Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4969 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Sierra
• Released on: 2006-03-17
• Platform: Windows XP

Customer Reviews

A first-person shooter with a difference
Set before the events of Pitch Black and the Chronicles of Riddick, as Riddick you find yourself incarcerated in Butcher Bay, one of the many prisons scattered around the local area. As Richard B Riddick made it quite clear in the movies, he just wants to be left alone! Obviously a prison is a bit too busy to give him the space he needs, so he must escape. Unfortunately, you're not able to simply grab a gun and shoot your way through the guards and out into the open air. The guns at butcher bay are DNA encoded so you have to be registered on the central database before you can even touch a gun. Instead you have to mingle with the other inmates, find out who needs what and who can help you manipulate the system.

The game involves a lot of sneaking, melee combat and some occasional shooting. At one point in the game Riddick gets a helping hand from a preacher who performs an "eyeshine job" on him, allowing you to see in the dark. Aside from being a cool gimmick it does give you an advantage when sneaking around the air ducts and tunnels and it adds yet another slant to the gameplay.

This was originally an Xbox exclusive but it was ported onto the PC a few months later in a slightly different form. You see, this is the "directors cut", so some levels are very different, some are completely new and one of them is a complete hoot. You get the opportunity to don a Riot Guard suit and wander around the halls letting rip with the mounted guns!

You may not know this but Vin Diesel has his own computer game company called Tigon Studios and they had a considerable hand in the making of this game, so Vin provides his own voice and his likeness to the game's character. The rapper Xzibit (pimp my ride) stars as the voice of Abbott the head guard, Dwight Shultz (Murdock from the A-Team!), Cole Hauser and Ron Perlman (Hellboy) also make an appearance.

Technically this game is "getting on a bit", so you won't find Oblivion-like visuals here. What you will find is a decent looking, oppressive environment with plenty of atmosphere. Add this to the fact that this isn't your everyday run-of-the-mill first person shooter and you have an incredible gaming experience.

The minimum specs are a P4 1.8 or AMD equivalent, 256mb RAM, 4gb HD space and a Geforce3 or ATI Radeon 8500 or better. I'd recommend an Athlon 3200 (or P4 3.2) with 1gb RAM and a Geforce 6600GT or better to get the best out of it.

WOW! For under a fiver it is hard to beat!
I was tempted by the low price Riddick sells for now, and Boy! was I pleasantly surprised. My PC easily pushed the graphics to the limit and it looked gorgeous - fast too! Great gameplay (if you like FPS), best game I've played in ages (inc. Half Life 2, Crysis, etc.) Those Swedes put a lot of effort into it and it shows.