Cheap Ass Review – The Chronicles Of Riddick: Assault On Dark Athena

The unlikely antihero that spawned from a sub-par Hollywood movie, Pitch Black, somehow managed to find his way into a number of gaming titles including The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay and The Chronicles Of Riddick: Assault On Dark Athena. In case you haven’t already figured it out, you take on the role of hardened convict Richard B. Riddick, played by the testosterone fueled Vin Diesel.

Following the events of Butcher Bay, Assault on Dark Athena begins with Riddick and Johns drifting through outer space in cryogenic sleep. That is until they stumble upon the mercenary controlled space vessel, Dark Athena. What follows is sold as a stealth fueled adventure with Riddick doing what he does best, trying to survive. Oh, and of course the unlikely heroic actions that he always seems to pull off, despite his actual intentions.

Firstly, I have to mention the graphics before I talk about anything else. Vin Diesel has one of the most featureless faces in Hollywood; he plays the hard man perfectly and lack of facial expression is usually key to those emotionless Hollywood roles. However, in The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena he looks terrible. Riddick has lips twice the size of his face, that look even worse once he starts talking, and any real immersion is avoided with those darn goggles. Outside of character graphics and textures the environment is good enough to create a decent experience, if only it wasn’t ruined by the gameplay.

It starts out promising as the game introduces you to the various systems via a tutorial. You’re taught how to take out your opponents with both firearms and melee weapons, as well as what the developers considered stealth take downs. In an era dominated by stealth perfection, thanks to games like Metal Gear and Splinter Cell, a game really has to offer fine tuned mechanics if it hopes to compete; put simply, The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena does not.

Even the stealth tutorial itself results in Riddick being discovered. An enemy drone with its back to you, you’re told to sneak behind to get the kill. I tried this several times to ensure it wasn’t my own failure, but every time the droid turns and discovers Riddick for no real reason. This flaw spreads itself through the entire campaign, making stealth almost a complete waste of time. I’m familiar with stealth titles, watching an enemies movement habits before making a move, but my efforts were denied by the poor detection mechanics. I lost count of the times I was discovered when completely out of visual range of my enemy. The poor stealth detection completely destroys any unique factor that this game could have carried.

To make matters worse the only visual clue you have regarding detection is a change of color on-screen. So while hiding behind a box and peeking around the edge the screen would almost flicker with the separate colors, increasing the frustration even further.

There are some cooler aspects that are worth noting, such as Riddick’s iconic Eye Shine. Using his shiny eyeballs you can see in the dark, it’s like a torch featured in every other game with dark corners, but with no hands! Imagine that..

Overall The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault On Dark Athena is an experience I would be happy to forget very quickly. Maybe a big game player back in its day but when it comes to modern day stealth and gunfire mechanics, it falls short

Another Cheap Ass Review on a game that did not stand the test of time.

Rating	Description
out of 10	Reviews Explained
8.0	Presentation: Taking the approach of a minimal UI really credits the atmosphere
6.0	Art Direction: I’m not sure how a bald, featureless face is so hard to imitate in a game.
6.0	Soundtrack & Sound Effects: Music is void for the most part. The sound effects don’t ruin anything, but they don’t really do a great job of setting the mood either.
7	Gameplay: The stealth appeal is huge, sadly the mechanics cannot keep up.
3	Replay Value: I didn’t enjoy the game enough to play through it once, why would you do it twice?
5.5 OVERALL	Average Joe (out of 10, not an average)

This review was written using a purchased copy of the PS3 version of The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena

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