The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena

Become the shadow man

Stalk the dark in The Chronicles Of Riddick: Assault On Dark Athena.

Developed by Starbreeze, The Chronicles Of Riddick: Assault On Dark Athena is a jam-packed science fiction action game that features not one, but two complete games for fans of sci-fi and Vin Diesel to get to grips with. The first game, Escape From Butcher Bay, is the original Riddick game heralded the dawn of a new and brutal videogame character in the form of Diesel's Richard B Riddick. Here, Starbreeze has taken its original game, polished the graphics to a High Definition level and added a spectacular bonus mission where players get the chance to cause havoc in a heavily armoured Mech.

Maximum security

In Escape From Butcher Bay, the blade wielding hero is sent to one of the toughest slammers in the galaxy, where he must fend off inmates, heavy handed guards and strange mutants that live deep beneath the core of this desolate prison planet. While the game plays out in first-person mode, this is first and foremost a stealth based action game where a calculated approach to defeating enemies and completing objectives is necessary.

As you progress through the story you talk to and gather information from other prisoners, quickly forming the perfect escape plan, which is the ultimate end goal in Butcher Bay. Once you start conversing with some of the prison's nefarious inmates you can also take on numerous side missions alongside your chief objectives, adding plenty of additional hours to the already lengthy combined playing time of both games.

As you progress through the game and eventually acquire Riddick's Eye Shine ability things begin to change. Now you have the ability to see in the dark and stalk your enemies much more efficiently. This element of gameplay ramps things up a notch as you scramble to the finish line for a truly memorable ending to a videogame story. Of course, once you finish Escape From Butcher Bay, Riddick's tale is far from over and the tension begins all over again as the action of Assault On Dark Athena kicks in.

In this follow-up, Riddick finds himself on a mysterious ship not long after the events of Butcher Bay with his long-time enemy, Johns, who appears in both Butcher Bay and the film Pitch Black. Once on board this vessel loaded with hardened mercenaries you soon discover an army of mindless drones patrolling its darkened corridors. Using all the skills you have gleaned from your past experience in prison you need to communicate with the ship's captives and begin crafting a plan to escape the space vessel and its twisted commander, a woman by the name of Revas.

Enemy territory

Here you'll find yourself crawling through tight vents, hiding in the shadows avoiding detection from the ship's drones and, when possible, attacking one and ultimately taking control of it as you use it to gun down hordes of enemies whose sole objective is to take you down. The action is far from over once you accomplish this tough task with the addition of multiplayer modes including deathmatch, team deathmatch, Butcher Bay Riot and Arena mode.

One of Riddick's most unique multiplayer modes is Pitch Black, where one player takes on the role of Riddick and the rest control a team of mercenaries. The twist here is that the entire mode takes place in the dark and Riddick can use his Eye Shine ability to hunt enemies who are kitted out with meagre flashlights. It's fast, furious, fun and incredibly tense from start to finish, where itchy trigger fingers and fast hands become your closest friends.

Melding both first person action with brutal hand-to-hand combat, Chronicles Of Riddick makes for an incredibly diverse gaming experience. One moment you're trailing enemies using the cover of darkness to catch them off guard, the next you're in a full-blown gunfight or stomping down the halls of a mercenary space ship in a hulking mech suit gunning down an army of gun crazy enemies. For fans of the films, this double-barrelled game brilliantly expands on the story Riddick, one of film, and now gaming's, most memorable characters in recent years. Embrace the darkness now on PS3.