Now I've already mentioned numerous times how these Riddick games are some of the best looking games in the industry and that stands true once again. Both Dark Athena and Butcher Bay run off the same engine and they both look fantastic. The game uses heavy shadows playing off the environment's surroundings, creating some awesome visuals. It also makes the sneaking aspect of game enjoyable because you can actually see what will conceal you and what won't. It's not a flip of the coin if you're going to get detected or not. The only shortcomings I stumbled across were a lot of clipping issues - where hands or clothes would cut through the NPCs bodies, as well as some hiccups in certain animations. For example, I snuck up behind a guard and snapped his neck but even after the body dropped to the ground, Riddick ran through the entire animation again which I couldn't override. I just had to watch him. Now maybe he was taking down a phantom soldier I just didn't see, since I don't have the "Riddick Eye," but it was pretty annoying. But I'm sure these problems will be ironed out by the time the game releases on April 7th.
But besides the minor graphical and animation issues, the only other issue I had with the game is the actual dialogue. There are moments in the game where you run into NPCs who you can talk to, trade goods, work for, etc. but the dialogue for these conversations are so lame. Riddick just sits there after listening to some guy's spiel and retorts with "Don't be afraid of the dark, be afraid of me." There is no way to justify 5th grade dialogue like that. I can't remember much of the dialogue from the first game, and maybe it's because I'm now a few years old (and wiser) but the dialogue in Dark Athena was cringe worthy. Hopefully this small taste of the conversation aspect of Riddick isn't a showcase of the overall experience. One can hope.
Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena releases on the 7th of April and I think it deserves the attention of every gamer with a Xbox 360 and PS3. Because while I can't speak for the final product of Assault on Dark Athena, Escape from Butcher Bay is an incredible game and well worth the asking price alone - updated graphics or not.
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