The Chronicles Of Riddick: Assault On Dark Athena Game Review (Xbox 360)

The Chronicles Of Riddick: Assault On Dark Athena Game Review (Xbox 360)

June 18th, 2009 7:31 PM | by Jeff Bordeaux | No Comments

I remember back in 2004 when “Escape From Butcher Bay” had audiences and critics alike praising its first person stealth approach with an emphasis on melee combat. I however, was not that excited about the repetitive environments and jankey gameplay from the demo that I had played. Since then I have played through both Condemned games and enjoyed their atmospherics as well as their melee stylings. Five years later comes the direct sequel to Butcher Bay, “Assault On Dark Athena”, which places buff super villain Riddick on a rogue mercenary ship in a fight for his continued existence.

Not much has changed since those five years have passed. Picking up where the last game left off, Riddick spends most of his time assaulting Dark Athena and groveling through his bad attitude one liners. While the game has some nice aspects to it, it’s just not all that compelling. From a short single player campaign to a multiplayer component that no one’s playing, Assault On Dark Athena is a better game bought used through GameFly or elsewhere rather than paying $60 for it new. Let’s break it down.

Storyline:

If you have played the first game or seen the movies you know that Riddick is the most feared super criminal anomaly in the universe and has the power to see in the dark. The premise is way simple in that you are trapped on the Dark Athena and must escape by any means possible. Beyond that, the mythos and universe are pretty cool with multiple planets and systems being referenced throughout Assault on Dark Athena. Other than that, Riddick is a direct character that doesn’t beat around the bush and wants nothing but to thwart the plans of his captors. Nothing standout, but not a bad premise by any means.

Graphics:

Very dark. The whole glitz of the game is the fact that Riddick has special night vision and that he has an undisputed advantage in low light situations. This gives the game its whole schtick. I think that a game like this often times gives level designers an easy out when it comes to creating atmosphere. While the game has a definite graphic novel “bleeding” type of visual style, the environments quickly become redundant as you’ll just get plain tired of seeing the same stacks of boxes and other inanimate objects. Graphically, the game has a very sterile style that actually works for the “cold steel” feel that I think the developers were going for which makes you really feel all by yourself on the Dark Athena. Character modeling looks decent but isn’t that inspired in terms of design and animation and you generally face the same opponents throughout the game. What also effects the graphics are the two modes that change the way the game looks. The whole screen will change to a dark blue when Riddick is totally enveloped in darkness and then again when you activate his “shine” or night vision. I honestly found this a bit annoying because it became more of a strain on my eyes and would have preferred a light meter a la “Splinter Cell Style” to gauge my detection exposure. Overall, I thought that while the graphics were good and capable of conveying a sense of immersion, there were no “wow” moments like I have had in other games.

Sound:

Mixed bag. I was really impressed with the voice acting of the NPC’s with the exception of the main bad girl Rivas. The voices matched up great with the animations and I easily found them to be one of the best aspects of the game. Gun and weapon sounds seemed pretty standard issue and were not that striking or standout. After just playing Dead Space, which took place on a space ship as well, I thought that the atmospherics could have been a bit more imaginative. Riddick’s voice is one of acquired taste and you either love it or hate it. He’s always going on about being such a solitary bad ass and that you better do what he wants or else. For the record, I did really like him in Saving Private Ryan, but not so much since. In the end, the voice acting is stellar at moments and saves the whole category from being somewhat dreary.

Gameplay:

While the controls react accurately, it’s a bit hard to tell depth in relation to Riddick and his enemies. The camera shifts back and forth when in crouch mode and will some times be confusing when you are trying to sneak up on fools. Melee combat in my opinion got boring fairly early, and while the animations could be slick and gory, there could have been a deeper system in place. There’s a fair amount of ranged and melee weapons to futz around with and the AI is plenty willing to let you demolish them. The AI in fact is a bit weak in terms of reaction to other enemies and to Riddick. They don’t seem to know what’s going on half of the time. I guess you fight a bunch of “drones” for the majority of the game but you’d think they would have more of their collective shit together. I felt that when the camera shifts to 3rd person view when climbing or shimmying it is often very disorienting especially when knowing your distance from a ledge or when you have to be precise and fast with your movements. I thought they would have done better if they had kept the game entirely in 1st person as you really don’t ever need to see Riddick. That’s the point right? So while the gameplay is not bad, some faulty design decisions keep it from being better.

Multiplayer:

Standard fare at best. Not a whole bunch of people playing really. Recently I could only find one game online and the custom match option proved useless to find a game. All basic modes were available to play but I couldn’t play some of the different ones like arena or riot because no was was there to play with me! Boo! Like anything online, large numbers are needed for a community to thrive. There are just too many other games out there vying for that top spot. While the multiplayer seems robust it just basically goes uncharted by the masses of online gamers.

Replay Value:

Good. The simple fact that Assault on Dark Athena comes with an enhanced version of Escape from Butcher Bay is a great value, especially if you are like me and haven’t played the first game. Multiple difficulty levels and collectibles will coax you back, and vast array of achievements will always get the hardcore gamers to keep on playing. While the emphasis is on stealth, you can always play the game run and gun style as there are no penalties or scores associated with your style of play. I found it boring to go the stealth route the whole time because of the nature of the melee system and lack of environmental integration. You basically have to wait out the designated pattern of the AI and it just took too long. So while the game design itself is linear, you can essentially play it once all stealthy and once again all commando style.

Final Endings:

If you skipped right to this part and haven’t read the rest of the review I will say again that Assault on Dark Athena is a good game just not mind blowing by today’s high standards. With the inclusion of the entire first game it’s a nice package indeed, and perhaps a game you can save for later when you are in a gaming lull perhaps. As I mentioned previously, this game would be great bought used or new for around $30-$40. All things said, go buy this game used.

Pros:

• Decent attempt towards a different first person experience
• Nice package that contains two full games
• Voice acting is occasionally stellar

Cons:

• Uninspired level design and AI
• Confusing at times field of depth and third person to first person switching
• Nobody’s online

GadgetReview Overall Score: 7/10

Actually buy it here new for $40!