Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
Vin breaks out of the big house in this movie prequel.
by Susie Vee

PLATFORM: XBX

PUBLISHER: Vivendi Universal

DEVELOPER: Starbreeze

GENRE: FPS

ESRB: Mature

Riddick, the inexplicably popular character played by Vin Diesel in Pitch Black and the Chronicles of Riddick, hits the small screen in this action/stealth game for Xbox. A high production value title, made with the help of Vin and the filmmakers, Butcher Bay aims to avoid the bad rep so often associated with movie tie-in games.

Some movie games, like Spider-Man or the EA Lord of the Rings games, have been quite good, while others, say, Charlie’s Angels, are among the worst-reviewed games of all time.

Since adolescent boys – and the professional game journalists who still think like them – are slavishly beholden to the whole macho Riddick media construction, the game has gotten rave reviews the likes of which we thought were reserved for the oft-delayed Halo 2. Some call it the best-looking Xbox game ever; others say it’s the best action game of the year.

The truth is, Riddick is a very well-constructed game, but not entirely worthy of the hype surrounding it. It has many varied gameplay elements, and some really nice eye candy, but at the expense of other serious graphical problems and some frustrating passages that can kill your momentum.

Played from the first-person POV, Butcher Bay starts off with Riddick arriving at an infamous prison. After a quick in-game tutorial, the plot proceeds in clearly delineated sections, all designed to lead you to escape the clutches of John Q. Law.

Much of the game is fairly linear, but occasionally, you’ll have the opportunity to take on side quests, like getting someone a special item or killing a prison bully. You can use the cash you earn from these missions to buy shivs and other weapons, although everything you need is pretty much available for free if you search around.

For a big brute of a guy, Riddick is not exactly a toe-to-toe fighter. Hand-to-hand, he can take out another unarmed opponent pretty easily, but you’ll spend much of the game sneaking around in the shadows, a la Solid Snake, because you won't have a gun for long streches, and the prison guards can make short work of you.

It’s an odd choice, considering the wall-to-wall action of the Riddick film, but it does give the game some extra variety.

Unfortunately, the game is a little schizophrenic at times. Some sections require stealth to get through, other seem to, but basically guarantee that you’ll be spotted by guards. It can take several reloads to figure out that you’re not doing something wrong and there’s really no way to sneak by a particular enemy.

You can easily get stuck on a particular part for a long while before you manage to blunder past it. Save points are frequent, so you’ll almost never have to backtrack far. But we still found it disconcerting to play as the muscle-bound Riddick and spending 75% of the game crouched in the shadows.

The game looks great at certain times, and awful at others. Lighting effects take center stage, adding depth and character to otherwise bland and repetitive prison locales. But the game seems to turn off the anti-aliasing at random times, perhaps to save CPU cycles during complex scenes. When this kicks in, the screen turns into a disconcerting jumble of jaggies.

Despite some annoying deficiencies, Riddick kept us hooked enough to force us into several late-night marathons to get to the end. If you’re a fan of Vin, his movie franchise or are just looking for a first-person shooter with more sneaking than shooting, it’s hard to go wrong with Riddick.