It has been five years since we saw Riddick shredding up enemies in 2004’s “Escape from Butcher Bay”. That game was a runaway hit that came out of nowhere, and left many PC gamers wanting more. Atari has now developed the sequel to this sequel (Riddick’s character was originally introduced in the movie Pitch Black), but this time expands its audience to include the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. In this review, we’ll be focusing on the PC review, because believe me there are glaring differences between the PC version and its console bretheren.
Title: The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
Platform: Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION3, Windows PC
Release Date: 2009
Publisher: Atari
Developer: Starbreeze Studios
Category: First Person Shooter
The newest title in the Riddick franchise, The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena brings the hit first person shooter to a new audience and a new generation of consoles when it is released for the Xbox360®, PlayStation®3 and Windows® PC in Spring 2009. The action-packed game, a hi–definition re-imagined version of The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena features an entirely new chapter in the Riddick Saga and for the first time, intense online multiplayer combat.
The Chronicles of Riddick series of games takes the player deeper into the universe of Universal Pictures’ films The Chronicles of Riddick and cult classic Pitch Black, which first introduced Vin Diesel as enigmatic anti-hero Riddick. In The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena the player takes the role of Riddick using stealth and action to overcome the merciless crew of the predatory Merc-ship Dark Athena which awaits its prey in the dark reaches of space. Cheating death through a series of spectacular battles and events, Riddick will fight for his life amid a storm of malevolence and horror.
Picking off a guard in an elevator: Riddick shows off his bad-assery
GAME FEATURES:
- Multiple forms of combat – Unique blend of first-person range and melee combat with stealth kills and counter-attacks
- Atmospheric and cinematic first person shooter – Great story telling in sci-fi environments handled with AAA Hollywood treatment for an immersive journey through Vin Diesel’s blockbuster universe
- Multiplayer modes – Variety of fast-paced multiplayer and online options available for the first time in the Riddick franchise
- Bonus material –Escape from Butcher Bay, considered as one of the best games of 2004, has been re-mastered and will be included along with The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
Next we look at the control scheme and gameplay…
The game uses standard WASD keyboard and mouse controls, with several keys around the movement keys for different modes (switching weapons, interact, night vision, etc). The game is primarially in first-person mode, and automatically switches to third-person mode when climbing ladders or navigating poles.
The usability could be a little better when interacting with objects. Some objects can have multiple actions, and it’s not immediately obvious that you can select another option. For example, there is an part of the game where you have to shoot out a window to continue past a locked door. You must take out a guard and use his gun, but the gun is permanently attached to the corpse. If you aren’t in the line of sight of the window, then what do you do? When you interact (press “E”) you are given the option of picking up the gun… but you can use the arrow keys to select “move the corpse”. You must use the arrow keys to select this option, then press E to move the body to a place where you can see the window, THEN interact again with the body to use the gun, and then shoot out the window.
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On the following page we explore the gameplay dynamics…
The game dynamics are like many other stealth-action shooters. You navigate through to your next objective, hiding in the darkness whenever possible. Instead of the “light meters” employed by groundbreaking stealth games like Thief and Splinter Cell, Riddick’s engine informs you of your visibility by making everything a blue tint. If you are hidden, then everything will appear blue. When Riddick uses his “eyeshine” light amplification (by pressing “Q”), then everything is a lot more visible, but it is then hard to tell if you are hidden or not.
Melee combat is rather simple to control, and really depends on timing, and the direction you are moving. You can just mash away at the left and right mouse buttons (to punch and block, respectively), but performing a counter requires that you look for certain cues. Your open palm means that you can perform a counter, and a flashing gun means that you can disarm your opponent. As in Star Wars: Jedi Knight, the type of melee attack you perform depends on the direction you are currently moving. Pressing “W” (forward) while clicking the left mouse button performs a different attack than pressing “D” (right) and clicking.
The game makes use of “checkpoints” rather than let you save anywhere you want. You will see a floppy disk icon flash whenever you have reached a new checkpoint, and can start from there if you die.
The game is mostly handled as a first-person shooter, but switches into third-person view for any “Tomb Raider” moments, like climbing crates or shimmying along rails to reach another part of the level. There are times when you are absolutely stuck, which is usually a cue for me to look for alternate exits, as I learned in Mirror’s Edge (reviewed here). Sometimes there are no alternate exits, and you must wait for a guard to come through the door, which unlocks it.
Speaking of dying… this is handled inconsistently. If you jump down into an endless shaft, then you are immediately brought back to the top of the shaft without any explanation. Did I die? Did I jump into a wormhole? When you are killed by traditional means, you know it because everything goes red and the camera (which is Riddick’s head) goes to the floor).
Counters are rather satisfying to watch, where Riddick can grab his oppenent’s fist and then sucker-punch the hell out of him, or grab his opponent’s gun and turn it on him. New counters are added depending on the weapon in use.
You can also assign weapon hotkeys, but there are only two. This I don’t understand for a PC game, and must be a carryover from the console’s dynamics. PC games usually let you select any number of weapons by pressing any of the number keys, and each has a pre-defined slot. Since consoles have limited number of buttons, they usually pause the action while you select weapons from a menu (Resistance: Retribution does this, as well as many other recent games). In Dark Athena, you press the “Z” key to bring up your weapon menu. While this is up, you can assign a the selected weapon to the “1” or “2” slot.
You also have the option to grab someone from behind and use their gun, a la the “meat shield” of Gears of War. This is an almost critical tactic in large open areas with several enemies.
You will quickly learn that you must either use extreme stealth or use guns. If you have no guns, then your best bet is to sneak around and take out enemies one by one. Running in with your fists or blades will get you killed rather quickly, even in Easy mode. The most satisfying kills come from using sneakery… hide in the shadows while crouched, wait for a soldier to pass by, then sneak behind him and take him out. Some stealth kills come in the form of neck-twisting, piercing their ear (or neck… it happens so fast), and many other grusome but glorious murders. This is why this game has a Mature rating, kids.
Do those voices sound familiar? Next page you can browse all the celebrities that lent their voice talents…
The voice cast of Assault on Dark Athena is comprised of several well-known seasoned Hollywood veterans, and they do not disappoint in the least.
Riddick: voiced by Vin Diesel
The self-confessed Dungeons & Dragons fan first stepped into Riddick’s shoes in cult hit film Pitch Black, which is honoured with a multiplayer mode of the same name in Assault on Dark Athena. Diesel found the shoes a good fit and subsequently starred in the film The Chronicles of Riddick and lent his voice to the acclaimed game Escape from Butcher Bay. Riddick is renowned as the toughest criminal in the galaxy – a man who walks a moral knife edge and isn’t shy of getting blood on his hands.
Dacher: voiced by Lance Henriksen
A versatile character actor equally at home playing blood-thirsty vampires or beaten-down detectives, Lance Henriksen made his intense presence felt early on with appearances in timeless big screen blockbusters Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Terminator and Aliens. He brings the weight of his voice to bear on Assault on Dark Athena playing Dacher, a prisoner on the ship who shares part of his harrowing life story with Riddick and comes to his aid as the plot unfolds.
Revas: voiced by Michelle Forbes
The Texan-born actress is known for playing tough women, a skill which has seen her take major roles in a series of acclaimed TV shows including Battlestar Galactica, Prison Break, 24, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Her unforgettable performance as Revas, the captain of the Merc-ship Dark Athena who shares a chequered past with Riddick, brings depth and a weary malevolence to the character.
Spinner: voiced by Wade Williams
Williams has appeared in numerous top-rated TV series including CSI, 24, Six Feet Under, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and most prominently Prison Break in which he played Bradley ‘Brad’ Bellick from 2005-2008. In Assault on Dark Athena Williams takes the role of Spinner, the loyal right-hand man of ship’s captain Revas, who is charged with holding the ship together while Riddick unleashes chaos.
Pavlo: voiced by Morgan Sheppard
The accomplished, British-born actor has made numerous appearances on stage and screen since the 1960’s including most recently 2007’s Transformers film, with an appearance slated in the forthcoming Star Trek movie. Following his voice work on 2004’s Escape from Butcher Bay, Sheppard returns to the Riddick universe lending his voice to the character Pavlo, a schizophrenic prisoner trapped aboard Dark Athena who brings clarity and confusion to Riddick in equal doses.
There’s quite a few differences in the PC version, particularly when it comes to DRM. Read about them on the next page…
There are a few differences between the PC version of Dark Athena and its console copies. For one, the PC title uses the notorious DRM (Digital Rights Management) known as SecuROM. You must register over the internet to activate the game, and after three installs the game ceases to function. Even if you are a legitimate user, it can be embarrasing to call customer support, only to have them belittle you, assuming you to be a pirate.
PC users frequently have to reinstall software for many legitimate reasons. Hard drive failures, hardware upgrades, OS reinstalls… all of these are reasons that one may need to install this game over 3 times in the course of a lifetime, but Atari seems unyielding in its anti-piracy policy. These DRM systems, by design, just do not make sense for real-world use.
The other major difference with PC games is the ability to change resolutions and graphics options. Assault on Dark Athena allows you to choose just about any resolution up to 1920×1200 (the max of our test monitor), but has rather limited graphic and audio customization. The only options you can set is the amount of anti-aliasing, color-depth (8-bit or 16-bit), shadow quality (enabling this forces 16-bit texture mode) and texture quality. The texture quality option was difficult to find, because of the usability of the Graphics menu. I originally wrote this review with poor marks on graphics because there appeared to be no way to change the texture quality. After digging around, you can find these hidden options (you have to use the arrow keys to scroll through the options rather than the mouse). By default, the texture setting is “low”, which makes the game look horrible. Changing it to “high” (which should be the default), makes the game look much, much better. The audio options consist of the ability to change the volume, so I’m assuming it uses the speaker settings that Windows has configured (5.1 surround in our case).
Performance
Here are the specifications of our test rig:
- Asus P5W DH-Deluxe motherboard
- Intel E6600 Core 2 Duo processor
- Asus Xonar PCIe sound card
- Logitech Z-2200 5.1 Speakers
- Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 Video Card (read our review)
- 8GB OCZ DDR2-1000 Memory
Using 8-bit or 16-bit color depth, we were able to sustain around a 50-80fps rate in the closed areas. In an open area with lots of enemies, the framerate dropped to around 20-30fps.
What about the graphics? Read the next page…
Graphics
At first I thought the graphics were set at very low quality, and I couldn’t find any options to change this. After digging around in the Graphics options, I eventually found the setting to change Texture Quality from Low to High. The usability of the graphics menu isn’t as good as it could be, because it’s not obvious that there are other graphics options. Once on the “high” setting, the graphics are actually pretty good. The models are rendered well, and the textures are well done, including the readable items like signs.
Some examples of just how bad the textures can be
Sound
The sound in Dark Athena is damn-near perfect. The voice actors are all experienced and relatively well-known, and all do a great job, making the cutscenes have a cinematic feel. The sounds are rather ambient, and the synthetic sounds are engineered as well as a Hollywood sound studio.
On the next page we render our judgement…
I won’t go into the pros and cons of PC game DRM, but it boils down to this: DRM does more to punish legitimate consumers than it does discourage piracy. The developers must be rather precocious to assume that everyone would want their game enough to protect it at this level (3 installs and you’re out). A better model would be to publish the game on Steam or Impulse, so there is no physical disc to mess with, and the DRM is tethered to your online account.
Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena has some high points, mixed with some incredible low points. On the plus side, it has very good graphics and textures (once set to “high”), excellent voice acting, and good multiplayer support. On the negative side, the game employs a pessimistic DRM policy, mediocre story, and the camera movement can make one nauseated.
Vin Diesel has a lengthy intellectual discussion with the developers about SecuROM in his game
If you haven’t played the first game, then a purchase is recommended, because the excellent prequel is included on the same disc. If you played (and loved) the first game, then you might enjoy jumping through the dark again with your familiar friend, but the harsh copy protection may be a dealbreaker for some. If the DRM matters to you, then pick up the Xbox 360 version of the game, and you’ll feel much better. The bottom line is this: Assault on Dark Athena is a decent game, but is nowhere near the level of its predacessor: Escape from Butcher Bay.
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2 Comment
After they decided to treat us like pirates with such a horrid DRM of limiting installs. And some of the screen shots I've seen on top of that fact I own the original from a few years back. I am in no way about to spend money on this game. I will not support DRM no matter how good a game might be. Atari can stick this one up their tight asses.
I own the PC version of Riddick and at first I thought that there was no way to change texture detail levels as well. However an accidental click led to the discovery of the setting (its a scrolling menu inside a scrolling menu) and once I put the textures from the default of low up to high the PC version looks much better!