The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
The villain is well done! However, there is very little difference between the warden of Butcher Bay and the captain of the Athena. This time she is a ruthless strong woman, an evil Queen – the antithesis of Ripley in Alien. In a couple of the Boss Battles with her, we see male playing out vs. female – with the evil ‘Anti-Ripley’ Captain now wanting young Lynn perhaps as a prize ‘mini-drone’ while Riddick finally fights her to the death. Towards the end, we learn just a little bit more about her, but she is cliched and her character is never well-developed nor do we really learn the back story between Riddick and her although there are perhaps hints. We learn that he never even knew her first name before she became his mortal enemy when he was hijacked aboard the Athena.
To add to the mysticism of the game, the girl Lynn has shades of Alma in F.E.A.R. as she also plays an important psychic role in the ending and we learn that her inner strengths are similar to Riddick’s. Common themes and elements of many Sci-fi stories are brought into the metaphysical world that Riddick lives in; he is a flawed criminal messianic hero, a persecuted demi-god in his own universe.
One of Escape from Butcher Bay’s main criticisms in 2004 was its lack of multiplayer. Starbreeze solved this concern with multiplayer online offerings in Dark Athena. Along with Standard Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch, there are a few unique modes that players can try across 15 different maps. Here in this review, I am concentrating on the single player aspect of it to try to determine if it is worth fifty bucks or not.
Most reviews end with a “number” or letter grade assigned to a game to rank it so as to suggest it is better than another. For another way to determine it, this reviewer loved the original Escape from Butcher Bay for PC back in ’04 and really looked forward to this new expansion of the Chronicles of Riddick. Since we did not get our review copy in time, I purchased Assault on Dark Athena on the day of its release exactly a week ago and paid $50 retail for it at Target. In that same week, I played mostly through EfBB (again) and completely through Dark Athena every night for five consecutive nights and it held my interest all the way through, with some great high points that are worth a further replay.
I feel I really got my money’s worth and I would highly recommend Dark Athena to anyone who enjoys a well-executed and polished dark violent stealth shooter with a decent back story, coupled with excellent graphics that run maxed out and relatively bug free on a upper-midrange PC at 1920×1200 resolution. If you already like Riddick and his universe, EfBB is worth a replay even though only the graphics have improved and Dark Athena is simply “more of the same” story continued. It is the same game, a continuation of the Riddick great escape story.
The game play is OK, weapons are fun and the puzzles do not irritate. Although Assault on Dark Athena is linear, you do not feel you are being led by the nose and you almost always have a choice as to how you can complete an objective. Rather you are encouraged to see what is around the corner as the tension builds perfectly. The game achieves total immersion at times and I played once for 3 hours at a stretch, even forgetting to eat. Anyway, since a score is expected, Assault on Dark Athena deserves a 7.8 for the expansion. However, it deserves 8.2 overall, if you have never played the original Escape from Butcher’s Bay.
Although we are left with Riddick’s words about goodbye, there are several ways to take it. I doubt that Assault on Dark Athena is the last Riddick game and I think PC gamers will look forward to further expansions after playing it. Recommended.
Mark Poppin
ABT Editor
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