The franchise around Riddick is somewhat confusing. The first movie Pitch Black was pretty good. The second movie The Chronicles of Riddick was not. The game The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay was not based on the second movie and in fact the game was very good. It had innovative gameplay, a decent story and graphics that set the bar for all the other games in the PS2/Xbox generation. The developers had to do some tricky programming in order to get the best performance from the Xbox, which is why they couldn’t just simply port it to the Xbox 360. Despite being one of the best games of the last generation, this game was dropped in the Activision/Vivendi/Blizzard threesome.

Lets get one thing straight here, Assault on Dark Athena is not Escape from Butcher Bay 1.5, this isn’t just a port. The game includes the campaign of Butcher Bay and also a whole new campaign in the huge space ship Dark Athena. The best new mode in this game may be the multiplayer. It has the typical deathmatch and team deathmatch mode, but also has the new Pitch Black mode which looks like a lot of fun.

The demo is probably not a very accurate representation of the game. It felt like they were trying to show off the new features of the Dark Athena campaign by putting you in action heavy sequences, but they left off the best parts of the old game. Escape from Butcher Bay and Assault on Dark Athena play pretty much the same way. It is a first person action game where more importance is placed on melee combat rather than guns. The stealth mechanic is great and Riddick’s “eyeshine” ability makes stalking fun. The reason Butcher Bay was a great game was because it made stealth and melee combat enjoyable. A significant portion of the old game had to be played with no guns, and you had to rely on the stealth and makeshift knives to survive. Weapons range from your fists, shivs and screwdrivers to assault riffles and shotguns.

In the demo the melee combat is dumbed down to just button mashing, and guns are plentiful. You can control humanoid robotic drones through computer terminals. These drones are just cannon fodder which you use to get through obstacles and clear rooms of enemies. The voice acting feels artificial, but the story was never the game’s strongest point. It just gives you enough motivation to get through the levels.

Personally I am looking forward to this game even though the demo was not very good. It will be interesting to see whether Dark Athena takes the FPS melee combat to another level or whether it will still be the same. The Riddick franchise has been better represented in video games than in the movies. The developers certainly have a good track record and the Pitch Black mode should keep people busy for a while.