And now the second part of my review of Chronicles of Riddick. This will not only be the story of Assault on Dark Athena, but I will also tell you about some features that I forgot to mention in the previous review.
Assault on Dark Athena (AoDA) starts from where Escape from Butcher Bay ends. You managed to escape the desert planet and went into cryo sleep. You first have to complete a tutorial level, just like in Escape from Butcher Bay. The intro shows your ship being dragged in by the Dark Athena, but not before the main character, Riddick, awakes and hides. Johns, the merc who originally took Riddick to the Butcher Bay prison for a bounty, helped him escape to avoid becoming a prisoner himself, is still in cryo sleep. Your ship is boarded and you get a first look of the enemies you are up against. John is taken aboard the Dark Athena and taken prison. This is the point where the game really begins. You will fight your way to freedom not only inside the ship, but you will also be running, sneaking and blasting your way on the surface of the planet the Dark Athena is orbiting and on the exterior of the ship in a mech. During your ‘mission’ to get off the ship, you meet a small child, named Lynn, who is hiding from Dark Athena’s guard and meet various characters in the cells of the ship. You will have to do some tasks for them to advance in the game. But that’s only in the beginning of the game, later on you will never see them again, only the child. There’s one thing I want to mention before I conclude the part of the story. You will see different kinds of guards in AoDA. These guards are humans stuffed with cybernetic hardware and called drones. Drones have no free will. To be more accurate they have no conscious and are being kept alive by implants. They can be controlled by the ship’s real crew remotely. And if not controlled they just patrol the area.
A feature that is also present in EfBB (Escape from Butcher Bay) are the side quests. If you completed a quest in EfBB, you get a special item or money as a reward. In AoDA you don’t receive anything in-game, but when playing it on the ps3 you get a trophy for completing them. This feature is more apparent in EfBB.
The level design of the game is once again done great with enough options to sneak around, though some levels are a pain to get through undetected. Though not everything is good in the game. The lip sync in the game is not done properly, creating some weird moments in the game. Also the AI is stupid and surprisingly alert. It tends to run away from you in fire fights or get right on top of you, without considering taking cover. And with alert I mean that they can spot you in the most impossible ways. To sketch a situation, let’s say a drone/guard is standing with his back towards you and you are standing in the shadows. The moment you get clear of the shadow it spots you. That alert the AI can be. Something else that is pretty cool, that is also present in EfBB, is the close quarters combat. Sometimes there are moments where you perform a special move. This can be breaking the neck of a guard or cutting them open. After a hundred kills it never gets old, but that’s my opinion. It acts as a pressure release valve, really.
And where would a game be without collectables. In EfBB you have to find packs of cigarettes and in AoDA it’s replaced with bounty cards. When you collected one of them, you get some concept art. And if you manage to find them all, you get a well deserved trophy, when playing on the ps3 ofcourse.
To finish the final part of the review, I had a lot of fun playing this game. There were some moments where I went berserk thanks to the incredible AI, but the shooting and the sneaking around made me forget it fast. So if you are a fan of Riddick, Vin Diesel or you just like to sneak around and killing people, you will probably like this game.
Assault on Dark Athena (AoDA) starts from where Escape from Butcher Bay ends. You managed to escape the desert planet and went into cryo sleep. You first have to complete a tutorial level, just like in Escape from Butcher Bay. The intro shows your ship being dragged in by the Dark Athena, but not before the main character, Riddick, awakes and hides. Johns, the merc who originally took Riddick to the Butcher Bay prison for a bounty, helped him escape to avoid becoming a prisoner himself, is still in cryo sleep. Your ship is boarded and you get a first look of the enemies you are up against. John is taken aboard the Dark Athena and taken prison. This is the point where the game really begins. You will fight your way to freedom not only inside the ship, but you will also be running, sneaking and blasting your way on the surface of the planet the Dark Athena is orbiting and on the exterior of the ship in a mech. During your ‘mission’ to get off the ship, you meet a small child, named Lynn, who is hiding from Dark Athena’s guard and meet various characters in the cells of the ship. You will have to do some tasks for them to advance in the game. But that’s only in the beginning of the game, later on you will never see them again, only the child. There’s one thing I want to mention before I conclude the part of the story. You will see different kinds of guards in AoDA. These guards are humans stuffed with cybernetic hardware and called drones. Drones have no free will. To be more accurate they have no conscious and are being kept alive by implants. They can be controlled by the ship’s real crew remotely. And if not controlled they just patrol the area.
A feature that is also present in EfBB (Escape from Butcher Bay) are the side quests. If you completed a quest in EfBB, you get a special item or money as a reward. In AoDA you don’t receive anything in-game, but when playing it on the ps3 you get a trophy for completing them. This feature is more apparent in EfBB.
The level design of the game is once again done great with enough options to sneak around, though some levels are a pain to get through undetected. Though not everything is good in the game. The lip sync in the game is not done properly, creating some weird moments in the game. Also the AI is stupid and surprisingly alert. It tends to run away from you in fire fights or get right on top of you, without considering taking cover. And with alert I mean that they can spot you in the most impossible ways. To sketch a situation, let’s say a drone/guard is standing with his back towards you and you are standing in the shadows. The moment you get clear of the shadow it spots you. That alert the AI can be. Something else that is pretty cool, that is also present in EfBB, is the close quarters combat. Sometimes there are moments where you perform a special move. This can be breaking the neck of a guard or cutting them open. After a hundred kills it never gets old, but that’s my opinion. It acts as a pressure release valve, really.
And where would a game be without collectables. In EfBB you have to find packs of cigarettes and in AoDA it’s replaced with bounty cards. When you collected one of them, you get some concept art. And if you manage to find them all, you get a well deserved trophy, when playing on the ps3 ofcourse.
To finish the final part of the review, I had a lot of fun playing this game. There were some moments where I went berserk thanks to the incredible AI, but the shooting and the sneaking around made me forget it fast. So if you are a fan of Riddick, Vin Diesel or you just like to sneak around and killing people, you will probably like this game.
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