Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay

This is going to be a two part review, part one is Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay and part two is Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena. So here comes part one.

The original game was released in 2004 for the Xbox and the PC and was developed by Starbreeze Studios and published by Vivendi Games. To this day Starbreeze still exist, but Vivendi Games merged with Activision. But I'm going to review the upgraded version. It was released in 2009 on a CD wich also holds Assault on Dark Athena and was released by Atari.

The game was used as prequel to the movies Pitch Black and Chronicles of Riddick.

In the game you play as Richard B. Riddick, or simply said Riddick, a master in the art of escaping and a convict with a bounty on his head. The story starts with a small tutorial where Riddick is dreaming of an escape. The tutorial ends when he walks out of the sewers into a blinding white light. From that point on the game really starts, you arrived at Butcher Bay. A prison situated on a desert planet. There are three main prison levels in CoR: the first level are the normal holding cells, the second level is placed inside a mine and the third level are the cryogenic cells, where inmates are freezed and given 1 hour recreation per day.
You fight, sneak, talk and trade your way through the levels, Though you will be sneaking a lot through dark places to reach your final goal, to escape the prison.

Somewhere in the middle of the first prison level a riot starts and you fall into the pitt with a scratch on your arm. Essentially being a sewer below the prison, it's inhabitants are not your average inmate. They look human, but are really messed up and only want to hit you to death. But they are not the only ones crawling in the dark. A crazy man called Pope Joe lives there too. He is willing to stitch your arm, but first you have to get his Voice Box. After doing so, he stitches your arm. Then everything around Riddick freezes and a a woman tells you that "you have been blind too lang". It is here where Riddick receives his ability to look into the dark. Because it hurts like hell and because Pope is the only one around, he blames him for the 'eyeshine' nightvision. But he only stitched the wound on his arm.

In various parts in the game you can drive certain vehicles: a riot mech and a large robot. But those trips are really too short too really add something to the game, but it is fun though.
You can use every weapon in the game. Knives, pistoles, shotguns, assault rifles you name it, you can use it, with the exception of heavy guns like rocket launchers.

Because this game is an upgraded version of the 2004 version, the graphics are pretty good. The mapdesigners had the liberty to make levels that are really different from each other, because the player has to use shadows and dark places a lot.

Three have worked in this game to give three characters there voice. First of all is Dwight Schultz known for his role as Maddock in the A-Team. He playes the role as Butcher Bay's warden. Second is Xzibit, a famous rapper, actor and television personality, who plays the role for the guard Abbot. And finally Cole Hauser, who plays the role of the mercenary William J. Johns. He also plays the role of this character in the movie Pitch Black.

One drawback of the game is it's multiplayer. I've noticed that is filled with lag and that there aren't that many people online.

I had a lot of fun playing this game. Nice graphics, smooth gameplay and a solid storyline makes it a great game. This is the end of part 1, stay tuned for the second part, Assault on Dark Athena.