by: Dameon White

March 05, 2009

It’s not often that games based on movies or books actually turn out to be good. In fact, it’s a practically nonexistent portion of gaming. Due to complicated licensing issues, shortened development time or a general misunderstanding of the original content the game adaptation often suffers and ends up finding its way into the $2.00 bargain bin at an incredible rate. Imagine our surprise when Starbreeze’s Escape from Butcher Bay for the original Xbox managed to break the mold, bringing Vin Diesel’s famous Riddick character to the gaming world spotlight and slicing its way to the forefront as a sleeper hit to be dealt with. We couldn’t wait for its sequel and we’re proud to say that after spending some quality time with a near final build, Assault on Dark Athena thus far appears to be a sequel worthy of the original in almost every way.

Assault on Dark Athena picks up exactly where the first game left off. If you haven’t played the first, don’t worry, as this game will also come packaged with an enhanced version of Butcher Bay. The game begins as you’ve boarded a spaceship with bounty hunter Johns right as it’s taken over by a much larger spaceship, Dark Athena. While that weakling Johns is captured by the crew aboard Dark Athena you’ve managed to sneak by and you’ve decided to make it your personal goal to find what’s going on. I guess while you’re at it you can also go search for Johns as well. And yes, there will be blood.

You’ll sneak, crawl, and stealth kill your way through enemies in the darkness using your heightened senses and eye-shine (allows you to see in the dark). All of this, of course, is done in first-person much like the original. Left trigger is a block and the right is attack. While it sounds like a rather simplistic system it’s actually quite effective. Repositioning yourself around the target or properly timing a block+attack will result in a variety of different moves, including weapon disarms, neck breaking and almost every other conceivable way you could imagine Riddick killing someone. Much like the original, cinematic flare makes a return and all moves are executed rather fluidly and are reminiscent of what you’d expect from the films.

Even though you’re the deadliest assassin the outer galaxies have ever come to know, you’re not completely indestructible. Assault on Dark Athena prefers that play the game as if you were actually Riddick. Riddick would much rather stalk his prey, strategically eliminating a room full of guards one by one rather than charging in the center of a room guns ablaze. He’s no fool and he knows when the odds aren’t in his favor. Charging into a room full of armed guards will more than likely result in your immediate demise. You’re a hunter afterall and it’s best to not only find ways to remove enemies from the scene as quietly as possible, but also know when it might be best to simply sneak by particular areas altogether.