Originally planned as a simple current-generation remake of 2004's The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, developer Starbreeze changed course during development, creating a whole new chapter in the story of Vin Diesel's Riddick character. Upon escaping from the Butcher Bay prison in the first game, Riddick and his "captor" Johns are torn out of space by the Dark Athena, a massive spaceship inhabited by former mercenaries turned interstellar pirates. It's up to the predatory anti-hero to make his way through the bowels of the ship to escape the ruthless female captain who wants him dead.

Escape from Butcher Bay is widely considered to be one of the best movie tie-in video games of all time. Has Starbreeze managed to stay the course, or is it lights out for the Riddick franchise?

Loved
Escaping Butcher Bay: Everything that made the original release of The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay an amazing experience returns, with the addition of new content that was previously only available in the PC version. Starbreeze nailed just about every aspect of the Riddick universe in Butcher Bay, from the cramped, oppressive atmosphere to the colorful characters inhabiting the facility. The prison is as much of a character as Riddick himself; a living, breathing organism that the protagonist is going to hurt a great deal before making his ultimate exit.

Hand-To-Hand: No game handles first-person combat with quite the proficiency that The Chronicles of Riddick does. Where other games featuring hand-to-hand combat leave me longing for a firearm of some sort within the first few battles, Riddick's close combat had me completely ignoring the guns in my inventory until they were absolutely necessary. It just feels right.

Richard B. Riddick: Why is the character of Riddick so enjoyable to play? An exchange between the Diesel-powered killing machine and a prison inmate in the Butcher Bay section of the game sums it up nicely. The other prisoner explains that what really bothers him about Riddick is that he seems so comfortable in any situation, even locked up in the galaxy's most secure prison. Riddick replies, "I just take the hand life deals me. Then I cheat." He's controlling his destiny, and you're controlling him.

Pitch Black Multiplayer: While most of the multiplayer modes in Dark Athena don't offer anything new, the Pitch Black mode is one of the most entertaining times I've had killing other people over the internet. At the start of each round, one player is Riddick, and the others are mercenaries, hunting him in complete darkness with nothing but the light from their weapon-mounted flashlights to see by. The stronger the weapon, the weaker the beam of light standing between you and certain death. The tension created by the situation is amazing, and playing Riddick himself gives players plenty of opportunities to toy with the competition.

Voice Acting: The voice acting in both halves of the Riddick video game saga is superb, particularly in the exchanges between Riddick and the captain of the Dark Athena, Revas, voiced by actress Michelle Forbes. The dynamic between these two characters is one of the highlights of the new content - one of the main reasons to stick with the game despite its flaws. Gears of War fans might also want to keep an ear out for John Di Maggio's stint as various guard voices in Butcher Bay, where he sounds an awful lot like Marcus Fenix.

Hated
Assaulting Dark Athena: The Dark Athena portion of the game is larger, prettier, and completely misses the mark as far as providing a satisfying Riddick experience goes. While stealth and hand-to-hand combat are a large part of the early portions of the game, it eventually morphs into your average run-and-gun first-person shooter. Butcher Bay gives you long stretches of gameplay where wielding a gun isn't an option, while after a certain point in Dark Athena you find yourself heaped with weapons and a seemingly never-ending supply of ammo. The story fails on several fronts as well, with a major character in the franchise sleeping through the entire game, and an ending that's not much more than a snappy line of dialogue and the rolling of the credits.

The Rest of Multiplayer: Assault on Dark Athena originally wasn't supposed to even have multiplayer, so I suppose getting any at all is a blessing, but with the exception of the aforementioned Pitch Black mode, the rest of the online offerings are pretty staid. It plays like a poor man's Unreal most of the time, right down to the cheesy announcer calling out "Double Kills" and "Murder Sprees". Murder spree?

Backtracking: A problem in both the old game and the new game, far too often the player finds themselves running back and forth between the same couple of areas as they complete quests in order to move the story along. It wouldn't be such an annoyance if not for the painfully long load times. NPC A asks you to go to another area to ask NPC B a question, loading. Returning with the answer, loading. During one particularly late session with the game I actually fell asleep during a loading sequence, woken up by gunfire from a wall-mounted sentry drone upset that I hadn't moved.

It's amazing how these two different games parallel the two live-action movies in the Riddick franchise. Like Pitch Black, Escape from Butcher Bay does innovative things on a relatively small budget, providing a unique, dark and gritty experience to the player. The second film, The Chronicles of Riddick, sought to capitalize on the success of the first by increasing the scope and adding tons of flashy special effects, but ultimately wound up an average science fiction film that just happened to feature one of the most compelling anti-heroes in the genre. That's exactly what Assault on Dark Athena does. It trades innovation and atmosphere for better graphics and production values, and while the genius of the original title shines through now and then, far too often you're simply running and gunning as you would in any plain vanilla first-person shooter.

Still, I consider The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena a worthy purchase, especially for those of you who never played the original game. While the fresh material might not deliver a compelling new experience, we'll always have Butcher Bay.

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena was developed by Starbreeze and published by Atari for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. Released on April 7th, 2009. Retails for $59.99. Played PS3 version. Completed both campaigns on standard difficulty and participated in multiple multiplayer matches.

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Irate users on the forums of both publisher Atari and developer Starbreeze are complaining that Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena only allows you to install it on three machines. After that, sorry.

Atari's response? That if you use your three installs and need more, and have legitimate reasons for needing more, you need to contact their helpline. Just so you can install a game that you own.

Jesus.

[Atari Forums]
[Starbreeze Forums]

Starbreeze is big on polish, a fact they've readily demonstrated in their two previous outings, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay and The Darkness. So when Dark Athena producer Samuel Ranta-Eskona calls their next game "By far the most polished game we've ever made", he's making a rather lofty claim.

We'll see if that claim holds up come April 7th, when The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena makes its North American retail debut.

Swedish developer Starbreeze obviously loves the Riddick property, and not just because the first game, Escape from Butcher Bay, put them on the map. They seem to truly get the franchise, perhaps on a deeper level than movies' writer David Twohy does, as evidence by the second movie in the franchise. Witness their love for the Riddick character transform an update to their original Xbox title into the full-fledged sequel we'll be getting our hands on in April.

The playable demo lets gamers play through the Athena Main Decks level and includes melee combat, some stealth play and of course lots of shooting. The demo will also let players try their hand at controller a Drone and gives us a glimpse of a few cut-scenes.

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena ships for PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 on April 7 in North America and April 24 in Europe.

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena features an all-new story for actor Vin Diesel's bad ass antihero Riddick, who once again finds himself in a situation he has to kill his way out of. The game also comes packed with a full high definition remake of the original The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, with some robust multiplayer options making it just that much more of a bargain. Dark Athena ships on April 7th in North America, with Europeans waiting a bit longer for their April 24th release.

With the release date announcement, Atari also reveals playable demos of the game coming to Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network next month, as well as the launch of the official website for the game, featuring more interactive Flash than you can shake your mouse at.

While I wouldn't say I am a huge Riddick fan, but you see those blades he has in the screen up there? I've got a pair. Well, I've got one, on top of the fridge. Not sure where the other got off to. *eyes the cats suspiciously*

And yes, the mech suits look lovely, but they aren't really Riddick, now are they? Riddick is about skulking, stabbing, and interacting with little children, each of which is represented in this "Hunter" trailer for the upcoming game, due out April 7th. I really think the Riddick character shines brightest when there is an innocent for him to play off of, like the Jack character from Pitch Black. Perhaps that's where The Chronicles of Riddick movie failed. Changing Jack into the female bad ass Kyra in the second film stripped Riddick of his innocent side, leaving us with a straight up action film without any real heart to it.

Or maybe I'm putting way too much thought into this. Just nod and enjoy the trailer.

EA head-honcho John Riccitiello announced that the game was going to be delayed at the beginning of the month saying that the game needed "a better launch window and more time for longer lead marketing."

He was also concerned that the game was initially set to launch into "a very cluttered, price reduced, excess inventory channel both in North America and Europe in a heavily competitive environment."

Now it looks like their main competition will be The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, Madworld and Velvet Assassin.

But what does the executive producer of the game think about all of this? He's so relaxed he oozes quotes about how wonderful his title is.

"The Godfather II is taking the open-world genre in an entirely new direction by combining the furious combat of acting like a mobster, with the strategic gameplay of thinking like a Don," says Hunter Smith, Executive Producer for The Godfather II. "As game makers, when we looked at what lies at the heart of the Godfather universe, we discovered a game focused around organized crime. The Corleones and all the other families schemed and fought to gain access and control of different territories, so that they could control the flow of money in those areas. This underlying battle cloaked secrecy is what The Godfather II and mafia life is all about, and we wanted players to be in control as a Don and make those strategic decisions to lead their families to success."

Speaking to Eurogamer TV at the Atari Live event last week, Tigon head of production Ian Stevens called Dark Athena an episodic expansion, indicating that they've got a sequel to the original in mind should gamers react positively to the updated release.

"[The full sequel] is ambitious and that is definitely going to follow the precedent that we set with the first," he added. "But for now we've got a new story that we want to tell and a little bit of a single-player expansion on that original game."

Even though the reworked original isn't due out until the spring, it's never too early to bombard Tigon and Starbreeze with funny "Do Want" lolcat pictures.

True Riddick sequel "couple of years out" [Eurogamer]

Multiplayer is a new addition to the remake of 2004's Escape from Butcher Bay, and Starbreeze is doing it up right. You'll get your standard deathmatch and capture the flag modes along with an objective-based Butcher Bay Riot mode that pits 3 teams of 4 players each against each other, but by far the most interesting mode is Pitch Black.

Pitch Black takes place in a large, darkened arena, pitting mercs with flashlights against Riddick, who can of course see in the dark. Players take turns getting torn apart by the Furian badass until one gets in a lucky shot, becoming Riddick at the start of the next round. We wouldn't want to meet Riddick in a darkened area. Oh no.

Riddick gets 'Pitch Black' multiplayer mode [CVG]

You've seen the screen shots, now see those screen shots move believably. The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault On Dark Athena is headed to the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC next year. But you can see it in action right now.

Assault on Dark Athena is more like a follow-up to Escape from Butcher Bay than a sequel or a remake. It seamlessly continues the story from the end of Butcher Bay and builds towards the enigmatic character of Riddick that we get in the films Pitch Black and that second one I’d rather pretend didn’t exist. All of the old voiceover team reprised their roles, including Vin Diesel – because it wouldn’t be Riddick without him. Really, this franchise gets more mileage from the games than it does from its source material.

The Butcher Bay part of the game itself is still the same game in terms of plot – but completely different by virtue of a new game engine, improved AI functionality, and utterly overhauled graphics. You don’t have to play Butcher Bay to unlock Dark Athena (players choose from the start screen which chapter to play), but if you never got the chance to play the one movie-based video game that didn’t suck, this is it. Between the two chapters, the entire game clocks in at 20 hours – and it sounds like there’s a special Achievement/Trophy for completing both. (The Starbreeze producer said he wanted an Achievement for getting through both campaigns without dying and without turning the console off – this guy’s hardcore!)

Dark Athena tells the tale of a mercenary ship that picks up humans, turns them into drone fighters and generally does Bad Things. There’s a little girl involved who escapes the mercenaries by hiding in the ship’s air ducts.

At this point, I said something about Aliens. The project lead slapped a hand to his forehead and said, “Shit! We’re derivative!” and I decided to drop the subject. Besides, who cares if there are only six original ideas that the whole creative world copies? If the copies are awesome, it doesn’t really matter, does it?

Riddick gets grabbed by the mercenaries at the start of the game, thus starting the player off with no equipment and no weapons. As Riddick busts out of his cell and tries to figure out where his crew has been taken, he gets super-cool weapons like razor blades and guns. The little girl, Newt Lynn, encounters Riddick early on and asks him to save her mom – who most likely has been made into a drone zombie already. The sympathy Riddick develops for Lynn helps explain his relationship to Jack/Jackie in Pitch Black and Chronicles of Riddick and gives the cast more estrogen – always a good thing.

The second shot of estrogen comes in Dark Athena’s villain – the hardcore female captain of Dark Athena who appears to have a history with Riddick. Her gruff demeanor and badassitute sort of reminds me of Metal Gear Solid’s Boss – only black-haired and in space. Starbreeze assured me that there would be no gender inequalities for me to climb on a soapbox about. Dark Athena’s captain is going to go toe-to-toe with our hero and the developer is convinced she’s a worthy opponent.

Once Riddick had encounters Lynn in the air ducts and the captain over an intercom, the game gets going in earnest. Riddick takes control of a nearby drone terminal to control – you guessed it – a bunch of drones. The drone fighters make a large part of gameplay; they’re the primary enemy you fight and a big gameplay mechanic when it comes to fighting others. By taking control of the drones, you go into “drone vision” and can pilot one of the pour, soulless bastards through the corridors of the Dark Athena, killing guards and disabling obstacles that would otherwise prevent Riddick from progressing through the game. I’m curious to see if you can get through most of the game just using the drones – they don’t die too, too easily and are decently equipped with weapons.

If you happen to run out of drones to pilot, or get bored and want to go kill some ass with your own two hands, you can abandon the drone terminal and take off through the depths of the ship killing anything you see. The DNA mapping of guns still applies, but now you can pick up corpses and use them as meat shields as well as using them for their guns. Stealth is still a major part of gameplay, so the more hardcore will probably forego the guns, use drone terminals sparingly, and become masters of those wicked sharp, pointy things.

I’m proud of Starbreeze. They’ve overcome a false-start from a year and a half ago (hardware issues with the Escape from Butcher Bay remake), withstood the ugly transition from Activision-Blizzard to Atari, and – despite the pressure to get The Darkness done – stuck to their guns to make Assault on Dark Athena a quality gaming experience instead of a convenient sequel.

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena comes out for PS3, 360, and PC sometime in 2009.

They show that the "re-imagining" of The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher's Bay is looking pretty sharp, excessive depth of field excepted. And, sure, Riddick may look half-Rodian, half-human here, but everything else looks just swell.

Assault on Dark Athena will add online multiplayer and come bundled with a "remastered" version of Escape from Butcher's Bay when it lands on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC next year, so it will at least pack in the value.

Rumor has it that the new Chronicles of Riddick game for the PS3 and Xbox 360 that we've been hearing rumblings about all month will be unveiled during tonight's episode of Game Head. I've heard that the show will feature some details as well as some possible footage.

Officially the show will also be showing off some Pirates of the Caribbean Wii play, more on the Simpsons game and Resident Evil goodness. If you're interested I'd check it out at 1 a.m. Brian Crecente