Alot of people have been asking about this as of late so thought I would try and enlighten ! Chronicles of Riddick is one of the unsung heroes when it comes to games, not many people have heard about it but pick it up and you cant put it down !
Usually when you see something that is a movie tie in its worthwhile to stay well clear ! Look at some previous examples of this : Enter the Matrix (Could have been so much better, way to many bugs and graphical glitches), Star Wars Ep 1 : Phantom Menace turned out as a poor platform type game just churned out, Evil Dead, once again a poor mans Resident Evil with constant spawning enemies so it was really hard to get anywhere on it. PC's have seen some right turkeys in years gone by.
Thankfully Chronicles Of Riddick is completely different ! Plenty of work has been put into this on the PC to give a rewarding enjoyable gaming experience that is a cross between Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell series in Riddicks universe.
Starbreeze studios so far have given us Enclave (Excellent bloody medievil hack and slash affair in the mold of Severance Blade of Darkness, highly playable start to finish), also they have given us Knights of the Temple (Once again the medievil setting in the vein of Severance and again highly playable start to finish).
With all that out the way lets take a look at the game itself. As the title states you have to escape from Butcher Bay, a notorious prison that holds the worst of the worst. Anyone that has seen the 2 Pitch Black films knows there isnt a slam that Riddick cant escape from ! Game itself is set before both films so it is welcoming us into his universe.
Game Engine at first glimpses looks like it is the Doom 3 engine, but oh no ! They have worked on this engine in house and I have to say if these guys can get this game looking like this without ID's fantastic engine they are 100% professional and really good in what they do. Game characters look lifelike in movement and the facial features look really good, not quite to Half Life 2 standards but superb regardless. Another very good thing to point out is that the PC version has been enhanced from the X Box version, it has not been a straight port over, it has been souped up big time ! Something else I would like to point out is this game runs exceptionally well on a slightly lesser system. On Doom 3 I have to run it in 800x600 and high detail settings to get no lag at all. This however I can run in 1024x768 with all game detail settings put on high and it runs smooth as silk, now that is good programming ! Shadows are cast really well with good use of lighting, there are a few minor glitches I must say but nothing that is overly noticeable or something that will ruin the overall experience. (My system is XP Barton Core 2500+ @ 1.8 Ghz, 1Gb ram PC2700 333 Mhz and Radeon 9600 Pro, everything at stock)
Sound is fantastic, Vin Diesel has given his voice talents to Riddick thankfully giving the game a real gritty feel to it, I wish alot more companies would try and get the actors to voice parts for their games. I missed Harrison Ford on the Indiana Jones games, they were great games (first one was at least in the mold of Tomb Raider !) but it felt there was something missing due to it not being Indys true voice. This is how it should be, it all comes together nicely and really imerses you in the Pitch Black universe.
As for the game itself, it is highly playable. You can play it through using as much stealth as possible or go in fists / guns blazing. If played properly using both methods you will be hooked. Sneak past what you can but occasionally go all out into a fist fight and end up tilting a firearm backover and taking a guard out by him pulling the trigger at the wrong time in a strugle. You also have the option if you are playing it through with stealth to sneak up on someone and snapping their neck, either quietly or just riving it making more noise (snapping of the spinal cord maybe making more noise, let you decide !). You then have the body to dispose of in the essence of Splinter Cell and Thief ! Pick them up and dump them in a dark corner ! You really dont see to many firearms on this game I have to say, you get the odd pistol, shotgun or automatic but ammo can be quite sparse. When it comes to hand to hand however you get a little (I do mean little !) more options. Shiv (kind of a screwdriver really), also a few different types of knuckledusters with blades or spikes etc adding to lethality ! Overall it adds to the games charm, pick it up and thats it, you're hooked (I know I've said that already in different words but this is a great game !) Whilst playing you are given sidequests to kill someone, tail someone or find something. You dont have to do these sidequests if you dont want to and charge through the game, doing them makes the game last a bit longer and you get to talk to some really interesting characters (my favourite was putting the poison in a guys food !)
On top of all this you can put the game in Developers cut mode. Ever watch a DVD at home and decide to put the directors commentary on ? Thats what the developerss cut is all about, you get a voice over telling you how they done this and that with the game etc as you play it through. Very novel idea really and a welcoming change to usual extra bits given on games. Something else to get you really involved is collecting packets of cigs, everytime you collect one a movie bit is unlocked, concept art, stills, shorts and all stuff like that (when I say movie bit I mean from the Chronicles of Riddick movie itself) so you are given a bit more to get you playing it through taking you're time and exploring.
As you can see I really enjoyed this game start to finish, gives you a bit more depth to Riddicks universe. Yes you do find out how he got his eyes shined up (Remember what he says to people when they ask ?! Got them done at Butcher Bay so it all ties in with the movies nicely) however I am not going to tell you here ! (Evil laugh commences !) You will have to buy the game and find out for yourselves !
Only gripe I have with this game is the amount of time it lasts, it is pretty short overall albeit very rewarding if you do all the sidequests and collect the cigs. I played if over 3 nights and at a rough guess I would say clocked it in around 11 hours and that was covering most of the additional quests and getting the cigs.
If you want something to tide you over till Splinter Cell 3 hits the shelves you cant go wrong in buying this great piece of fun software. I wish alot more developers would put this type of quality work out on a more regular basis. Wether you are a fan of FPS or Stealth action games this game covers both admirably.
Highly recommended, I give it 8.5 / 10
