Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena Review

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.

Melee combat

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.

“Tomb Raider” moments

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.

Sneaking in for a kill

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…