Richard B. Riddick is a bit of a hard nut. If you’ve seen either Pitch Black or the more recent Chronicles of Riddick, you’ll know all about everybody’s favourite antihero, played by Vin Diesel in the afore mentioned films. Butcher Bay takes you to a time just before the events in Pitch Black. Unsurprisingly, you play Riddick, and, being a murderer and all, you’ve been captured and sent to the galaxy’s deadliest prison (Butcher Bay). Of course, even a rock-hard triple-max security slam such as Butcher Bay cannot contain Riddick, and during the course of the game your objective is to escape the toughest prison in the universe. Sound easy?

Of course, Butcher Bay isn’t exactly a charming place to call home. The guards are corrupt, the inmates cause regular riots, and automatic machine gun turrets ensure that the prisoners behave themselves. Lurking in the shadows are robotic ‘Riot Guards’ and hidden, mysterious creatures that lie in the darkness waiting for you to make a mistake. Every shadowed corner could mean death, every new area holds chaos.

However, Riddick is no stranger to the dark. During the course of the game you discover how Riddick gains his ‘eyeshine’ which enables him to see in the dark. Add that to Riddick’s immense strength, and all of a sudden Butcher Bay doesn’t seem all that impossible to escape from.

The narrative of the game is wonderfully told – the use of cutscenes and occasional narration by Riddick keep the story flowing and really immerse the player in the world of Butcher Bay. Of course, the excellent visuals play a part in involving the player thanks to the highly detailed and extremely atmospheric environments and the superb character models. The story is told so well and the visuals so highly detailed that, even if the rest of the game was rubbish, you’d keep playing just to see it through to the end.

Fortunately, the gameplay itself is far from rubbish. The game is played from a first person perspective for the most part, but Riddick is far more versatile than the characters in any other FPS you’d care to mention. He can climb crates, he can jump, he can shimmy across ledges and he can climb across overhead scaffolding. Also, unlike many games of the genres (with Breakdown bring a recent exception), there is a fully fledged fist combat system, which comes in handy should you get into a scrape with an inmate for example, or need to stealthily take out a guard. Should you feel your fists are inadequate for the kind of damage you want to deal, you can pick up shivs (custom made knives) or knuckledusters to give you an edge in close combat. And of course, there are guns. Though you will use them a lot less than you expect during the game (the guns the guards carry are usually DNA encoded so you can’t pick them up), using them gives the player a great sense of satisfaction. When you can finally come across weapons, you’ll undoubtedly jump at the chance to get your own back on those guards whom you’ve so far had to sneak around or take out silently. With an assault rifle in your hands, you’ll feel a lot more powerful and get ready to deal some serious punishment.

However, even with a weapon it’s not that easy. The enemy AI is very intelligent, and will duck behind cover if you fire at them, roll out from behind crates to take you by surprise, sneak round crates looking for you if they’ve seen you hide there, and will go to any lengths to take you out – so you have to beat them at their own game. Charging in all guns blazing is not a smart choice – you should poke your head around corners and take shots at them that way, as it certainly will save you a few health bars.

Combat is only part of what Riddick has to offer, though. Many sections will require you to sneak around the prison, hiding in the shadows, maybe stealing a guard’s uniform, and taking out enemies silently as previously mentioned, then hiding the bodies in the shadows. Though you do usually have the option to use combat instead of taking the stealthy approach, being silent is often more effective and will allow you to surprise your enemies. There’s also a lot of crawling through the ventilation system to sneak around your enemies.

Another quite welcome aspect to Riddick is an almost RPG-like character interaction system allowing you to chat to various prisoners, and do them favours in exchange for items, weapons or valuable information. You can also collect cigarette packets which unlock special bonus content. Talking to other characters is vital for progression in this game, and gives the player a little bit of a break to stroll around the prison, admire the environments, and get a few extra items. You can even take part in a fist-fighting competition to earn cash, which is a nice little diversion to the main events of the game (though taking part does have an effect on the story).

So, what’s wrong with Riddick? Well, though Butcher Bay is a pretty big place, this game can be completed within around ten hours or so, and even though it has a little replay value if one wants to play again on a harder difficulty or collect all the cigarette packets, after playing through maybe twice you probably won’t want to return to Butcher Bay. Also, there are a couple of minor instances when the visuals aren’t on a par with the rest of the game – jerky frame rate, for example.

But is Riddick worth buying? Yes, because short though it undoubtedly is, you’ll love every minute. A highly atmospheric and wonderfully ‘dark’ game worth at the very least a rental, if not a full purchase. Superb fun while it lasts.

James Hamilton