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GF Rating
7
Good
Dark Athena
posted by Dreacamor (LAS VEGAS, NV) May 27, 2009
Member since Sep 2008
30 out of 32 gamers (94%) found this review helpful
Interesting game. Worth a play through, very nice style. Good mood. The only problems i have with the game is the characters. Riddick has gone from a monster in the shape of a man, to your typical good guy anti hero. He keeps trying to be a poetic rouge do gooder, helping everyone with everything. the original riddick was not. he didn't care for anyone but himself. he wouldn't go out of his way to kill people or anything but he didn't go out of his way to help them either. his change of heart came towards the end of pitch black, which is a sequel to these events. But other than the character discrepancies, the environment is well themed. The game is unique for an fps as for the most part running in guns blazing is a sure way to get killed. there is something deviously entertaining about skulking around shadows killing people when you get the opportunity. and the combat system is nice making you attack and retreat in battle you can just attack rapidly during some boss fights and come off on top but most of the time you get in a quick strike and back off. its a nice feel that requires more discipline. the finishing moves were brutal as well and i like the fact that they take place in first person.
I stumbled upon a few bugs, npc's being where they shouldn't be, taunting you from inside a wall, not reacting or dying no matter how much ammo or blades you force into them, but nothing a quick checkpoint reload wont fix and nothing game breaking. the check point system is up to par, as is the health system. I like that you cant regenerate all your health just by staying out of a fight, but that you can at least recover a little. its a good balance. The visuals are, maybe on the shiny side, but good. and again the design is very nice. the SCAR is awesome by the way. story could be better, ending could be much much better as it gives almost no closure. and the difficulty could be scaled a little better. But overall I am glad i got to play this game.
I stumbled upon a few bugs, npc's being where they shouldn't be, taunting you from inside a wall, not reacting or dying no matter how much ammo or blades you force into them, but nothing a quick checkpoint reload wont fix and nothing game breaking. the check point system is up to par, as is the health system. I like that you cant regenerate all your health just by staying out of a fight, but that you can at least recover a little. its a good balance. The visuals are, maybe on the shiny side, but good. and again the design is very nice. the SCAR is awesome by the way. story could be better, ending could be much much better as it gives almost no closure. and the difficulty could be scaled a little better. But overall I am glad i got to play this game.
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GF Rating
8
Very Good
The Unbiased Review
posted by AznTalk (LOWELL, MA) Oct 2, 2011
Member since Aug 2009
1 out of 1 gamers (100%) found this review helpful
Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is a pretty good game.
Now don't take that sentence as a reason to rent it, read the whole review!
This game actually holds two in one, a remastered Butcher Bay with the Dark Athena campaign. This means a double in amount of hours needed in single-player. So if you like going solo this is a good game. However if your looking for a multiplayer experience turn back now. I've tried to get a game going but literally 2-0 maybe 3 people will be on. Well lets get on to gameplay.
GAMEPLAY
The game plays in three distinct phases. One is like a Mass-Effect type RPG. During parts of the game, Riddick is able to speak and complete side missions for various inmates in Butcher Bay and a few people in Dark Athena. Two is a stealth stage where Riddick will be armed with melee weapons and a helpful tranquilizer gun later on. It's almost like a splinter cell in first person to an extent. You'll shoot out lights with the Tranquilizer or disable the lights as the darkness is your ally. Eyeshine, a trademark ability of Riddick comes especially helpful in these areas. The last way, number three is your standard FPS phase. Armed with an average arsenal of machine gun, shotgun, pistol, grenades(not very plentiful), you'll find the machine gun's accuracy is non-existent while the shotgun and pistol more useful. The A.I. is not a very smart one. It will most of the time investigate where Riddick is i.e. in the dark most likely. Then it'll either stand and wait there, find Riddick, or return to their patrol. The A.I. does recognize fallen allies and will become alerted. If they don't find anything they return to their patrol as if nothing happened, no backup called, no funeral, nothing. Even with these smallish faults the gameplay is mostly undisturbed. There are also mech sessions where you'll pilot a mech.
Gamefly has a limit so in short
GAMEPLAY-8
GRAPHICS-7
Storyline-8
OVERALL-8
Go get it for the singleplayer, don't for the online! - Azn.
Now don't take that sentence as a reason to rent it, read the whole review!
This game actually holds two in one, a remastered Butcher Bay with the Dark Athena campaign. This means a double in amount of hours needed in single-player. So if you like going solo this is a good game. However if your looking for a multiplayer experience turn back now. I've tried to get a game going but literally 2-0 maybe 3 people will be on. Well lets get on to gameplay.
GAMEPLAY
The game plays in three distinct phases. One is like a Mass-Effect type RPG. During parts of the game, Riddick is able to speak and complete side missions for various inmates in Butcher Bay and a few people in Dark Athena. Two is a stealth stage where Riddick will be armed with melee weapons and a helpful tranquilizer gun later on. It's almost like a splinter cell in first person to an extent. You'll shoot out lights with the Tranquilizer or disable the lights as the darkness is your ally. Eyeshine, a trademark ability of Riddick comes especially helpful in these areas. The last way, number three is your standard FPS phase. Armed with an average arsenal of machine gun, shotgun, pistol, grenades(not very plentiful), you'll find the machine gun's accuracy is non-existent while the shotgun and pistol more useful. The A.I. is not a very smart one. It will most of the time investigate where Riddick is i.e. in the dark most likely. Then it'll either stand and wait there, find Riddick, or return to their patrol. The A.I. does recognize fallen allies and will become alerted. If they don't find anything they return to their patrol as if nothing happened, no backup called, no funeral, nothing. Even with these smallish faults the gameplay is mostly undisturbed. There are also mech sessions where you'll pilot a mech.
Gamefly has a limit so in short
GAMEPLAY-8
GRAPHICS-7
Storyline-8
OVERALL-8
Go get it for the singleplayer, don't for the online! - Azn.
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GF Rating
9
Excellent
Something Old, Something New...
posted by Quilemaul (NORTH LAS VEGAS, NV) Apr 7, 2009
Member since Jan 2007
44 out of 54 gamers (81%) found this review helpful
For all of you who never got a chance to play the original TCOR:EfBB on the old-school Xbox, you're in for a treat. Granted, the visuals on the old title could give a few of these "next-gen" titles a run for their money so i was pleasantly surprised to see the game looks even better than I remembered. The gameplay is a nice blend of stealth/melee/run'n'gun with some RPG'esque quests thrown in for flavor and plot advancement. The original campaign (Escape From Butcher Bay or EfBB for short) still stands out as one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences of my life. The last level alone is worth paying $60 to play again, I won't spoil it, but when you get there, you'll feel that sadistic, gleeful grin spread across your face same as I did hehe. The controls and gameplay HAVE been updated just a tad for the next generation, but if you never played the original, you wouldn't notice anyways, and if you had, you're not reading this review, you're playing the new game since the moment it was released and already noticed everything I'll be detailing in this review haha. What's new to the experience this time around is multiplayer, and the most fun I found on there was in Pitch Black mode... Basically it's all vs. all vs. one here: One person spawns as Riddick, the others must cooperate and compete in order to take him down; "Kill the Riddick" and you become him. Makes for great fun if you can pull yourself away from the single player campaign. Now you might be noticing here that this review centers mainly on the original campaign and not the new Assault on Dark Athena material and the reason for that is simple... If the cook is the same, and the ingredients similar enough, the resulting dishes will taste VERY similar, and that is the case here. The original game was so good that this new one is worth a purchase just to be able to play through it once more (It IS, after all, the "origin" of the Riddick tale).
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