Chronicles of Riddick

[Sega Ages]

Felt more like a tech demo with the game tacked on in places

In some ways that's true.

[fishbowlhead]

Felt more like Bungie had released a side project to me. A bloody outstanding game that, if it wernt for Halo 2 and Half Life 2 would of been the shooter of the year.

i also found 3 posters saying "your doomed". I dont know weather the games having a pot shot at doom 3 or im just making something out of nothing. Still Doom 3 is going to feel nothing but a dissapointment after completing this.

[JibberX]

Completed this at teh weekend, and basically its a very solid FPS, however, the level design just got worse and worse and worse. These are some very well ventilated prisons. Maybe it was the loading or the vaguely incoherent plot, but it just fell short for me. The first area was very solid, the second section less so, then I just ended running through the game like a rabbit in a warren with no real clue. However the highly polished presentation and graphical flourishes really helped, but the dual stick click functionality totally screwed me up on several occasions.

Basically hit and miss, and should be the benchmark for an entirely average FPS.

[revisedgenocide]

Yeah the time spent in the air vents was a nightmare for me. plus the early mine sections after that were rather byzantine. I did feel that it picked up a bit after that though. The mental mini mech section was superb even though the control was a little clunky. I also liked the section where you only had a few minutes to figure out what to do before you were sent back to sleep. If only that lasted longer, had a few more logic puzzles and the like.
I always thought it was an above average game, one you could consider pretty damned good if you didnt stare at it for too long.

[Concept]

I played the PC version of this, and recently revisited the Xbox edition. Thoroughly enjoyed both play throughs, even if I was lukewarm to Riddick a few months ago.

Having said that, I still think the guards' quaters/mines sections of the game feature stupidly poor sign-posted design. For example,

->Open Spoiler<-

Starbreeze needed to make it more clear that you could disguise yourself instead of having to blast your way through in finding Abbot, and that you're able to pick the tranq gun up much earlier when you're able to buy it.

I also thought the control system, the weight of Riddick's body and general clumsiness, didn't help navigation either.

Having said that, as a pure spectacle and viewing the experience as a whole, the game pulls off more right than it does wrong. I particularly enjoyed the social/character building sections in and around the prison.

[Ersatz Nihilist]

I think the game could have done with a few more disconnected musings from the Riddick character.

[Concept]

It says everything though that what writing is in the game, completely pisses all over the horrific film franchise tie-in.

Escape from Butcher Bay has far more in common stylistically speaking with Pitch Black than it does with its cinematic sequel. It's a less ambitious, but a tightly knitted experience (far deeper atmospherically), also managing to keep away from the third rate star-wars wannable nonsense shown elsewhere.

The game feels more like a good cheesy 80's low budget sci-fi film, rather than an awful one which the recent movie manages to ape.

[JibberX]

I found the Disguised doom coloured key "puzzles" very mid 90s level design... oo the powers off, get to the switch, get a key to get to the switch... I know thats pretentious of me, but its very clunky. Also for a high security prison, it wasn't very, was it? The premise out matched the execution. And you were subjected to the "no weapons" scenario 1 too many times, but thats just being picky. Once I worked out the combat, especially the hand to hand, that was entertaining.

[Concept]

Yeah, the design was fairly basic in terms of its excusion level-planning wise. I think much of the intelligence was shown in the threads, side missions and choices you were given during the parts when you didn't have a weapon. As revisedgenocide pointed out,

->Open Spoiler<-

the latter sections were an interesting diversion. I would have liked to have had a dream-like level where you play as Riddick while he's slowly being brainwashed in the cryochamber. This is briefly hinted at by the messages on the wall of an Ocean, Tree etc. and the wild images flashing in his mind when he escapes the chamber.

[JibberX]

Like I say I think this should be used as a benchmark for the perfectly acceptable FPS, i.e. decent. Its not earth shattering, but it is good fun.

For instance

->Open Spoiler<-

the end cryo sequence felt tacked on, and it repeated some switch finding, route finding again, leaving the cryo box chamber was as straight forward as leaving the room! I was literally jumping aroung the whole room, till I decide naah it can't be that straight forward, but it was!