The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay

Am I dreaming? Could it be that this licensed game, based on a Vin Diesel movie, is actually good? Doth my eyes and ears speaketh sweet lies? Actually, no. They're telling the truth. This game is amazing. Taking a page from METROID PRIME, one of the best next-gen games ever made, BUTCHER BAY is a first-person adventure game, with equal emphasis on side quests, character interaction, stealth action and balls-to-the-wall shooting, all showing off the superior graphical prowess of the Xbox. It also acts as a great prelude to the whole RIDDICK series, which this game forced me to take interest in. Riddick (voiced by the man himself, Vin Diesel) is captured by the bounty hunter Johns (Cole Hauser) and brought to the triple-max penitentiary, Butcher Bay. Butcher Bay has three levels: the standard population, well guarded but allowing some freedom; the mines, a bleak and dangerous underground world reserved for the worst of the worst; and the cryo chamber, which allows only two minutes of exercise a day in a small, tightly guarded cell. Riddick eventually pisses off enough guards to be stowed in each of the three levels, but naturally, none can hold him. The biggest thrill of the game comes from the inventive escape methods you can use to get out of each level. A lot of time is spent crawling through vents and sewers, recovering shivs and guns and finding packs of cigarettes that reveal bonus material, like design stills from the movies and game. But that's hardly the limit of your abilities. You can negotiate with inmates to do tasks for money or smokes, duke it out in the arena (with amazingly intuitive first-person fight controls), or stealth-attack guards from the confines of the shadows. I'd much sooner see another RIDDICK game than movie, but either way, I have more respect for the series, and for licensed games as a whole.

The Chronicles of Riddick:Escape from Butcher Bay must be one of my favourite games for the Xbox. I think that Riddick's great anyway, so when I saw this I just had to have it. This game explains two things:1)how Riddick got his 'eyeshine' in the first place, and 2)how he escaped from one of the toughest slams in the Universe. The game has excellent graphics due to the motion capturing performed by the developers, which makes it seem very authentic. Riddick and Johns are voiced by their counterparts from the movies, and a lot of new characters are introduced, many who are irrelevant to the story overall but a few who might make the difference between Riddick living and dying. There is a huge amount of replay value, just to collect every feature and fully complete the game. This isn't a game for young children though, as it contains a lot of swearing and violence(just what you'd expect from Riddick). Verdict:10/10!

Games based on movies have a history of being poorly designed and made within a short space of time to cash in on the buzz surrounding a popular current movie release. Escape from Butcher Bay isn't based on a specific movie but the Chronicles of Riddick franchise instead and fills in a gap in the storyline that a novel would ordinarily fill.

With Escape from Butcher Bay things look good from the beginning, as we have Vin Diesel doing all of Riddick's dialogue and a surprisingly realistic computerised representation of the character, Vin Diesel put in the time being scanned, motion captured etc. which is rare for any game featuring the actual actor out of a film or TV series. Another credit to Diesel is that he created his own game company, Tigon (a Tigon is a Tiger-Lion hybrid) which I assume made this game happen in the first place. Diesel's voice acting is of a high standard and the storyline is well thought out and keeps up interest the whole way. As far as first-person-shooters go Escape from Butcher Bay is among the best I've played and anyone who owns or has access to an Xbox should give it a go.

This is a game set before the Riddick films and is a unique and interesting game in its own right , it's a bit Thief and a lot Aliens Colonial Marines and a lot brilliant. This game is so good I have forgiven Starbreeze for the butchering and lack of love in their Syndicate remake. It's a bit challenging to find as it isn't commercially available anymore but does come free with Riddick Dark Athena on GOG. Buy this game is you love Riddick, hate Riddick or just don't care as it's an amazing game in its own right.

The game is in my opinion somewhat confusing at points but the graphics and the fighting moves are beyond comparison. If the game can be any better I would have to say that it could be simplified in the missions for the jail yard sections. The fun part of the game is being able to take down guards with guns with a screwdriver. The game is inaccurate in the means of how Riddick gets his eyes but that does not matter much because the plot accuracy is not much of a big deal in this game. It is one of the best games that I have played in a very long time. The character involvement in the progression of Riddick through the prison is also a nice ad on to the continuous blood and guts the game provides.