The newest installment of The Chronicles of Riddick series promises to capitalize on the original Escape from Butcher Bay, which received high reviews across the board. I had a chance to get my Ulak-laden fists on Assault on Dark Athena and, after having played a couple hours, wanted to share with you what I think of it so far.
AoDA is a first person shooter/fighter that employs a great deal of stealth. The whole premise of Riddick is that he’s “the most ruthless criminal in the universe”, and that he thrives on fighting from the darkness. Throughout the game, you get opportunities to sneak through the shadows to get the drop on unsuspecting enemies. It is potentially possible to sneak through an entire area in the game without being discovered, but there will be times where fighting is the only option.
The graphics have been no disappointment. The lighting in the environment is very important for the stealth aspect, and the engine does a good job of facilitating dynamic lighting effects. Riddick is rendered in great detail and the environment has a great level of detail.
Drones are disposable!
As far as sound, I do have a few complaints. First off, it seems that Atari blew the budget for voice acting on licensing Vin Diesel and the other lead voices, but decided to not pay for three or more voice actors for those that control the drones. What’s worse is that you can hear the guy controlling the drone with a very American accent and then, after killing the drone, a completely different (English?) accent say, “I’m losing control.” And that’s it. “I’m losing control.” Plan to hear that after killing EVERY. SINGLE. DRONE.
He doesn't seem too concerned that I just incapacitated his homey.
Speaking of the drones, sure the name “drone” suggests that they have no intelligence, but they are theoretically controlled by a Merc somewhere in the ship. Thus, they should exhibit some sort of tactics unless Revas, the ship’s captain, hired a bunch of tactically-challenged pool boys to work for her. On multiple occasions I was allowed to stand and shoot a drone as it stood there and took it like, well, a 220-pound of meat. No response, no attack, nothing. Whether or not this drone was being controlled by a Merc, it should have had some response.
The old "floating gun" trick never loses its appeal!
To further my frustration with this game, I broke it. There’s a big hole in a room with a large fan in it, and a sign that warns about dropping down the hole. I imagined that, had I jumped down the hole, I would have been chopped in to bits. So, I decided to drag a body to the edge of the hole and push him in. As soon as it got to the exciting part, the game crashed. Really? Did the developers think that gamers wouldn’t try that? That’s like baking a gooey butter cake in a room full of diabetics. What’s more is that the automatic bug reporting tool bounced back my email saying that the email address was restricted. I guess it’s easy to think there are no bugs if you can’t receive the bug reports!
I’d like to end this preview on a positive note. The story is good. As a Riddick n00b, the story has captured my interest, and I’ve been enjoying Riddick’s snide remarks. Aside from the rather limited dialog that the enemy AI exhibit, the branching dialog with some of the more prevalent characters is actually pretty dec. The story has pulled me in and I’m looking forward to finishing the game. It should be pretty easy if the drones refuse to retaliate.
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