Those familiar with Vin Diesel might expect a sci-fi counterpart of the Bic’d barbarian to blast the doors off the mothership, avenge his fallen comrades, and hit the NOS--all in time to get the kids to soccer practice.
However, in Assault on Dark Athena (which starts where the last Riddick game, Escape from Butcher Bay, left off), Diesel sticks to the shadows. Quite literally.
Vin Diesel's back, lurking in the shadows, ready to kick some serious butt.
In this sequel, our hero Riddick (voiced by Diesel once again) is not a bullet sponge like many first-person shooter heroes. For that reason, it’s wise to stay where the guards can’t see him. Fortunately, Riddick can see in the dark, an ability called “eyeshine.” This talent is the only leg up gamers have as they try to escape a high-tech spaceship overrun with deadly mercenaries. Apparently, fluorescent tube lamps don’t exist in the future, and the ship is awfully dark all the time.
If the story sounds like déjà vu to Riddick fans, well, it is. Much is recycled from the absolutely stellar Escape from Butcher Bay; both games have three main parts: shooter, stealth, and bassy one-liners. Dark Athena, however, is built on a new engine that supplies updated lighting effects, combat, and environments. Fighting is also a much larger part of Athena--players frequently choose between devastating enemies with close combat or using the guns found around the ship. One of the true strengths of Athena is the way it gives you an almost guilt-inducing feeling of becoming a highly trained killer--manifested in brutal finishing moves when you melee, stab, or impale at exactly the right time.
Even minor characters have movie-caliber polish, and the voice acting is first rate. Waiting in the shadows, you’ll overhear characters speak about their wives, their jobs, and their guns. Apparently, a ship full of mercenaries fosters rather foul mouths; Assault on Dark Athena contains the most explicit language of any game in recent memory.
More vulgar than the guards are the controls. Athena’s keyboard and mouse configuration starts out a complete mess. Primary controls are allotted to buttons that don’t exist on the Magic Mouse, and the aiming sensitivity defaults to incredibly high. With a little tinkering and reconfiguration, they’re tolerable, but they never become comfortable. Unfortunately, each section of the game has at least one sequence in which you jump from ledges to reach the next checkpoint. More times than not, the iffy controls will send Riddick plummeting faster than the Rotten Tomatoes score of a Fast and Furious flick.
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Though parts of the game are a bit rough around the edges, the fact that the game comes with a revamped version of the terrific Butcher Bay means fans should waste no time picking it up. It’s a killer package that executes gritty stealth-shooter with ease and style.
Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
COMPANY: Virtual Programming
CONTACT: www.deliver2mac.com
PRICE: $49.95
REQUIREMENTS: 2.16GHz or faster Intel processor; Mac OS 10.6.3 or later; 1GB RAM; GeForce 8600, Radeon 2400HD, or better graphics card with 256MB VRAM; 12GB free disk space
Comes with the awesome Escape from Butcher Bay game. Brilliant voice acting. Exciting and enjoyable fighting. ESRB rating: Mature.
Controls take some work to get used to. Acrobatic sections fall flat. Too much backtracking.
