fights themselves are over in seconds once you get the timing of right and left hooks, and that's simple too. Still, fighting helps vent frustration and you feel you've accomplished more than simply being frisked and found
in possession.

Riot Tonight: All Invited
After so much pussyfooting around, you're glad of the chance to turn the guards' assault rifles and shotguns against them. Beyond a certain stage in the game, shotguns can be stolen from guards and used freely. But you need to work a little harder to use an assault rifle as these are DNA-encoded.

For a while you know how it feels to be searching the darkness with a muzzle-mounted torchlight, which is sorta cool, but the beam is a dead giveaway as to your position too. Guards can be lured by flicking the switch on and off, and you can likewise track them down by their beam. At this point the game feels like a standard FPS, with much strafing and blasting to stay alive. You start wondering when Riddick's famous Eye Shine comes into play - the ability to see in the dark. In fact this gift is granted close to halfway through the game, or feels like it.

Your Newrose-Tinted Outlook
It's a crusty-looking old feller named Pope Joe who eventually performs the magic. You're left wondering if Eye Shine is a surgical procedure or some voodoo hocus-pocus, mainly because Joe is a nutcase prophet but also because a mysterious female voice starts floating around inside Riddick's head... something about a prophecy. Thankfully she only has a few things to say before disappearing.

Now, Eye Shine turns out to be no more advantageous than night-vision goggles in any other stealth game or FPS. It simply has a cooler name, and is tinted pink instead of green. We thought Eye Shine would give Riddick a sense of ESP, somehow make him more aware through vibrations in the controller or whatever. That could've made for more intrigue, but in the end it's plain old seeing in the dark. So, cue shooting out the lights and crouching in the shadows to take aim at disoriented guards, but watch out for the ones with torches because they'll blind you. Bottom line with Eye Shine is, the concept could've been developed into so much more.

That Big Movie Feel
Quite often, Butcher Bay is in danger of being forgettable. What keeps you interested is the high level of graphical detail, high production Hollywood sound effects and orchestral score.

Although you spend nearly all of your time surrounded by various shades of rusty brown, or concrete grey brightened only by the orange of muzzle flash or the stark crimson blood splats, it is all very believable. Also, the way Butcher Bay is connected by a labyrinth of mine shafts and air conditioning vents is ingenious. Every step to Riddick's dramatic escape from the Spaceport you're thinking of the most effective possible route to freedom. Scenarios play out in a similar way to those in Splinter Cell or Metal Gear, although without the same intensity placed on stealth - you're allowed to come out guns blazing more, so it feels easier to deal with.

The ace up Butcher Bay's sleeve is the massively blown out of proportion confrontations with heavy-duty law enforcement equipment, culminating in one hell of a battle before the escape.

Sexy But Short Lived
Here's the thing: as Riddick we managed the escape from Butcher Bay in less than eight hours total playing time. After that we were left reflecting on whether all the excitement was worth it, and if there's any point playing through the game at least more than once. It seems the guys at Starbreeze took this into account, giving three difficulty options: Easy, Normal, or Hard and scattering cigarette packets, or 'smokes', throughout the game to unlock pre-production sketches and a few mpeg files, should you find them. We tried the Hard setting and it only made us aware of the limitations of the weapons and wasted opportunity with Eye Shine. On Easy, there's basically not much to worry about. So the prospects for replayability are poor. Played on Normal difficulty - as you doubtless will first time through - Escape from Butcher Bay succeeds as a gripping action-packed experience, and can be enjoyed in the same way that great popcorn movies often are. In fact, if this were a movie we'd say, "go see." As a game, we say: "go play - but bear in mind the quick exit".

CVG Staff

Overview

Verdict

Are we too battle-hardened to sense the full impact of Vin's Xbox debut? More likely the game isn't packing quite the dynamite as its potential suggested.

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Like This? Try These

If you can't get enough of Vin's myopic muscle-man, then you can easily get hold of Pitch Black on DVD. But there's more Riddick gubbins coming along soon. First up is an animated DVD movie due for release in August called Dark Fury. This manga merchandise fills in the gap between Pitch Black and the new movie sequel.

Not your usual sort of hero, our Riddick was convicted of murdering an entire squad of team mates

Richard B Riddick, aka Vincent Diesel, as he looked back in the original Pitch Black movie

Give Pitch Black a rent if you haven�t seen it. It�s not awesome, but it�s dead spooky and has kick-ass SFX

The Dark Fury DVD is directed by Peter Chung, who also did �Matriculated� for the Animatrix series

Believe The Hype?

Everyone is talking about Chronicles Of Riddick after a shock debut at the E3 show in LA.
Back in May, Riddick bedazzled visitors who arrived expecting the likes of Doom 3 and Half Life 2 to be the talk of the town. But Escape From Butcher Bay's ultra-realistic visuals and big-movie styling really stole the show. Now it's time for us to go behind the hype and find the truth.

We were all really looking forward to using Riddick�s Eye Shine to get the advantage

Starbreeze under the direction of Vin Diesel have played it pretty smart with the game

Vin Diesel as he looks in his first videogame, a damn good likeness, you�ve got to say

Get ready to unlock the secrets behind what makes this game really tick, good and bad

A Real Pain In The Neck

Riddick's party trick for this game is sneaking up behind people and snapping their necks like twigs. Brutal, yes. It's rarely necessary as often just shooting will do, but you can't beat the satisfaction of pulling of a silent kill on an unawares guard. Watching their lifeless corpses crumple to the ground is well worth the hassle.

Hey what�s that over there? Maybe you should check it out? (Heh. He has no idea)

Patrolling guards will let you past, then you can grab them as they walk away

You can have a field day snooping around the guard�s HQ if you find this disguise

Sneaking up to break a neck requires a bit of practice, but you�ll soon master it

Trading In Pain

Useful items such as vent tools, shivs (crude knives) and clubs can be beaten out of inmates and wardens. Once they've been knocked unconscious, and usually killed, they drop all their belongings. If you don't want to raise alarms there are guys who sell this stuff. Saves time too, though that's not really a concern in this game.

Vent tools aren�t the finest of hand-to-hand weapons, but you�ll be glad to have one handy if you�re rushed

If you can�t be bothered searching around for stuff like vent tools, come see this guy

To take on the guards, you�re going want some kind of a firearm, like this shotgun

A shiv isn�t very effective against an armed guard, but it�ll teach lesser punks a lesson

Let The Fur Fly

Trading punches with some goon is easy enough. You can shoot jabs, hooks and uppercuts using the L/R triggers combined with the left analogue stick. Combos are left for you to discover, but to be honest, once you've sorted those basic left and right hooks you won't need anything else. Which is a shame, as fighting ends up repetitive.

There�s no point working out tactics, just get stuck in with those left and right hooks!

Riddick squares off to his first opponent in the ring, 100% confident of a victory

Your punches come out fast and furious causing fountains of blood to mess up the walls

Just because he�s wearing a protective mask doesn�t mean your blows won�t count

Climbing Fame

Whenever there's climbing up ladders or clambering over boxes to be done, the game shifts to a third-person viewpoint.
It reminds you that it's Riddick performing all the cool stunts in this game, and gives you a better idea of where he is in relation to the surroundings. It also looks pretty cool to see those bullets whizzing past his tiny ears.