(As appeared in DNA, Bangalore on May 23)

Guns? Check. Attitude? Check. Sharp curved blades thirsty for blood aka Ulaks? Check. Expressionless face and a grumpy voice? Double check. Then press C to crouch and carefully tread your way into the unforgiving world of Chronicles of Riddick – Assault on Dark Athena.
Assault on Dark Athena is a sequel to Chronicles of Riddick – Escape from Butcher Bay, which is a part of a series of Chronicle of Riddick movies and games brought out over the years, which has Vin Diesel playing the protagonist. The game takes forward the story of Richard B Riddick, a remorseless killer and one of the most feared criminals.
The game begins with his spaceship being dragged into a ship controlled by the mercenaries (mercs) called Dark Athena. On the ship, he meets a young girl, Lynn, who is searching for her parents, who were captured by the mercs. Along with Lynn and other hostages held by the mercs, Riddick finds his way to Revas, the leader of the mercs and the controller of the ship.
Riddick just does what he wants to and listens to none unless they offer him their soul or something very valuable in exchange. How good you find the game depends on what you’re looking to get from it — the gameplay surrounding stealth or the adrenaline rush of action. Depending on these, it can either be a disappointment or a break from the past. One moment  you are embracing the darkness waiting for the enemy to step into the shadow. The very next moment you are spraying bullets like a maniac to fight away hoards of drones (soldiers pieced together from dead bodies and brought to life by chips) and mercs.
The first game in the series, Escape from  Butcher Bay, was pretty much a stealth game. Dark Athena, however, feels more like an action game with the player provided with massive ammo — guns and heavy artillery — quite early on in the game.
Once you have killed the drones, you can use the guns attached to their bodies, to gun down any other drone soldier who might turn up to check on the commotion. Now, that’s all-out action. Darkness just adds to the visual appeal of the game and provides cover for little Lynn and provides no advantage, as such, for Mr Riddick.
What made Escape from Butcher Bay such a big hit on Xbox, was the quality of its gameplay. The developers managed to add some depth to the game with sub-missions which came from prisoners who inhibited the Butcher Bay, one of the most high security prisons in the game universe.
Assault on Dark Athena, in that sense, feels hollow. There’s no need to do all the sneaking around you were forced to do in the earlier version. This time, you’re loaded, and how! With enough ammo to back you, there’s no stopping your getting ahead. What’s more, later in the game, you also get access to Scar gun, and then you can forget about ammo altogether. The Scar gun fires suppressed gas balls, which attaches itself to any object that comes in the trajectory. It stays stuck to the object till you decide when it should explode. So with such a gun, small obstacles like crates and drones become non-issues. The only issue will be surviving the moment.
The enemies are hardly a challenge in the beginning. But as you progress, you will come across a few who will require more than sharp shooting to kill. The toughest ones are the spider drones, which look like surveillance cameras, but can cause severe damage with its laser precision shooting.
For those who haven’t played the original, the Assault on Dark Athena comes with the revamped version of the original game. So it would be better for newbies to start with Butcher Bay before they try out Dark Athena. It not only fills you in on Riddick’s life, but also gives you a better taste of skills and gameplay. Unlike the action-packed movies, the game is more enjoyable and challenging if you try to adopt the stealth method. The multiplayer-options of the game deserve special mention. Apart from options like ‘deathmatch’, ‘team deathmatch’ and ‘capture the flag’ — which are now the staple diet of multiplayer — the game offers two more intriguing options in the form of ‘pitch black’ and ‘riots at Butcher Bay’. ‘Pitch black’ takes the cake for the most interesting of the lot. You can play the game as a merc or as Riddick. If you opt to play as Riddick, you are left with only ulaks, to fight your way past mercs who will be armed with some heavy artillery available at their base. Riddick starts on a lower level and in pitch darkness.
Overall, the game is an enjoyable experience and the fact that it comes packed with two games makes it a good value proposition. The gameplay is as amazing as the storyline, and you will enjoy the multiplayer too, provided you get someone to match up with.

Rating: 4/5

Developers: Starbreeze
Distributor: Milestone Interactive
Reviewed on: PC (Rs999)
Available for: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC
Age-Rating: 16+ (PEGI)