The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena Review by: Mynamescox44 - 6.8/10
Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark AthenaChronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is a first person stealth-action game where you play as the infamous convict Riddick from the movies Pitch Black, Chronicles of Riddick, and most recently, 'Riddick.' For a game based on a movie, it's not half bad, though I wouldn't exactly call it gaming gold either. Please keep in mind this review also includes Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay since it is included in the PS3 release of this game. I'll do my best to explain which game a certain part of the review is about, though they are extremely similar titles regardless. On to the review!
Graphics 8 / 10 -- The graphics look pretty good for the most part. My only gripe here would be the characters, and how their mouth movements seem a little off almost like a Japanese movie dubbed over, but not to that extreme. That, and the characters can look a little "off" pretty often, though maybe that was intentional? Everything else is beautiful. The environments, weapons, and enemies all look great. And of course Riddick's signature night vision is also featured in the games, which looks Awesome as well.
Sound 8 / 10 -- I really enjoyed the sound in the games. Vin Diesel continues to play the role, doing all of Riddick's voice over work (though at times it seems he's trying a little too hard to sound like the character). Every character features voice acting, which is always a nice touch, and even most enemies have short bits of audio along the lines of "Huh?" or "Over here!" when they spot you, but some are actual (albeit foul-mouthed) full sentences about what they will do to you. The sound effects are average, offering the most mediocre array you could expect, though that's not to say they're bad, just nothing special. Snapping necks and slitting throats always sounds cool though.
Addictiveness 4 / 10 -- This game is a one and done, if you can even make it all the way through. The game play and mechanics are clunky, and overly difficult because of this. Not only that, the story is so extremely linear, there's really no reason to experience the game more than once. Even if your favorite thing in life / gaming is sneaking up on people and killing them silently, this game is still hard to find it in you to go through twice. This is sadly one of the most lacking areas of the game.
Story 6 / 10 -- Being a huge fan of the series, my score is a little biased, as it probably doesn't even deserve a 6. Both games follow your typical "Riddick gets stuck for one reason or another, and must use his knack for escaping impossible odds to get out" formula. Butcher Bay is about a prison where Riddick is dropped off for a bounty, and Dark Athena is on a space pirate ship when your ship is captured by them. Both games have the same great feel as the movies, though the presentation and actual story lines just don't quite match up. The writing for the dialogue can be pretty darn cheesy too. I honestly believe I could've come up with better one liners than some in these games, and that's saying something.
Depth 6 -- The only reason this isn't a 4 is the fact two full games are on the disc. They deserve 4's individually, 6 as a whole. There's not a whole lot excluding the core game to do here. There are a couple sets of collectibles that are insanely hard to find, but beyond that, there's not much to explore or deviate from the main story. Scratch that, there's borderline nothing to deviate your attention, and once again I feel I'm being overly generous through bias with the score for Depth.
Difficulty 9 / 10 -- This game is either way too easy, or for the most part, way too hard. It's not necessarily the enemies that make this game so difficult, but the clunky mechanics as well as trying to be stealthy from a first person perspective. In certain areas, detection is not an option (it is, but you are guaranteed death), and your timing has to be literally *Flawless* to make it from one patch of shadows to the next. There are also First Person Shooter aspects to the game, though just enough to tease a fan of the genre. Some of the boss fights are downright insanity, where you have to outmaneuver flying attack drones that outgun you by a huge margin (and try to gun them down yourself), or being stuck fighting a borderline giant with nothing but your fists while he's able to wield a shank. The game isn't pure insanity, but the parts that are will drive you up a wall with the amount of times you will die, mostly because it's not for lack of skill, but lack of fluid controls.
Overall 6.8 / 10 -- Any fan of the movies should check the game out just for the sake of it since it shouldn't cost even $10 new, if that. All in all, the game's about as mediocre as they come. If you got nothing better to do, check this out, otherwise, it's not really worth investing much time in.
Hope you enjoy the review :)
Graphics
8 Sound
8 Addictive
4 Depth
6 Story
6 Difficulty
9
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