Others say...

"Riddick Slays the Typical Action Game"
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay on Xbox is not just a really long title. It's a very challenging game that makes you think. You can play two ways. Either go for stealth and take enemies out quietly in true Riddick fashion (See Pitch Black or Chronicles of Riddick on DVD for examples), or you can go all-out-who-cares and just kill everyone you see. No, this isn't meant for kids, and five minutes into the gameplay you'll know why. You'll see realistic shadow effects, clever environmental tactics and a nicely brutal world built for the characters Vin Deisel plays. The acting is also incredible and up to par with the movies of the series. For a stealth action game that lets you be a bad-a**, you can't go wrong here.

"My Opinion is Simple"
I thought the visuals and voice acting in the game were awesome. The story line is out of control and the character(s) development is great. But I gotta say, this game style just isn't my cup of tea. To me it had very "jump through the hoops" style of game play. Walk up to the box and stand in the right place and push a specific button to climb the box which leads you to a pipe you have to crawl across...and it is the only way to get where you need to go. On top of it, having to sneak around everywhere kills me in games. I hate it when you have to sneak around games where failure to stay hidden results in almost instant death. A huge portion of this game is a sneak or die scenario. Add to it the timed missions and you've successfully lost me. But I am a rare bread of gamer, this game is very good and I would recommend it to anyone (with the aforementioned warnings of course). I give the game a good rating because it is fun, it just lost my interest at what I would assume was the half way mark.

"Great Fun, Violent, but Short"
The Chronicles of Riddick : Escape From Butcher Bay lets fans of Pitch Black and The Chronicles Of Riddick expand the storyline. This takes place before those two movies - and you're fighting your way out of prison.

First, let's point out the MATURE rating and that this involves very nasty prison fighting. Parents who are buying this for young teens who enjoy the relatively mild movies might be in for a shock. Please keep in mind that the game was made and is rated for a mature audience. They did that for a reason.

Now, if you're a mature game player who doesn't mind blood and violence, you're in for a treat. Vin Diesel may not be a hallowed Shakespearian actor, but he does have his great moments, and his acting and voice work on this game are dead on. His nuances and movements translate extremely well into the gameplay. You really do feel like you're taking part in a "new movie". I find this much more satisfying than to replay scenes in an existing movie, when you know what is going to happen. By making this a prequel, you actually care about what is happening and wonder what's going to go on next. The plot does get you intrigued.

The gameplay is what you'd probably expect from an "escape from prison" type of a game - sneaking around, killing off enemies, solving puzzles to get past this door or that obstacle. Riddick can of course see in the dark, which gives some fun new twists on the usual progress of the game. The graphics are really quite nice, so your peering and sneaking don't involve trying to figure out which pixel is supposed to represent a light switch.

On the downside, they didn't develop out a long, complex storyline here. You can probably finish the game in a weekend if you spend the time playing it. With all the games out there for the same price that you can play for months and months, it seems a bit odd that a modern gamemaker would put out a game that is this short. Once they have the "hard work" done - designing the interface, designing the models for the characters - then creating new levels and dialogue is really very easy. If they'd spent another month or so on fleshing out the game, it would have been superb.

Maybe next time?

"Almost great"
I thought this game was brimming with potential. I thought the game looked awesome, very sharp graphics. Even some of the gameplay was neat at first. But I realized, through the game I didn't feel like Riddick at all. I didn't feel smooth, and sly, like some kind of predator or even monster.
What it really boiled down to me was a sub-par shooter with RPG elements mixed in, and horrible stealth play. Now the story itself isn't involving, but what's involving is the fact you get to be Riddick, but I don't feel that Riddick would just run down some hallways shooting a bunch of guards. When I tried to play all stealthy, which works some times, I usually failed and had to run away and get all shot up. I usually do great at stealth games too, I like the character Riddick, but it really isn't presented very well in this game.
What I did like was Vin Deisel's voice acting, which really made the attitude for the game and the character, but the way you have to play through the action parts reminds me of simple DOOM play, not Riddick at all. I really wanted to sneak up on suckers and stick em' or slash em' leaving them in a heap at my feet, but sadly, no, you get seen and annoying "running like a wimp" ensues. When you compare the shooting parts, it's really lame compared to Doom 3 or Half life 2, save yourself the money and letdown and go buy a complete title like those instead, they're longer anyway and give more bang for the buck.

"F*#!%NG GAME"
I love the Riddick movies & so does my young son; the language is a little dicy sometimes, but my son is pretty responsible and knows not to emulate it (particularly around other kids, or at school, or in public, etc). I'm super proud of him (that's why I let him watch things like these movies sometimes - Riddick is pretty much of a good guy). After checking the game out for a minute or two before I could get upstairs to join him, he told me that he thought the bad language was a bit over-used; way more than represented in the movies. Unfortunately, he was right. It's in the top of the closet now (but I'm sure it's a great game). We both sad; we were really psyched to get it. I really like the Riddick character, and the movies...and Vin Diesel even; but this game has too much unnecessary foul language in it, even for me...and after all, the games (for the most part) are supposed to be for kids, right? With that in mind, I'd skip this one; maybe the next one wlll have better game AND not have to be constantly dropping the "F-Bomb" all over the f-ing place...sorry.