I've seen quite a bit of The Chronicles of Riddick series, from the films to the anime and back. It occurred to me, though, that I hadn't seen the most recent film, Riddick. So I watched it, and all the way through, had a nagging feeling in the back of my mind: I had seen this film. Everything is so familiar. Have I just completely forgotten the entire movie? Is it that kind of action film? So like the others that you forget you've ever seen it?
While I mulled that over, I was installing The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, a first-person action game set before the events of the first film, Pitch Black, detailing how Richard B. Riddick got those fancy eyes of his.
I suppose you'd have to know a bit about the series to know about the importance of his eyes. Hmm. Let's see how well Escape from Butcher Bay can fill us in.
Fun Times
The game opens on a frozen planet, where Riddick is being stalked by an unknown predator. He knows this, of course - he's Riddick. He is never the prey. The tables are very swiftly turned.
Despite it now being an industry raking in more money than seemingly anything else, video games have tended to be avoided at all costs by stars of the screen. Not so for Vin Diesel, who provides his likeness and voice to Butcher Bay to really give it that authentic seal of approval. This doesn't feel like a quick cash-in from a studio, or a phoned in job from the man himself. No, this does seem to be another medium through which to enjoy the story of this Riddick character.
Riddick's defining character trait, other than being an impossibly skilled predator capable of moving silently, killing in seconds, and even bragging to his enemies about the exact time of their imminent death and how it'll come, is his shiny night-vision eyes. He doesn't see this world as you and I do, and thus, is better equipped to deal with all the nasties that come our way.
In fact, he's better equipped to deal with everything whether he has his eyes in or not, as we're set to find out. The conversation with this mysterious female voice results in a flashback...
I do like missions that are that straightforward. We've barely gotten off the transport ship by the time we've been given it: Escape from Butcher Bay. Alrighty then. How do we go about that? The first person controls are standard, and with a press of the 'E' key, we can get chatting to our captors.
I doubt these dialogue options lead to a whole load of different endings, but I wasn't expecting to see them in a game based on a series of films. I don't know why. I guess I thought our hands would be held firmly, as a story was presented to us.
Anyway, Johns turns his back, and that was his first mistake. A press of the left button snaps his neck. A press of the right mouse button grabs it firmly instead, and hammering 'E' then snaps his neck all quiet-like. Your choice...
I suppose it's quite easy to escape a maximum-security prison if you've never technically entered it. Unfortunately for us, the ship has already left, and we're being shot at. Time to run.
We're not so lucky with our next helpless victim, however, who turns around and puts up a fight. This allows us to flex our muscles and try out the hand-to-hand combat. Here, the right mouse button serves as a block, and the left throws a punch. After an awkward scuffle, he goes down and drops his security card. How kind.
You're then told how darkness is your friend. Staying silent in the shadows by pressing the stealth key will reset your field of view a little, and turn everything blue to heighten your senses or something. At the very least, it is an indicator of you being hidden. If the screen isn't blue, be alert. Unlike this guard. Dragging him into the shadows completes the job. Or it would if I didn't leave his gun lying on the floor. Can't pick it up, though, so I guess that's just going to stay there.
In a bit of a surprise, jumping up crates briefly switches us to a third-person camera, as does swinging on the monkey bars. First-person platforming has always been a bit hit or miss, depending on the game, so it's an attempt to offset that, I guess. Or maybe to get the most out of Vin Diesel's mug, I don't know. Into the vents we go.
I can't say for sure what happened here. The guard turned around and saw me, so I spammed the left mouse button and awful lot, in desperation more than hope, and the result was an animation where I turned his own shotgun into his face and pulled the trigger. Entirely unexpected, I can say that. I've got a gun now, though. I'm sure that will make my escape much more straightforward.
Oh, what? That was a dream?! Damnit, Riddick. You're meant to flashback to the actual thing that happened, not what you were imagining as the ship was still descending.
Tutorial complete, I guess. Let's hope I got used to it all while I could.
I had a small bit of trouble finding a screen resolution that showed me the entire cutscene, strangely, but once I did, I was able to see that 2004 wasn't terrible in the graphics department. Yeah, everyone looks a little plastic-y, and the environments are various shades of brown, but I'm liking what I'm seeing, and what I'm seeing is effort. These developers wanted to do the story some justice, they wanted it to stand up there with the films. Or the anime. Or the idea. Doesn't matter where Butcher Bay ranks, it deserves to be ranked, is what I'm saying.
This is Hoxie, who is the warden or the governor or something. The top dog here at Butcher Bay, or the one we need to care about at any rate. Strange fellow. I imagine it'll be a while before we're this close to him again, though, for this time we are actually flashbacking to our time spent in Butcher Bay.
There's not much to see on our guided/armed escorted tour of the corridors to our cell, but we do get a sense that this place is dirty and disgusting and isn't somewhere you want to spend a significant length of time in. It is, of course, permanent home to every criminal in here, however, and they've all got some sort of life to lead. Snippets of conversation between prisoners and guards hint at groups and allegiances, but it's too early to tell what's going on.
And so we have our first mission, other than 'Escape'. People are already talking about us. How did they know we were coming? How fast does news travel in a maximum-security prison anyway?
I'd call this a sunlit courtyard, but the inmates seem to refer to this place as the Pit, or that big round hatch is said pit. I wonder when that'll open. You can't hold it up with a cable if you're not going to open it at some point...
Just like that, this Mattsson fella wants to give us a shiv. We're going to need a shiv. Well, Riddick probably doesn't, but let's face it, every little shard of glass or piece of metal helps. Let's go get a shiv.
Frustrations
It was too good an offer to be true. We get attacked from behind. Time to raise our fists and show these folks who Riddick really is - a bit of a bumbling idiot.
Well, less 'idiot', but still a little bumbling. There's a knack to this combat, but I just can't seem to get it. Obviously, throwing a punch at someone defending themselves is probably a waste of a punch. Still, I think I remember a tooltip of sorts popping up and telling me that I could attack from the sides, or that punching while moving will initiate a different attack or something. Either way, there has to be a better way to fight than to spam the mouse button and hope for the best.
Some fancy animations did play, but I can't say that was my aim. Survival was my aim. I managed that much. I think we need to see Mattsson again. It's only been a few minutes, by the way. I've barely been in Butcher Bay for ten. Making friends already.
Further Fun Times
Seeing the error of his ways, Mattsson will bring us a shiv after all. Personally, no less. Our skills clearly carry some weight around here, even if my control skills leave a lot to be desired.
We're introduced to Rust, who claims to run this place as head of the Acquilans, but it soon transpires that even he has nothing on the guards, in particular Abbott, who I assume to be the middle manager we'll be spending most of our time with.
Ruckus sorted, and still no shiv, Butcher Bay opens up just a little, allowing us to explore our surroundings, get to know some inmates, eavesdrop on some conversations and the like.
We find ourselves with a couple of missions, and like anything that happens in prison, we're going to have to do a few things for others before we can get them to do a few things for us, even if we are the legendary Riddick.
This guy, Waman, if I recall, wants a guy called Molina killed. As far as first missions go, that seems a little excessive. I mean, I'm sure accidents happen in a place like this, and grudges probably don't go away anytime soon, but you want me to kill him? Just like that?
I better get a shiv out of this.
On the other side of the corridor, literally within spitting distance of Waman is Molina, in his cell. Both doors are open. You already outnumber him, what with your cellmate. Couldn't you two just waltz over there and do it yourselves?
Sadly not. Molina is too smart to turn his back on me, so no neck-snapping. Instead, it's another silly slap fight.
There you go, mate. Where's my shiv?
No, they're cigarettes. The only weapon I've managed to find thus far is a knuckleduster. On Molina's corpse. Maybe I should have struck up a deal with him instead.
It turns out that Molina had a few enemies in here, and this battered and bruised guy is thankful for my deeds too. I literally don't know how anybody knows about what goes on in this prison. He has not moved. He did not see me. He could not hear my conversations. How does he know that Molina is dead?
It's ultimately not important. What have you got for us and is it a shiv?
Awesome. Right, let's go face Rust with a knuckleduster. At least it's something.
Further Frustrations
Heading into the other cell block shows us that the Acquilans are rather more gang-orientated than the fine gentlemen in our cell block. Indeed, they're called the Acquilans. I suppose that's a giveaway, as is the fact that they're all working together to try and kill me.
In the darkness, I learn a few more things about Butcher Bay. One, that it looks quite good. The contrast between the light and the shadows really add something to the feeling of being stuck here, in this grim hell hole. It's not meant to be pretty. It's functional, and it's filthy because you lot are animals that don't deserve pretty.
The other thing I learned was that I'm really struggling with this hand to hand stuff, and it costs me, both in terms of Riddicks' health, and my own.
Riddick's health I can deal with. There are precious few med stations around the place, but let them stab you in the neck and disperse sickly green healing gases into your face, and you'll recover your health. It's not a typical health bar, so it's tough to work out just how badly I'm doing at this whole 'staying alive' thing.
My foes give me generous shouts and warnings before they blow something up in an attempt to intimidate me, so avoiding these things and thus not getting injured is trivial too. Riddick's health is very much to be expected of a video game action hero.
My own health is another matter. The more I fought in hand to hand combat, the worse I felt. The dreaded motion sickness was back. Perhaps exacerbated by the lighting and the look, but ultimately the movements on screen were just too much.
There are ways to deal with motion sickness, or at least mitigate it, but I usually pick the option of 'just take myself out of the picture and stop playing', which often results in me never picking a game up again.
Butcher Bay was intriguing, though. It stood out, and I wanted to push through this uncomfortable episode. Picking up a shiv from these guys might help speed up the fights, right?
Well, it didn't. Maybe I wasn't close enough to jab it into Rust's face. Maybe blocking is suitable for all attacks. With no idea how best to hit this fool and no idea how to defend myself either, I succumbed to the many cuts and puncture wounds and dropped to the floor.
I'm just not as lethal as I need to be to become Riddick.
Final Word
But I was impressed by the game that allowed me to try. I was hooked, silly and/or generic as it was. There's just something about the Riddick character that is stupid, but something you want to see at the same time. It's a little like Duke Nukem, but without the sex.
I really want to see more of this game. I'm not sure how I'll go about that. Maybe drop the difficulty, or play in windowed mode, or find out just what the best way to punch someone is. It'll probably be watched, let's face it, but I think even then I'd have a good time because of the character.
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay is a video game based on a movie (series) that actually knows what a video game is, and how they are different from film. It is an example of doing it right, and should definitely be looked at for anyone interested in either the movies or first-person titles, or even RPGs, perhaps. Exploring, chatting, hunting down items... yeah, all kinds of gamer can find something surprising in here.
Give it a go sometime.
Fun Facts
Vin Diesel was hands-on with his portrayal, advising the writing team to reword or cut dialogue completely because he thought video game Riddick talked too much.
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, developed by Starbreeze Studios, first released in 2004.
Version played: PC, 2004.