One of the best action games on Xbox

User Rating: 9.4 | The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay XBOX
By stafax | Review Date:
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay is based of the Pitch Black movie of 2000 and The Chronicles of Riddick movie of 2004. The beginning of the movie takes place right before the 2004 movie, but then it immediately goes to a flashback and pretty much the rest of the game is a prequel to the 2000 movie. When this game first came out, everyone had the exact same reaction. "Oh, it's a game based off The Chronicles of Riddick movie... no way it can be any good." But who is to blame? Look at just about any other movie based off a game. Terminator 3, Bad Boys, Catwoman, just look at Fight Club the game. None of them anything special. But what is it exactly that you find once you play The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay? One of the best action games for Xbox in 2004. The very first thing you will notice is the great graphics engine of this game. The graphics are so well, they revial the highly anticipated graphics of Doom 3. The models are so detailed that are some of the best you'll find on console. The environments look great. It's very visable which surfaces have rough or smooth feel by the look. The shadowing and lighting is done very well, and these correspond with the gameplay. Although the graphics are very well done and detailed, it lacks in colour. But the game has a dark mood and takes place is a disgusting prison with very low maintanence. Adding more colour would ruin the effect of the game. The game also has no HUD at all. The only things on the screen are the health bar and a brief glimpse of what weapon is selected and how many clips are left. This lack of a HUD helps give you the feel that you actually are Riddick, and makes you depend more on your senses for survival. You have no radar to tell you where anyone is. You have no stealth meter. If you crouch down and are in a dark area, the screen tints blue to indicate that you are well hidden. The life bar, which consists of a few white squares is places on the top of the screen. Similar to the shield in Halo, Riddick's life can recharge by squares. But once a square is completely gone, it will not recharge back on it's own. You will have to go to a Nanomed Machine, a futuristic first-aid machine, to restore you missing health. The sound of this game is unbelievably great. The voice acting is all professionally done. Very few voices are reused on different people, and the reused voices are hard to catch because the voice actors did a good job at doing different voices for each character. Every character you meet who has something to say to you, will have their own individual personality as well. There isn't much music in this game at all. Most of the game is silent while walking around and talking to other inmates. But as soon as you get into combat with anybody, there is some nicely done music that goes will feel apropriate with the situation. So the graphics are great, the sounds are awesome, what about the gameplay? The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay has one of the best single player games on the xbox in 2004. The only first person shooter that has gameplay anywhere similar to this game is Deus Ex, but even that game is no where near the innovativeness of The Chronicles of Riddick. Similar to Deus Ex, you go around and talk to a lot of people. You do errands for some inmates, bargain with guards, and buy stuff from a few people. You can even play dice with one guy. Not only do you have to talk to many people, but the AI in this game is fabulous. If you are trying to sneak around, and you get caught, the guards will keep the flashlight on you no matter what. If you run behind a box or wall, they will keep that light on that area leaving you no where to escape. If you are unarmed and try to run towards them from the front, they will keep shooting at you while running backwards or hiding behind something. They do not do stupid things like in most FPS games, these guys can fight and defend themselves. Unlike many FPS games on console, this game uses a lot of stealth. There is no way you can just run up to everyone and take them all out on your own. Many times you will be unarmed or with only a shiv or other short range weapon. Stealth will be necessary to sneak past or take someone out from their behind. The stealth system of this game can rival those of games that are based on stealth, such as Splinter Cell. The other unique point of this game is the melee combat. It's probably the best on any FPS game yet. It is simple yet deep enough to make it unique and not repetative. The story of this game is also one of a kind. If you are not a fan of Pitch Black, or Chronicles of Riddick, or have never even seen either of these movies, it doesn't matter. You need no knowledge of Riddick to understand this game. Infact, after playing this game, you will probably even want to be a fan of Riddick because of how great the story is presented in this game. This game is great, but it is not without flaws. The game lacks replay value. The game is linear, so it doesn't give you much reason to play it again, other then for the great gameplay. There is also no multiplayer on this game at all. This game could've had some great deathmatch type of mode, but there is no such mode available at all. There are some hidden cigarette packages through out the game, that unlock pictures and movie clips, but even these unlockables do not add any replay value to search for all of these. Overall, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay gives you one of the best single player action games for xbox. If you are looking for a multiplayer action shooter for you and your friends, this is not it. If you want a great story with great gameplay, this will surely keep you entertained for a while. Look into this game if you are a fan of FPS games, stealth games, or any action games at all. You will surely like this game.

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