Butcher Bay, with its dreary facilities and rough clientele, sounds quite like a holiday camp near Grimsby. The vacations here, though, are permanent and far more unpleasant. Even Richard B. Riddick, our sociopathic anti-hero, can’t wait to escape. Despite his complete lack of redeeming qualities, I have to say that I empathise with him.
Chronicles is first-person based with the addition of hand-to-hand combat and stealth, all built around a sturdy adventuring skeleton. It doesn’t sound exactly groundbreaking, but everything about Chronicles is so finely balanced and so well implemented that it feels fresh and exciting rather than the formulaic mess that it could have been.
The game’s strength comes from it’s realism – incredibly life-like graphics, combined with details such as the convincing swagger of the viewpoint, refreshingly minimalistic HUD and the ability to see Riddick’s body and shadow, give the game a solid, grounded feel rather than the disembodied floating common in most FPS titles. The graphics too, though far from aesthetically pleasing, bring the filthy, industrial hell of the prison to life in all its glory – or infamy, depending on how you look at it. The normal-mapping gives every surface an almost tangible depth, complete with accurately cast shadows courtesy of the superb lighting engine. The character models benefit particularly, displaying every scar on their faces and every crease in their uniforms. It’s all just an illusion, but it’s a very good one.
Fortunately, there is a lot of substance beneath the exterior good looks. The game world is richly detailed and alive with a host of unique characters, each with their own little sub-plots and intrigues to become involved in via multiple-choice dialogue. By doing favours or taking jobs from the inmates, you can gather the connections and items required for your escape, as well as earning cash or cigarettes (which unlock extra content). Guards and prisoners alike chatter constantly amongst themselves, swapping anecdotes and banter which flesh out the plot as well as providing some entertainment whilst you lurk in the shadows, waiting to strike.
And when the action inevitably arrives, Chronicles excels. The different aspects of the game are so well-balanced that no single aspect ever wears thin or seems too prominent, and the game really lets you take on the challenges as you see fit. You can sneak around in the dark using Riddick’s ‘eye shine’ to see, whilst despatching enemies with nasty stealth kills, or you can rely on a satisfying arsenal, but the impressive enemy AI makes either option a challenge. Guards will hunt you down mercilessly and systematically if they spot you, and their clever tactics make shoot-outs tense and genuinely dangerous affairs. Inmates prefer to lower the tone with their fists or improvised shivs, but the hand-to-hand fighting is such good fun that you’ll be only too ready to rumble with them.
The whole package is rounded off nicely by some exemplary production, which makes the game all the more compelling. The plot and dialogue are extremely well-written and professionally acted, the sound effects hit hard and the dynamic score is suitably rousing, whilst the unusual menus and large amount of unlockable (albeit trivial) content add even more surface polish. Quite simply, all cross-media tie-ins should be this good.
It’s hard to find fault with Riddick’s adventures in the Big House, although it must be said that the setting is every bit as brutal and violent as its protagonist. If you can stomach it, Escape from Butcher Bay is a technological tour-de-force for the Xbox and a superior game in every respect.
