The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena (PC)

[Edmund]

Being an infiltration, FPS and action game, The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is a continuation of Escape from Butcher Bay, released in 2004. You play as Riddick, played in the film and modeled in the game by Vin Diesel, and also the ability to see in the dark, you are particularly good at hunting furtiveness on the lookout and cutting enemies. It has been five years since we saw Riddick shredding up enemies.

Five years after having made us vibrate in Escape from Butcher Bay, Richard B. Riddick is back in what is the best deal on the spring. Two good games for the price of one, hard to resist: This bundle contains Atari in two games: Dark Athena but Escape from Butcher Bay, a slightly reworked. Paradoxically, it is this generosity that unbalances the package ... The original game stole the show with his little brother, because it is much more successful!

[Edmund]

He especially enjoys the element of surprise. Escape from Butcher Bay has been freshened up a bit and looks surprisingly spiffy on a high-definition display. It certainly shows its age in a number of ways: The stiff character models move awkwardly and exhibit scant expression, and low-definition textures betray the graphic engine's last-generation roots. Yet though Butcher Bay's visuals have noticeable wrinkles, the phenomenal lighting and shadowing smoothens it surprisingly well.

With Riddick, the least we can say is that we are spoiled. Riddick is a model, a sociopath class raising Nico Bellic for a kind philanthropist. Riddick has no friends, no family (he is the last representative of the race of Furiens, superhuman warriors), a criminal record just as thick as his biceps. Star of the con, the divine bald is imprisoned in Butcher Bay, the most sordid prison of the whole galaxy.

[Edmund]

A really super Diesel

Even when one enjoys a superstar status of the crime, the prison is one of those places where you feel soon to close. Riddick will quickly build a plan to be beautiful, but for this it will need the logistical support of a few guards and inmates. Though from the early moments it seems this is going to be just another first-person shooter, Butcher Bay is nothing of the sort. This is a stealth game. As tough as Riddick may be, his muscle shirt doesn't provide any protection and a few gunshots are enough to end his life. The Chronicles Riddick is kind of like Splinter Cell in first-person. You can be bold and aggressive and run straight at enemies, but it's far better (and healthier) to stay in the dark and take enemies by surprise. In this pool of sharks, all kinds of traffic and "contracts" can be used as bargaining chips, but beware the consequences!

This is where the title of Starbreeze is carving a nice identity, offering a very strong adventure. Phases of dialogue, exploration, small surveys ... This requires as much as that neural reflexes! SPF malignant, this is unexpected, especially with such a background. Rarer still, it is a FPS where weapons are distributed in a trickle, focusing on unarmed combat, rather than exchanges of fire.

Butcher Bay and Dark Athena can play games like infiltration, utilizing up to darkness vicious ambushes based knives or strangulation. Riddick is a true predator, able to see perfectly in the dark. A gift that Mother Nature has given to all Furiens and is proving very useful in poorly lit corridors of Butcher Bay prison, as in the corridors of the Dark Athena.

[Edmund]

Dark Athena not really slip Day

Both games are fully connected to one another. Hardly will you be out of Butcher Bay that you will be caught again by a giant ship of mercenaries on Dark Athena. The proposed adventure in the second game much like the first. In a little less well, the game mechanics are a little less surprising. Especially, Dark Athena makes the mistake to ignore the adventure and unarmed combat in favor of shooting animals phases as we have already experienced hundreds.

The battles are not too bad, directed, but the 3D engine here acknowledge its obsolescence, with many special effects stunted for a game in 2009. The arsenal is not really remarkable, with its classic pump rifle / machine gun / sniper rifle to alternate depending on the situation. More annoying, the lack of life outside decorations are all Butcher Bay was a total success claustrophobic, especially Dark Athena is completely beside him by offering big empty space ....

Do not think that Dark Athena is a bad game, it is just below her senior. This double pack is still a great opportunity to discover two titles of good quality at lower cost, the PC version is proposed for 40 euros. The players on consoles may find these Riddick a little austere, a thousand miles of Gears of War or Killzone. But the experience is worthwhile, we believe word!

[Edmund]

Advantages

• The combat system
• The elements of role playing
• The general design

Disadvantages

• Technologically a little worn
• Sequences that are repeated

[Edmund]