June 11th, 2009 by hylian1

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is the direct sequel to 2004’s Chronicles of Riddick on the original Xbox. Athena begins where its predecessor left off, with Riddick lying on a beach at Butcher Bay. Players control Riddick for a short time in this area before all goes black and find themselves locked away on the Dark Athena spaceship. This is where the adventure begins.

Captain Rivas of the Dark Athena has been taking prisoners and using advanced technology to transform them into drones. The drones are controlled by other people via machines spread across the ship. The player’s goal is to escape the Dark Athena and ultimately put an end to Captain Rivas’ evil designs.

Gameplay

Dark Athena offers up some fairly unique aspects to its gameplay and shouldn’t ever be pushed off as being just another FPS (first person shooter) on the 360. The game is relatively short, but its what is offered within this short time span that makes all the difference.

Throughout the game are nice little touches that developer added that makes Dark Athena a more surreal experience. One example is the doors. Anyone familiar with the genre knows that in most fps games, defeating whatever enemies are in a particular room will result in the door to the next area magically opening for the player to continue onward. In Riddick, that is not the case. Instead of taking that simple route, the developers took the time to offer a variety of ways throughout the game. Sometimes you must wait for a Drone to come through a locked door, pick up a use a Drone’s gun to shoot out the glass to the next area, aquire key codes, and even in one point pick up a grenade from a defeated foe to blast through a wall. It’s these small little experiences that helped to shape the game into what it is.

While gunning down Drones is an important part of the game, stealth and hand-to-hand combat is also vital in completing the tasks at hand. Riddick can use the darkness to his advantage and stealthily sneak up on Drones and fatally kill them using his hands or a variety of different weapons such clubs, hair pins, and scalping tools–each of which has its own unique finisher. These items can also be used in hand-to-hand combat rather than just using Riddick’s fists.

Riddick isn’t the only character to control througout the game. In a few sections of the game, players will don machines to take control of Drones and even a giant mecha-robot that fires missiles. These moments add some exra spice to an already incredible game that does so much to begin with.

The only real complaint I honestly have with the game is its lack of variety in enemies. While the Drones can be somewhat more difficult in the later parts of the game, they are basically the only enemies you’ll be fighting. Drones, some soldiers, and a few people in mechanized suits are all Athena offers in this regard. It is still enjoyable to battle them, but it would have been nice if more enemies had been readily available.

Graphics

Visually, Dark Athen manages to hold its own quite well and offers some of the best graphics on the 360 imo. Attention to detail is noticeable from beginning to end and Riddick is near picture perfect in resemblance to his Vin Diesel. Watching the animations when you perform a fatility move on a Drone never gets old and the fire effects from explosions are incredible. Fantastic job done here.

Sound

The sound effects and voice overs in the game are certainly top notch. Vin Diesel is a professional actor and he does an excellent job in lending his voice to a game that he plays a major role in. Hearing the guns fire definately has a realistic feel to it along with the many explosions throughout the game. The screams of your victims are unforgettable as well and will leave you wanting to continue killing them time and time again.

Controls

Flawless. Not a better word for it. The hand-to-hand combat, the shooting, the stealth, and so on all flows smoothly and not a single moment did I have any issues with it whatsoever. Even the jumping and climbing aspects worked perfectly to compliment the game. The developers are definately deserving of praise for managing to keep them feeling incredible and intuitive throughout.

Overall

Overall, Assault on Dark Athena is an unforgettable experience that brings something fresh and unique to a genre filled with so many generic titles. With fantastic gameplay, wonderful visions, great sound effects, controls to die for and even a completely remasters version of the original game, Dark Athena is a title that no one who is a fan of shooters should miss out on.

Score: 9.5/10