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pretty awesome

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 06, 2004
Author: Amazon User

wow this game is awesome. the graphics are beautiful and the gameplay is an excellent blend of both stealth and FPS. the only problem i have with the game is that the AI is not quite as good as some of the other shooters (HALO) but it is by no means the worst. (...) Finally, there seems to be little replay value except for getting a few smokes or just cuz u like the game that much. reversing a gun on a gaurd is just incredible.

It's like playing a movie

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 07, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This is one of the best first person shooters I've ever played. The graphics are the best I've seen on Xbox, but most importantly, the control is perfect. It's very intuitive and utilizes a lot of toggle features which I personally like best.

Riddick is very moody and the cinematic value is great. I hope people support this game. The voice acting is just as good as Star Wars KOTOR and overall control make this an amazing experience. I want a sequel!!!

The XBOX's first First Person Shooter/RPG/Stealth game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I was very sceptical about this game when it was first released because I know how games-from-movies tend to turn out (matrix, being the best example...). I really wasn't even going to consider renting this game, simply because it was a game based on a movie, and I've had too many bad experiences. Little did I know this little gem is managing to slip under the radar unnoticed as one of the better XBOX games made yet!

So, what makes Chronicles of Riddick so great?

No other game on XBOX (including Halo, mind you) pulls off such a great setting through graphics/story/mood. You're Riddick, the baddest of bad criminals in the universe, and as such, you're sent to the baddest of bad triple maximum security prisons in the universe. The game opens up with one of its many brilliant cut scenes. You're strapped into a ship, on your way to Butcher Bay. You talk/taunt the merc who picked you up, and then you fall asleep. As you're sleeping, you dream of arriving at Butcher Bay, waiting outside with two other prisoners and the merc. The merc turns his back on you for just a second, which costs him his life as you snap his neck. As soon as you snap his neck, shooting from the prison begins and you have no choice but to flee underground through a hole as the other prisoners get shot. You go through Butcher Bay a very little, learning how to sneak around, snap necks, lean around corners, fist fight, and counter-attack. I'll get to all of those things later, but the point is, it's not until you wake up from your dream that you realize it was a dream, and the game has not really begun yet; that was just a tutorial! I'm not going to ruin too much of the story, but let me tell you...No other game makes you feel so immersed into a story/character. The entire game is about you surviving/escaping prison. Along the way you meet fellow prisoners, corrupt guards, and some other characters, each which has a request of the great Riddick. You start out in a single maximum security prison, then you advance to double max, and finally triple max. To be sent to a higher level of security, you have to get noticed, whether it's by dealing drugs, fighting in the arena, or angering certain higher-ups, you get it done. It's very open ended, and you'll soon realize there's no way you'll get everything done your first time through. The prison itself is done incredibly well, with hundreds (maybe thousands) of different ventilation systems riddled throughout it, which serve as your means of getting around unnoticed most of the time. The prison is VERY oppressing, as it should be; there is no relief from it, so don't expect one. You're the worst criminal ever to live, so you shouldn't be expecting fun and games while in prison (although it's a very fun game)!

Ok, so let me break it down for you:
1. Story/Immersion (9.5/10). -.5 because there are some things still left unanswered that are also not answered in the movie. Maybe they're answered in the animated movie that was just released, I have yet to see it and find out. Again, being Riddick is more empowering than killing wave after wave of covenant. It's done so well, that I can't even begin to try to describe it.

2. Graphics (9.5/10). This game is BEAUTIFUL. Absolutely beautiful. I read that they employed a new technology that takes anti-aliasing to an extreme, meaning no jagged edges around Riddick's watermelon-sized biceps. Smooth is good! -.5 because for some reason your shadow really animates your motions well, but looks blocky to me...

3. Sound (10/10). The voice acting in this game DOESN'T suck. The guards sound duly upset when you start attacking them (shouting four letter words that start with F, for instance). Riddick sounds as bad (by bad I of course mean good) as he should. Everything is very polished.

4. First Person Shooter elements (10/10). If you've ever played or heard of the game Breakdown, you know that the "true" first person element (where you have arms, and are a person, not just a floating camera) was not done very well. Riddick is similar, but done EXCELLENTLY. Not only are blasting your enemies fun when you manage to nab a gun (which is not often, because the guns are DNA encoded, meaning you can't use them), but for 90% of the game you have to rely on your fists and shivs (knives). There are combos (yes, combos!) you can pull off with melee combat, and turns out to be great fun.

5. RPG elements (10/10). Immersive as heck. Great story, great characters, great quests. There's a bunch of missions you get (which I assure you you won't finish all of your first time around). If you pay attention, you notice that you advance your character in a much more subtle way than stats like in traditional RPG's. Very cool.

6. Stealth elements (11/10). No, that isn't a typo. You MUST rely on stealth to get through this game. Skulking in the shadows has never been so fun. Maybe it's because you're actually afraid of being seen by a guard with a shotgun when you have nothing but your fists. Or maybe it's because you really like the sound of guards' necks snapping in two when you get up behind them. Or maybe it's because you like counter-attacking a guard with a gun (which involves getting up right next to him, turning his gun around on himwhen he goes to shoot you, and blowing his head off). Very very fun.

Replayability (8/10). You have a few incentives to go through again...You can go through again to get the last few extras you missed the first time. Or maybe you wanna see more story, so you want to do more of the quests that I guarantee you'll miss. No LIVE capabilities, but still...I will be playing it over because it's the best thing out on XBOX right now...

So if you haven't noticed yet, I'm telling you you should get this game. If you like a great story, excellent gameplay, superb graphics, and unprecedented character immersion, then obviously this game is for you!

Medicore at best

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 30, 2004
Author: Amazon User

When I first read about this game and then played the demo, I was floored. I wanted more and could not possibly wait for it to be released. To my joy, I did not have to wait long.

I spent the first five minutes salivating over the way the environment was beautifully rendered and equally impressed with the character models. Then during a cut scene where Riddick is walking towards the prison with his bounty hunter, there was an annoying flaw. A black line on Riddick's shoulder would show while he walked and swung his arm forward. It was an area where the model was not fully rendered and closed. Funny to see such a thing when obviously the team involved in this game's creation was concerned with detail. But this would not be the first evidence of shoddy workmanship...

A few of the cut scenes where Riddick is talking to some of the other prisoners were a bit choppy. I felt that a few of them were nearing an epileptic siezure with the way their head would slightly jerk one way or the other.

The voice acting was great and the story mostly entertaining. However I never felt like the game was completely finished. As a matter of fact I think the developer was rushed to release the game to coordinate with the movie release so alot of the tweaking was ignored.

Another item to know...It was extreemly easy! I finished the entire game in 2 days (roughly 9 hours) with most of the smokes found on normal mode. I began again in hard difficulty but lost interest about halfway through the game. I could not tell that the difficulty had been raised.

Something that would have greatly improved this game would have been a multiplayer option on this game to give it some kind of replayability.

I know alot of people will disagree with me on this game due to the overwhelming amount of rave reviews this game has collected. But for me, this game is better off played as a rental rather than wasting my money on it like I did. Not a bad game. But not a great game either.

Lots of action

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 07, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game due to several of the reviews previous indicating how good the game was - and they were right! The graphics are nice and the game interaction is easy, although a bit clumsy (for interaction, it uses the 'X' button a lot, while most use the 'A' button). This game is lots of fun with enough action and puzzle-solving that it stays interesting throughout. But, if you are not into killing and mayhem, this is not for you!

Engrossed by the Darkness .. . .

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 09, 2004
Author: Amazon User

"Darkness, you afraid? I'm not, . . . the dark is afraid of me."
This statement made by Riddick(performed so eloquently by Vin Diesel himself) later in the game sums up the gritty, dark mood of one of the XBox's greatest title to date.
Being a gamer for nearly 2 decades now I can rightly state that most film related game titles are either horribly programmed or "campy" at best. Vivendi Universal along with Vin Diesel's own Tigon Studios broke the mold here. This collaboration of storyline, theme, game design, gameplay, and voice-over talent is outstanding. Not only does this game add to a film-based universe in beautifully rendered graphics and, perhaps, some of the best lighting in a game; but the player is completely immersed in it. As you play it is not hard at all to take in the gritty nature of Butcher Bay. You can practically 'smell' the garbage discarded around trash cans. You can even nearly 'feel' the bones snapping or the pierced flesh as you stealthilly dispose of your assailants.
This game takes the classic First Person shooter and turns it on it's ear adding unique hand-to-hand combat and strategy. I highly recommend this game to any FPS fan. It will sneak up on you and before you know it you'll be grinning with glee to the tune of Riddick's gutteral threats.
*HOWEVER, I must note that this game is definately not for children. It bears a MA rating and VERY rightly so. So, we need not have any 9 year olds pouncing out of the shadows on thier unsuspecting siblings now. ; )

A very impressive and extreamly underrated Xbox gem

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 30, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Chronicles of Riddick is one word...AMAZING. I'm not a big fan of the movie(the Riddick film looked extreamly uninteresting and I won't even bother to check it out)eventhough I did enjoy Pitch Black. Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay is a very impressive and great game that is almost flawless. The game has a very awesome storyline(even if it's movie like)and the atmospher of levels is just breath taking. You do more then just "escape" from Butcher Bay, you have to do favors for Inmates find a way out of certain areas and meet more people and ect. Butcher Bay shows some really impressive stuff, let me begin by saying this is one of the best looking video games out today, my jaw dropped out how amazing the visuals looked. These visuals can be ranked up and comparable with other beauties like Doom3 and Resident Evil 4. Now there are a few parts were the Visuals don't shine and that's a really bad thing when I mean that but it really doesn't ruin the game for you...

I'll make this review Short and sweet....just like the game...SHORT...and sweet. The game can be beatin in less then 7 hours, but it's still worth the money(well...I waited for the price to drop down to 30 bucks)and a superb rental. The creators should have made a tad bit or more like WAY MORE longer.. But the use of Stealth makes up for that as the game does have some really amazing stealth action to it.. I also And I didn't like the fact that you couldn't have more parts in the beginning where you're doing inmates favors(that was my most favorite part of the game)...Other then that...Lets get to it!!!

The Good
-Great Gameplay
-Breath taking visuals that you must witness
-Superb story line
-Great level invorments
-Nice voice acting
-Nice aray of weapons
-Awesome Stealth gameplay

The Bad
-The visuals gets a big fuzzy in some parts of the game but it's ok..
-The game is too short!!....but sweet..
-Needed more missions in the prison scenario in the beginning of the game...that was the best..
-Needed more enemies...

The Ugly
-Dwellers...ugh..

Overall Chronicles of Riddick is an amazing achievment from Universal and they did great at making this game awesome and heck I find this more better then Halo, yeah you heard me fanboys...Besides that I've already mention everything above about this game...Overall Escape from Butcher Bay is one of my favorite Xbox title(now)and all in all....I give this Underrated Xbox game a............

4.2 OUT OF 5 STARS...

lates

Too Good

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Excellent Graphics.
Excellent Sound.
Excellent Control system.
Excellent Storyline.
A tad tad very slim bit off excellent voice acting.
Excellent Video Sequences.
Excellent Animations.
Very Very Good Enemy AI.

The only tiny gripe I've got is that it could have been longer, and the game kinda looses it's replay value after 2 or 3 runs... but you might wanna replay it just to experience excellence at it's fullest!

Almost great

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 30, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I thought this game was brimming with potential. I thought the game looked awesome, very sharp graphics. Even some of the gameplay was neat at first. But I realized, through the game I didn't feel like Riddick at all. I didn't feel smooth, and sly, like some kind of predator or even monster.
What it really boiled down to me was a sub-par shooter with RPG elements mixed in, and horrible stealth play. Now the story itself isn't involving, but what's involving is the fact you get to be Riddick, but I don't feel that Riddick would just run down some hallways shooting a bunch of guards. When I tried to play all stealthy, which works some times, I usually failed and had to run away and get all shot up. I usually do great at stealth games too, I like the character Riddick, but it really isn't presented very well in this game.
What I did like was Vin Deisel's voice acting, which really made the attitude for the game and the character, but the way you have to play through the action parts reminds me of simple DOOM play, not Riddick at all. I really wanted to sneak up on suckers and stick em' or slash em' leaving them in a heap at my feet, but sadly, no, you get seen and annoying "running like a wimp" ensues. When you compare the shooting parts, it's really lame compared to Doom 3 or Half life 2, save yourself the money and letdown and go buy a complete title like those instead, they're longer anyway and give more bang for the buck.

My Opinion is Simple

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I thought the visuals and voice acting in the game were awesome. The story line is out of control and the character(s) development is great. But I gotta say, this game style just isn't my cup of tea. To me it had very "jump through the hoops" style of game play. Walk up to the box and stand in the right place and push a specific button to climb the box which leads you to a pipe you have to crawl across...and it is the only way to get where you need to go. On top of it, having to sneak around everywhere kills me in games. I hate it when you have to sneak around games where failure to stay hidden results in almost instant death. A huge portion of this game is a sneak or die scenario. Add to it the timed missions and you've successfully lost me. But I am a rare bread of gamer, this game is very good and I would recommend it to anyone (with the aforementioned warnings of course). I give the game a good rating because it is fun, it just lost my interest at what I would assume was the half way mark.

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