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Well Worth a Buy

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 14, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The Chronicles of Riddick- Escape from Butcher Bay
After the success of the movies, Riddick Trilogy (Pitch Black/ The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury/ The Chronicles of Riddick), it is destined to have a video game to go along with it. Luckily, this game did not follow the storyline of the movie. This game had perfect graphics for it's time and had near perfect gameplay. This is one of the very few movie games that actually turned out to be any good.

Graphics- 9.5/10
Everything is perfect. Things are shaded well, people look good, your weapons look good, everything is good. The load times are the only drag on this game. They aren't too long, but they are constantly being pushed on you.

Story- 10/10
You are Riddick. You are a murderer. You have been sent to Butcher Bay, an extremely secure prison, to rot the rest of your life. You do not like this idea and decide you escape. Along the way you meet an interesting cast of characters that will either help you or halt your progress. Just when it seems like you are going to escape, you are stopped, and pushed further into Butcher Bay.

Sound- 10/10
Vin Diesel does the voice of Riddick in this game. Very rarely do video games have their true voice actors. Every character in this game has voice-overs. Machines and guns have brilliantly put together sound effects. Sounds fade in and out as you get closer to the sound.

Gameplay- 8.5/10
This game is less of a shooter and more of a fighting game. In the beginning of the game, they hint a lot of gun fighting. Don't be fooled by this. The game is more of a stealth/fighter game. This is not a bad thing, and is in most ways very refreshing. A good portion of the game consists of running between people in the prison to get what you need to advance. This slows the game down a lot and gives you a lot of backtracking to do.

Difficulty- 8/10
When you have guns, this game is simple and very easy. The rest of the game, around 75% of it, is a lot harder. You will become stressed out trying to get past 10 enemies with nothing but a shiv.

Overall- 9/10
I can't give this game a perfect score due to its difficulty, backtracking, and pacing. Don't get me wrong; this is a fantastic game. It's one of my favorite games in fact. I just can't give it a perfect score due to some minor problems.

Prequel to Pitch Black

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 19, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I was a huge fan of Pitch Black and its 2 sequels, plus I love XBOX games so it was a no brainer that this game was on my to buy list. The game is fun and challenging and has an interesting story to boot, even more so if you're a fan of the franchise. Riddick is actually voiced by Vin Diesel so don't dread. The game was basically created to promote and cash in on the movie Chronicles of Riddick that was released the same year.

Great game? Not in my opinion

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 02, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Okay, so there are a ton of reviews that say this game is awsome and so on. Well, personally I didn't really like it that much. I first got the game because everyone went on about how wonderful it was. I loved the movie, and thought the game would be pretty cool. At first I found it interesting, and the graphics were quite excellent. However, after playing for a while I found the game a bit repetative. Maybe I just don't games where I have to be stealthy, lol.

I also found that Riddick can't shoot. Okay, so I'm aiming, but can't there be at least a better aiming system? I know I can aim and shoot, I've playing the Silent Hill games, and it's a bit difficult to aim at times but I manage. I felt as though I was just wasting bullets in this game.

People who like stealthy games and such would probably really enjoy this game. I just really didn't care for it.

Hope this review helps. I know people will have different opinions about the game, and that's fine. Not everyone will love this game, and not everyone will hate it.

Riddick Slays the Typical Action Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: February 15, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay on Xbox is not just a really long title. It's a very challenging game that makes you think. You can play two ways. Either go for stealth and take enemies out quietly in true Riddick fashion (See Pitch Black or Chronicles of Riddick on DVD for examples), or you can go all-out-who-cares and just kill everyone you see. No, this isn't meant for kids, and five minutes into the gameplay you'll know why. You'll see realistic shadow effects, clever environmental tactics and a nicely brutal world built for the characters Vin Deisel plays. The acting is also incredible and up to par with the movies of the series. For a stealth action game that lets you be a bad-a**, you can't go wrong here.

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.

Great Fun, Violent, but Short

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: September 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The Chronicles of Riddick : Escape From Butcher Bay lets fans of Pitch Black and The Chronicles Of Riddick expand the storyline. This takes place before those two movies - and you're fighting your way out of prison.

First, let's point out the MATURE rating and that this involves very nasty prison fighting. Parents who are buying this for young teens who enjoy the relatively mild movies might be in for a shock. Please keep in mind that the game was made and is rated for a mature audience. They did that for a reason.

Now, if you're a mature game player who doesn't mind blood and violence, you're in for a treat. Vin Diesel may not be a hallowed Shakespearian actor, but he does have his great moments, and his acting and voice work on this game are dead on. His nuances and movements translate extremely well into the gameplay. You really do feel like you're taking part in a "new movie". I find this much more satisfying than to replay scenes in an existing movie, when you know what is going to happen. By making this a prequel, you actually care about what is happening and wonder what's going to go on next. The plot does get you intrigued.

The gameplay is what you'd probably expect from an "escape from prison" type of a game - sneaking around, killing off enemies, solving puzzles to get past this door or that obstacle. Riddick can of course see in the dark, which gives some fun new twists on the usual progress of the game. The graphics are really quite nice, so your peering and sneaking don't involve trying to figure out which pixel is supposed to represent a light switch.

On the downside, they didn't develop out a long, complex storyline here. You can probably finish the game in a weekend if you spend the time playing it. With all the games out there for the same price that you can play for months and months, it seems a bit odd that a modern gamemaker would put out a game that is this short. Once they have the "hard work" done - designing the interface, designing the models for the characters - then creating new levels and dialogue is really very easy. If they'd spent another month or so on fleshing out the game, it would have been superb.

Maybe next time?

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.

F*#!%NG GAME

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 4
Date: August 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I love the Riddick movies & so does my young son; the language is a little dicy sometimes, but my son is pretty responsible and knows not to emulate it (particularly around other kids, or at school, or in public, etc). I'm super proud of him (that's why I let him watch things like these movies sometimes - Riddick is pretty much of a good guy). After checking the game out for a minute or two before I could get upstairs to join him, he told me that he thought the bad language was a bit over-used; way more than represented in the movies. Unfortunately, he was right. It's in the top of the closet now (but I'm sure it's a great game). We both sad; we were really psyched to get it. I really like the Riddick character, and the movies...and Vin Diesel even; but this game has too much unnecessary foul language in it, even for me...and after all, the games (for the most part) are supposed to be for kids, right? With that in mind, I'd skip this one; maybe the next one wlll have better game AND not have to be constantly dropping the "F-Bomb" all over the f-ing place...sorry.

Good game; glitches keep it from being great

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: March 02, 2007
Author: Amazon User

PROS:
- Starbreeze Engine (Swedish), excellent visuals and style. Eyeshine purple is pretty.
- real actor's voice (although he's just as thick as a brick in the game as he is in his stupid action movies).
- interesting health regeneration and upgrade system.
- very interesting unexpected cyrosleep level.

CONS:
- Not much enemy variety
- for a FPS - First Person Shooter, this game is low on the shooting. guns are everywhere and much of the time you can't use them.
- multiple very bad glitches: 1) allows you to get significantly far into the game without certain items/weapons you will need later forcing you to restart earlier levels. 2) glitch so bad that it forces you to consult the internet to see what is going wrong in which the game tells you to get on a spaceship (you can try this a million times and it won't work unless you kill Riot Guards, which the game does NOT tell you have to do). 3) other minor glitches too in which NPC scripts fail to activate if the game thinks you did something out-of-order. Happens with prisoner missions and later down in the mines as well... These glitches give the game an automatic -1 star or worse. This is just bad beta or game testing.
- too derivative of Splinter Cell with: hide in shadow, crouch down, knock out, drag body away, etc.

Better than Halo

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: February 25, 2007
Author: Amazon User

you heard me this is better than halo. ive played and completed both this ones better. the graphics in this game are WAY better tgan the ones in halo. the soundtrack and voiceacting are better too. the weapons are more intresting. and overall this game is just a lot more fun to play. unlike most first person shooters this ones even got a good story in it too. the story is that riddick a hardened criminal antihero is trying to escape from a painful well guarded max security prizon called butcher bay. troughout the journey youll fight enemies from soldiers and aleins to rhinos and security guards and the execution couldnt have been pulled off better. the weapons are great from the UNBELIVABLE assault rifle to the shotgun to that futursitic lazer gun that you get later its just ridicously good your arsenal. The graphics are PHONOMIENAL! you cant even compare them to ps2 gamecube or any other xbox games graphics there simply in a class of their own. The sound design is a great combination of fantastic orchestral music. sound effects better than the ones in gears of war and very involving solid voiceacting. although theres no multiplayer options youll still be playing this one forevor. the best fps better than halo prove me wrong? you cant.

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