There is a lot that is good about Chronicles of Riddick, but there is a lot that is not so good. The game combines elements of first person shooter, role-playing, boxing, and stealth games into one all encompassing game. The idea might be sound, but when it comes to developing the game you have five times the work because you are developing five different games. It’s a testament to the skills of the developers at Starbreeze that the game came out as well as it did. You could easily imagine it being much worse.

We’ll handle the bad news first. First, stealth games should be done in third person. It’s the only way to know if you are truly hidden in shadow or if there are objects blocking enemies’ line of sight to you. The effect in Riddick where the screen tints blue is an interesting way to indicate that you are hidden in a shadow, but there are many areas in the game where you need to sneak around and there are no shadows. Ultimately you get stuck trying to peek around boxes in full light and get noticed by a guard; who alerts all the other guards; who now make the level ten times more difficult than it was a moment ago. In situations like this it would have been nice to have an optional third person mode like the one in Thief: Deadly Shadows. It’s just hard to do stealth without it and it would be cool to actually see the main character in more situations than med stations and cut scenes.

Second, the game controls are sluggish and difficult to use. Maybe this is a side effect of trying to do so many game concepts from an exclusively first person perspective or maybe its loose controller code. Either way it can make Riddick hard to control. Much of the game is quickly climbing boxes and jumping to higher areas to avoid detection. Two things not well suited to first person perspective. There are also situations where you are climbing along rafters and the combination of temporary third person view and camera angle adjustments have you completely confused about where you are or where you are going. Basically, if you play this game realize that there are some control oddities you will have to overcome. Annoyances like these control issues are minor detractors from the game and they don’t make the game unplayable, but they do keep you from becoming totally immersed.

Wrapping up the bad news is the general image quality in the game. The character models lack significant geometric detail relative to other games in the FPS genre. The environments are flat and, like the characters, lacking in detail. The last gripe before I get to the good stuff is how pixelated the game looks. The Xbox should have plenty of power to render the geometry in the game. I can’t for the life of me think of a reasonable excuse for the amount of pixelation in the game. It just doesn’t seem right for an Xbox title these days. In spite of the flaws laid out above, Escape From Butcher Bay is a solid game. There is enough diversity in the game that you find yourself forgiving some of the superficial issues.

The story line is one of the major reasons to play this game especially if you are a fan of the series. Unlike so many other games based on movies, this game doesn’t simply retell the story letting you play the role of the main character. The story in this game takes place before the events in Pitch Black. If you’ve seen the movie you already know that Riddick escapes Butcher Bay. You know that he gets his cool eyes while he’s there and you know that his buddy Johns is somehow related to his stay there. What you don’t know are the details. Escape From Butcher Bay seamlessly ties into Pitch Black and alludes to events in the sequel Chronicles of Riddick. A bonus in the game is the ability to unlock graphics related to the movies. When you find cigarettes lying around or manage to trade some from fellow inmates you unlock pictures of movie sets, concept art and other graphical goodies.

The variety of the game is the other reason to try this game out. Like I said before, there are multiple types of game play that coexist rather nicely. What you end up with is something more like an interactive movie than any one particular game type. During some parts of the game you have no weapons. During others you’re armed to the teeth. Sometimes you’re just trying to blast your way through guards. Other times you sneak over, under and around boxes and obstacles to sneak to an objective (this often goes hand in hand with not having any weapons). The game has you doing everything from scrapping in a ring to gain street credibility to poisoning a prisoner’s food in exchange for his enemy’s information to stomping around in a mech that looks like ED209 from Robocop.

The big question is of course “should you get the game?” The answer like many other games depends on the person. If you are a Riddick fan, own the Pitch Black DVD and plan on buying Chronicles of Riddick when the DVD hits store shelves then you probably want to own this game. The additions it makes to the story line are a must have for a complete Riddick movie collection. If you liked the movie but aren’t as die-hard a fan, know that you can easily beat the game in the time allotted for a typical game rental. You’ll experience the story, but will not likely play the game after the first time through. Finally, if you didn’t like the movies or are easily offended by obscene prison graffiti or gratuitous violence this game is probably not for you.