Then there’s the bad, for some strange reason the game utilizes this amazingly nauseating blur effect. It’s not the kind that appeared in
Need For Speed Underground where everything is coated in sort of a surreal look, it’s more of a blur effect that comes with a display at a low resolution. Objects look great when you get close but look absolutely muddled and indistinguishable from a distance. Everything beyond five feet looks as if it were rendered at 640x480 (in PC terms at least) while everything up close looks to be in 800x600. There’s also an amazing amount of problems with the aliasing and texture flickering. Stand still for a bit and you begin to notice the absurd amount of “jaggies” in the game. Take a closer look and you begin to notice all of the texture flickering that goes on. There seems to be a problem with the default gamma settings as well. Everything looks far too dark and when a light source does appear it has a sort of surrealistic washed out halo surround it, the kind of look you get when the brightness is turned up too high. Contrasting the amazing bump mapping of the metallic and tiled surfaces is the mundane textures for the brick walls and floors. It’s not unusual to see a flat stone wall with a beautifully rendered metallic plate sitting in the middle of it. Usually this is the time when you realize just how far apart those entities reside on the graphical ends of the spectrum.
Almost every Xbox game features Dolby Digital 5.1 support in some way or another but developers rarely utilize the capabilities to the fullest potential. Starbreeze does a rather admirable job of providing gamers with an immersive atmosphere. Early on in the prison you’ll hear screams, conversations and noises echoing from all sides of the prison. In gunfights you’ll hear gunfire emanate from the front and ricochet behind you as it hits fixtures and objects. Vivendi and Starbreeze even managed to secure a pretty high-profile voice actors to fill its cast. In addition to Vin Diesel, the game features the voices of Xzhibit and Ron Perlman (aka Hellboy). All of the lines are delivered quite nicely as we never got the sense that the dialogue was rushed or disjointed. Vin himself delivers his usual tour de force performance of grunts groans and the all-exciting “ughs!” Overall we’re pretty impressed with the aural portions of the game.
Pitch Black fans will be happy to know that the game is packed to the nines with unlockables and extras. These goodies come in the forms of packs of cigarettes which each contain an extra bonus item about the game or the universe. This includes nifty things like artwork and other unique features that will get the fanboys riled up. It's nothing amazing but it's a great way to toss a bone to all of the Pitch Black geeks out there.
This is one of those rare instances where the game is actually better than the source material of which it was based upon.
Chronicles of Riddick literally came out of nowhere to mesmerize us with its polished gameplay, immersive plot and unique gameplay elements. If you’re looking to pick up an excellent action game then look no further than Riddick. It’s not just one of the best games to come out this year; it’s one of the best Xbox games ever made.
A-
Without a doubt, one of the year’s best titles. If you own an Xbox, you simply must own The Chronicles of Riddick. Forget about the movie, put that eight bucks towards this surprise hit.
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