"Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena" review

**TheTip** · 09-20-09, 01:22 PM

System specs (reviewer):

Graphics: 9500 Gt 512MB
CPU: Intel Core Duo 2.8 GHz
Ram: 4GB DDR2
OS: Windows XP Professional Edition
Hard Drive: 250GB

System Requirements:

Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 3850 or NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT or better
CPU: Intel Core2 Duo 1.8GHz or AMD Athlon X2 +5200
Ram: 2 GB of available system memory OS: Microsoft Windows XP SP2, Vista Operating System
Hard Drive: 11 GB of available of hard drive space

Intro:
Is Riddick as badass as ever, or does he wimp out in this sequel?

Story:
“Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena” is a direct sequel to the first game, and picks up right where it left off. You start out at the prison, and escape on a small ship. Then a bounty hunter, who has a giant shrimp shaped ship, capture you and takes you aboard. The game revolves around you trying to get off the ship, after which you want to get back on it and kill the bounty hunter, who can survive spikes through the neck. The plot is feels dragged on about five hours in, and is nothing special.

Gameplay:
I would classify Dark Athena as two games put into one box, because each one was too short to be a standalone title. Each half is identical in design to the other. You have a mission hub from which you take missions from various npcs, and then you get an overpowered weapon that has unlimited ammo.

The difficulty curb also goes all over the place. The first half is just right, not too easy and too hard, but the second half is incredibly frustrating. It is here that they introduce the spider turret. This enemy is incredibly tiny and shoots incredibly fast and takes out half your health with one shot.

Most of the time you are going to be fighting melee. The close range combat system is brutal, you slice and dice and do it twice. I did find the counter system to be fairly challenging and at times inconsistent. To counter, you need to have an enemy attack you, and then when Riddick’s weapons light up press the attack button. Your timing has to be perfect; you have to attack in the exact millisecond that the weapons light up. Sometimes when an enemy attacks you the weapons don’t light up, but then the same enemy attacks you the same way, and they do light up. This usually means that you will be wasting more health than you should. Most of the time that I countered it felt like it was more by luck that by skill.

Me killing someone

If you do manage to counter you are treated to a brutal little sequence, where Riddick annihilates the poor npc.

The enemies are anything but boring. You mostly fight automated drones, which are humans turned into remote control robots with a gun instead of a hand. The drones are usually automated i.e. they stiffly walk around a preset cycle. Killing them is just a pleasure because they don’t realize that you are behind them, and you can test out the brutal finishers. The drones are also useful in firefights; you can use their corpses as body shields and use their arm gun which is pin point accurate. Sometimes when the ship’s crew is looking for you, the drones become mercenary controlled. This means that they are twice as smart and they actually look for you, but that is not a problem because you have an overpowered weapon.

The most appealing part of the game is the thrill of the hunt. Stalking your enemies and disregarding the overpowered weapons is very exhilarating. You can be on a crate above a mercenary, and then wait for him to get right under you, after which you jump and slice him across the back, silently taking him out. Then you drag his corpse into the dark corner and wait for your next victim.

The game is fairly varied with sections varying from platforming, to shooting, to sneaking, and to giant robot sections. Most of these sections provide variety so things don’t get too repetitive, but the platforming is very annoying. You walk up to a crate, pipe, or any other generic platform and then press “E”, after which the camera zooms out into third person and you see Riddick clime up very slowly. Then you repeat the process about twenty times.

Me climbing up a ladder

Me piloting a drone

There is also Riddick’s eye shine ability, which is just night vision with a blue tint. It is only useful in scripted situations and doesn’t let you see that much in front of you.

“Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena” also features the first Riddick title but with redone graphics. This again makes me think that “Assault on Dark Athena” was just an expansion pack.

Gameplay in “Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena” has some minor flaws like the platforming sections, the overpowered weapons, and the difficulty curb, but other than that it’s a solid and entertaining game. 89/100

Multiplayer:
In theory multiplayer was going to be unique, it had an interesting mode called “Pitch Black” along with other arbitrary game modes like CTF or Deathmatch. In “Pitch Black” one player assumes the role of Riddick, while other characters assume the roles of Mercenaries hunting for Riddick. The mercenaries start out in a lit room that has every weapon in the game, while Riddick starts out in a dark maze. The catch is that the better the weapon the weaker the flash light.

The reason I said multiplayer is good in theory is because there were absolutely no games, I tried editing the games modes and such, but it yielded no result. 0/100
No games

Graphics:
The graphics in “Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena” are beautiful, all the melee animations flow together seamlessly into brutal and deadly combo. You have no HUD which adds to the atmosphere and your ammo is displayed on LED lights on your gun. And whenever you platform you are treated to a smooth animation of Riddick climbing up a ladder. There is the occasional skin tearing glitch, but those are rare. 95/100

Sound:
The voice acting is great; it made me feel like I was watching a movie. The sound effects are also great; they make the game come to life. You can be sneaking I the vents and hear a conversation between the crew members. The weapon effects also sound appropriate; all the firearms have the right amount of bass, and the melee weapons make that satisfying zing when you slice through someone. 100/100

TeamPlay:
There is the possibility of teamplay in multiplayer, especially for the ‘Pitch Black” mode, but since nobody plays it teamplay is not possible. In singleplayer you go around stabbing everyone all by your lonesome self, so teamplay is not possible here as well. NA/100

Conclusion:
“Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena” is a solid game with a few minor setbacks, like the lack of a multiplayer community, the difficulty curb, and the platforming sections. Overall I would recommend this to anyone who liked the first game, a fan of stealth games, or someone who is a fan of the Riddick franchise.

Gameplay: 89
Multiplayer: 0
Graphics: 95
Sound: 100
Teamplay: NA
Conclusion: 71

LoL

**TheTip** · 09-20-09, 02:15 PM

comments, anything i need to improve?

**DancingCorpse** · 09-20-09, 02:30 PM

Originally Posted by TheTip

comments, anything i need to improve?

Got to be patient man, only posted this an hour ago and on a Sunday. The Media Staff people are doing stuff. I'll give it a quick glance through.

**DancingCorpse** · 09-20-09, 02:40 PM

Multiplayer section, fagments and typos, fix them. Same with the following pic.

**TheTip** · 09-20-09, 02:47 PM

i think i fixed it

**DancingCorpse** · 09-20-09, 02:50 PM

The reason I said multiplayer is good in theory is because there were absolutely games, I tried editing the games modes and such buy it yielded no result.

Fix that.

**DancingCorpse** · 09-20-09, 02:53 PM

Originally Posted by DancingCorpse

The reason I said multiplayer is good in theory is because there were absolutely games, I tried editing the games modes and such buy it yielded no result.

Fix that.

Or I could, I Just realized that the Buy was supposed to be a but, was thinking it was supposed to be something entirely different. That is what happens when I wake up at 2 PM.