It’s hard to believe that next year, The Chronicles of Riddick franchise will have turned twenty. The franchise that helped to cement Vin Diesel as an action star may be quiet now, but it also successfully jumped into other media, namely video games. And unlike most video game tie-ins to film/television, the two games that were released at the height of the franchise’s popularity were pretty good. 2004’s Escape from Butcher Bay was a strong action/stealth game that bucked the clichéd trend of lame video game cash-ins, and its sequel, 2009’s Assault on Dark Athena, looked to continue that success.
The story for Assault on Dark Athena picks up right after Escape From Butcher Bay (which is included with the sequel as an enhanced version of the original). Riddick has escaped the prison planet known as Butcher Bay, but while in cryosleep, his ship is captured by the Dark Athena, a gigantic mercenary vessel run by Gale Revas. Evading capture, Riddick eventually discovers Revas’ prisoners, including the original captain of the Dark Athena. Turns out that Revas has been capturing civilians and harvesting their bodies to be used as the drones that patrol the ship. Riddick must now free the prisoners and stop Revas.
As was the case in Butcher Bay, Dark Athena‘s graphics are appropriately moody, and help set the tone and atmosphere. Even after a decade, the game’s engine still manages to make the environments on the ship look appropriately cold and gritty. The use of shadow and light again plays into the stealth aspects of the gameplay, though sadly this time, the gameplay’s more focused on gunplay (more on that later). A big highlight for the game back then was the quality of its animations for cinematics and characters. Ten years on, the advancements in technique and technology have obviously made Dark Athena‘s animations look dated, but the cutscenes are still enjoyable to watch, particularly thanks to the quality of the voice acting.
It’s quite obvious that Vin Diesel was really hands-on when it came to Butcher Bay, and it’s no different in Dark Athena. Diesel continues to ooze that badass persona with Riddick, and his delivery is still top-notch. Vin’s not the only one delivering a memorable performance, as you have Michelle Forbes (more recently heard in Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus) who puts in an awesome performance as Revas, an equally-formidable badass counterpart to Riddick. We’ve also got Lance Henriksen contributing to the cast this time, which is always enjoyable (much more than Xzibit from Butcher Bay). The writing definitely helped to make these performances work, and get players invested in these new characters.
As for the gameplay, Dark Athena carries over everything that was in Butcher Bay, while adding in some new features. As mentioned before, Dark Athena focuses more on action than stealth, which isn’t quite as strong as you’d hope. The weapons, many of which return from the previous game, feel clunky, and when paired up with prolonged action sequences (particularly against the spider drones), start to feel monotonous. As for the melee sections, which weren’t that great in the first game, aren’t that much improved here. Much of it requires you to counter an enemy’s attacks, but that isn’t always easy to pull off, thanks to the timing. Plus, you can exploit the AI by jumping onto a higher point and sniping them from there, which admittedly isn’t the most fun thing to do. Still, one can’t argue that sneaking up on unsuspecting mercs and killing them in brutal ways as Riddick isn’t satisfying.
Probably the most fun additions to the gameplay are the sequences where you don’t directly play as Riddick. The moments where you hijack and control a drone are a blast to play, as are the moments where you hop into a mech suit. You can also pick up a drone after taking them down via stealth, and use their weapon against nearby foes. As for the stealth sequences, they’re a bit more streamlined this time around, and you have a few more options to get to where you need to go. However, as with some of the action sequences, there are moments that do feel tedious (such as the sequence in which you avoid a searchlight while climbing across a series of stacked boxes). Furthermore, the tactic of shooting out the lights to get around is negated later on in the game by the enemies that will be equipped with night vision.
Dark Athena‘s biggest downfall is, unfortunately, the feeling of a lack of creativity. With the aforementioned stealth sections sometimes descending into cliched territory, many of the exploration sequences involve fetch quests, which are predictably aggravating. The overall pacing of the gameplay feels chunky, and despite the new additions, the game revolves around a short stealth/exploration portion, followed by a shooting portion, and then a quick melee portion. It doesn’t help that you have the previous game bundled with Dark Athena, which does have fetch quests, but are mainly relegated to the beginning of the game.
As for the game’s multiplayer, the addition feels adequate, but at the same time, seems out of place. Apart from the standbys in Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Capture the Flag, there’s the six-player Pitch Black mode, where one player is selected as Riddick, while the others equip their weapons and flashlights to take him out. Butcher Bay Riot plays much like Counterstrike, where three teams face off against each other in a succession of rounds, letting you purchase weapons, armor, and ammo in between them. Pitch Black mode is probably the more amusing of the modes, but the novelty wears off pretty quickly.
Admittedly, Assault on Dark Athena doesn’t quite live up to what we got in Escape from Butcher Bay, but it’s not horrible. The mood and look of the game, coupled with the fantastic voice-acting, are still top notch even today. And despite the contrived and dated nature of the gameplay, there’s still fun to be had stealthily going around and picking off foes while in the dark. Moreover, you have to hand it to Vin Diesel, who obviously loves the character (him going to bat for Riddick is another example of that), and him being all over this project obviously helped. With Starbreeze unfortunately now being a shadow of what they once were, and the film franchise itself waiting for a return, it’s still great to revisit Riddick in Dark Athena, though admittedly, Butcher Bay is still its superior.
