The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
Encyclopedia
The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is a science fiction
first-person action game
for Microsoft Windows
, PlayStation 3
, Xbox 360
and Mac OS X
. The game is a sequel to The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
, which has been remade and has been included along with the Assault on Dark Athena campaign. The game was released on April 7, 2009. A demo was released on Xbox Live
on March 4, 2009, with a PlayStation Network release following on March 12, 2009. Virtual Programming released the Mac OS X version on April 16, 2010 as a download through Deliver2Mac.com and other digital distribution web sites.
The game was developed by Starbreeze Studios
and published by Atari
. According to Ian Stevens, Head of Production at Tigon Studios
, the decision to do a remake was because Microsoft
could not make the Xbox 360 backward compatible with Escape from Butcher Bay, and because they wanted to get the Escape story to a larger audience before progressing further.
Dark Athena has improved graphics and AI
from Butcher Bay along with the addition of a multiplayer mode. The single player mode has also been expanded to include Riddick escaping onto a mercenary ship called Dark Athena.
Vin Diesel
, the voice and likeness of the title character, was involved in the production of Assault on Dark Athena.
had announced that The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena along with eight other games in development had been dropped by Activision Blizzard, putting the future of the game into question.
However, on September 24, 2008, StarBreeze Studios confirmed that The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena was nearing completion and were in the process of looking for a publisher to publish the game. In October 2008 Atari
announced they would publish Riddick.
While the fate of Riddick was up in the air, Starbreeze reportedly kept working, and generated enough content by December 2008 to make Dark Athena, for all intents and purposes, a sequel to their earlier work.
) and her second in command, Spinner. Riddick avoids capture as Revas and her men take Johns away. Using the same stealth tactics as he did in Butcher Bay, Riddick sneaks and hides throughout the ship seeking to escape, killing the guards and mercenaries he encounters along the way. Many of the guards are automated drones that are human bodies with implanted machine parts, controlled remotely from within the ship.
He meets with a little girl named Lynn who is hiding from the guards in the air vent systems. Riddick makes his way to the prison cells and finds several people captured, including the former Captain of the Dark Athena before Revas took control. There he meets Lynn's mother, Ellen Silverman. She offers to make Riddick the tools he needs to escape through the air vents if he can get the right parts. She also asks to find Lynn because she is concerned for her safety. Another prisoner named Dacher (voiced by Lance Henriksen
) offers his technical skills to help Riddick escape on a ship and unlock doors for him if Riddick can find him a com link. He agrees and finds the com link for Dacher and the parts for Silverman. Having again met with Lynn, Silverman keeps her word and makes him the tool he needs. Riddick moves on and is in contact with Dacher via video communication at computer terminals on the ship. Riddick frees the prisoners but most are killed, including Lynn's mother Silverman. Revas kills Dacher as he prepares the ship for their escape. Riddick finally meets Revas face to face. As they fight, he wounds her severely and she is thought to be dead. As he is preparing an escape pod to take off, Lynn is pounding on the door begging to take her with him. Revas, who is still alive as Riddick's pod takes off, fires a missile that hits the pod, causing it to crash on the planet Aguerra Prime below.
Riddick wakes up on the shore of a beach and he makes his way into an abandoned city. The planet is under siege from Revas' troops who are capturing civilians and harvesting their bodies to use for their drones. Riddick realizes his only way off the planet is to get back on the Dark Athena again. He makes his way through the city and back to the port where the Athena is docked. Spinner attacks Riddick in a robotic mech suit but is defeated. He gets back onto the Dark Athena and meets Lynn again. She tells Riddick her mother taught her how to make the drones turn on Revas' crew and attack them instead. Fighting ensues on the ship between the drones and the mercenaries. He makes his way up the ship and Riddick meets with Revas again, who is in a suit of armor with heavy weapons. He defeats her by pushing her into an elevator shaft and she falls to her death. Lynn meets up with him and they are seen going into the elevator. She asks him if Revas is coming back, and Riddick answers "When I say goodbye, it's forever." Then the credits roll.
praised the game for its voice acting and stated that "You may not hear better voice acting all year: It's that good." However, the game lost favour in AI and multiplayer.
1UP.com
criticized the game for having very poor AI, citing that the player can be spotted even if he is not directly seen by the guards. Simply firing or exposing yourself will attract the enemy, regardless of whether they can see you or not. 1UP also pointed out that enemy AI will move away from the player's fire even if the attack is from behind.
Despite the criticism of the multiplayer, Gaming-Age praised the game's "Pitch Black" mode, citing that "Pitch Black, though, is easily the best aspect about the multiplayer." Game Informer
said the game was better than Escape from Butcher Bay
, the first game. They also praised the voice acting, stating that "Diesel's gravelly voice will rattle your living room when gunfire and explosions calm down." Hyper
s Daniel Wilks commends the game as "an effortless combination of stealth and action" but criticises it for the "HD facelift" and "the lip sync
hing is terrible".
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
first-person action game
Action game
Action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes diverse subgenres such as fighting games, shooter games, and platform games, which are widely considered the most important action games, though some...
for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
, Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
and Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
. The game is a sequel to The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay is a first-person action/stealth video game developed by Starbreeze Studios and published by Vivendi Games. Released for the Xbox and Windows in 2004, the game is a tie-in prequel to the futuristic science fiction film The Chronicles of Riddick...
, which has been remade and has been included along with the Assault on Dark Athena campaign. The game was released on April 7, 2009. A demo was released on Xbox Live
Xbox Live
Xbox Live is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft Corporation. It is currently the only online gaming service on consoles that charges users a fee to play multiplayer gaming. It was first made available to the Xbox system in 2002...
on March 4, 2009, with a PlayStation Network release following on March 12, 2009. Virtual Programming released the Mac OS X version on April 16, 2010 as a download through Deliver2Mac.com and other digital distribution web sites.
The game was developed by Starbreeze Studios
Starbreeze Studios
Starbreeze Studios is a video game development studio founded by members of the demo group Triton, based in Uppsala, Sweden.-History:The company was founded in 1998, under the name O3 Games. In 2000, O3 Games merged with the smaller company Starbreeze Studios which was then based in Härnösand, Sweden...
and published by Atari
Atari
Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
. According to Ian Stevens, Head of Production at Tigon Studios
Tigon Studios
Tigon Studios is a video game production company owned by One Race Films focused primarily on games featuring or starring actor Vin Diesel, who also founded the company.-The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay:...
, the decision to do a remake was because Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
could not make the Xbox 360 backward compatible with Escape from Butcher Bay, and because they wanted to get the Escape story to a larger audience before progressing further.
Dark Athena has improved graphics and AI
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
from Butcher Bay along with the addition of a multiplayer mode. The single player mode has also been expanded to include Riddick escaping onto a mercenary ship called Dark Athena.
Vin Diesel
Vin Diesel
Vin Diesel is an American actor, writer, director and producer. He became known in the early 2000s, appearing in several successful Hollywood films, including The Fast and the Furious and xXx...
, the voice and likeness of the title character, was involved in the production of Assault on Dark Athena.
Development
The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena was originally announced on May 22, 2007 as a remake of Escape from Butcher Bay with Assault on Dark Athena serving as a "bonus chapter". On July 29, 2008, Activision BlizzardActivision Blizzard
Activision Blizzard, Inc., formerly Activision, Inc. is the American holding company for Activision and Blizzard Entertainment. The company is majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA and was created through the merger of Activision and Vivendi Games, announced on December 2, 2007, in a...
had announced that The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena along with eight other games in development had been dropped by Activision Blizzard, putting the future of the game into question.
However, on September 24, 2008, StarBreeze Studios confirmed that The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena was nearing completion and were in the process of looking for a publisher to publish the game. In October 2008 Atari
Atari
Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
announced they would publish Riddick.
While the fate of Riddick was up in the air, Starbreeze reportedly kept working, and generated enough content by December 2008 to make Dark Athena, for all intents and purposes, a sequel to their earlier work.
Plot
The game picks up where Escape from Butcher Bay left off. Richard B. Riddick is a dangerous space criminal who can see in the dark. Johns, the man who originally took Riddick to the Butcher Bay prison for a bounty, helped him escape to avoid becoming a prisoner himself. On their ship together in a cryogenic sleep, they are dragged unwillingly into the Dark Athena, a gigantic mercenary vessel run by Gale Revas (voiced by Michelle ForbesMichelle Forbes
Michelle Renee Forbes Guajardo , known professionally as Michelle Forbes, is an American actress who has built a career of work in television and independent film and has acted in productions in both the United States and in the United Kingdom...
) and her second in command, Spinner. Riddick avoids capture as Revas and her men take Johns away. Using the same stealth tactics as he did in Butcher Bay, Riddick sneaks and hides throughout the ship seeking to escape, killing the guards and mercenaries he encounters along the way. Many of the guards are automated drones that are human bodies with implanted machine parts, controlled remotely from within the ship.
He meets with a little girl named Lynn who is hiding from the guards in the air vent systems. Riddick makes his way to the prison cells and finds several people captured, including the former Captain of the Dark Athena before Revas took control. There he meets Lynn's mother, Ellen Silverman. She offers to make Riddick the tools he needs to escape through the air vents if he can get the right parts. She also asks to find Lynn because she is concerned for her safety. Another prisoner named Dacher (voiced by Lance Henriksen
Lance Henriksen
Lance James Henriksen is an American actor and artist best known to film and television audiences for his roles in science fiction, action, and horror films such as the Alien film franchise, and on television shows such as Millennium....
) offers his technical skills to help Riddick escape on a ship and unlock doors for him if Riddick can find him a com link. He agrees and finds the com link for Dacher and the parts for Silverman. Having again met with Lynn, Silverman keeps her word and makes him the tool he needs. Riddick moves on and is in contact with Dacher via video communication at computer terminals on the ship. Riddick frees the prisoners but most are killed, including Lynn's mother Silverman. Revas kills Dacher as he prepares the ship for their escape. Riddick finally meets Revas face to face. As they fight, he wounds her severely and she is thought to be dead. As he is preparing an escape pod to take off, Lynn is pounding on the door begging to take her with him. Revas, who is still alive as Riddick's pod takes off, fires a missile that hits the pod, causing it to crash on the planet Aguerra Prime below.
Riddick wakes up on the shore of a beach and he makes his way into an abandoned city. The planet is under siege from Revas' troops who are capturing civilians and harvesting their bodies to use for their drones. Riddick realizes his only way off the planet is to get back on the Dark Athena again. He makes his way through the city and back to the port where the Athena is docked. Spinner attacks Riddick in a robotic mech suit but is defeated. He gets back onto the Dark Athena and meets Lynn again. She tells Riddick her mother taught her how to make the drones turn on Revas' crew and attack them instead. Fighting ensues on the ship between the drones and the mercenaries. He makes his way up the ship and Riddick meets with Revas again, who is in a suit of armor with heavy weapons. He defeats her by pushing her into an elevator shaft and she falls to her death. Lynn meets up with him and they are seen going into the elevator. She asks him if Revas is coming back, and Riddick answers "When I say goodbye, it's forever." Then the credits roll.
Reception
The game received positive reviews, citing voice acting and the use of shadows as its strongest point. GameSpotGameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
praised the game for its voice acting and stated that "You may not hear better voice acting all year: It's that good." However, the game lost favour in AI and multiplayer.
1UP.com
1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
criticized the game for having very poor AI, citing that the player can be spotted even if he is not directly seen by the guards. Simply firing or exposing yourself will attract the enemy, regardless of whether they can see you or not. 1UP also pointed out that enemy AI will move away from the player's fire even if the attack is from behind.
Despite the criticism of the multiplayer, Gaming-Age praised the game's "Pitch Black" mode, citing that "Pitch Black, though, is easily the best aspect about the multiplayer." Game Informer
Game Informer
Game Informer is an American-based monthly magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of popular video games and associated consoles. It was formed in August 1991, when FuncoLand started publishing a six-page magazine, free in all its retail locations...
said the game was better than Escape from Butcher Bay
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay is a first-person action/stealth video game developed by Starbreeze Studios and published by Vivendi Games. Released for the Xbox and Windows in 2004, the game is a tie-in prequel to the futuristic science fiction film The Chronicles of Riddick...
, the first game. They also praised the voice acting, stating that "Diesel's gravelly voice will rattle your living room when gunfire and explosions calm down." Hyper
Hyper (magazine)
Hyper is a multi-platform Australian video game magazine. Australia's longest running gaming magazine, it has been in publication since 1993, and was released the same month as the better known UK magazine Edge...
s Daniel Wilks commends the game as "an effortless combination of stealth and action" but criticises it for the "HD facelift" and "the lip sync
Lip sync
Lip sync, lip-sync, lip-synch is a technical term for matching lip movements with sung or spoken vocals...
hing is terrible".