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Sat amid a swarm of at best mediocre tie-ins, and at worse soulless cash-grabs, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay stood as a gleaming inverse in a world of film adaptations. Not only was it undeniably good, but it was an adaptation of the small-budget Pitch Black, and even if you consider the at-the-time upcoming bigger-budget blockbuster set in the same universe, it's hard not to feel that the game wouldn't even exist if Vin Diesel hadn't been such a huge fan of both games and the character. Even still, it's an odd game. Equal parts Thief and Doom, Butcher Bay has you alternate between sneaking around and being the thing that men are scared of in the dark, and picking up heavy ordinance to blast away in firefights as you made your way through the complex. Somehow, it manages to be all things to all men, for the most part.
It starts with a fantasy, which seems more than a little appropriate. Riddick, brought to the prison complex in more than a few chains and shackles, escapes, kills his captor, and then goes on a spree that serves as a tutorial and a playground, showing off his psychopathic bent and acting as a high-octane opening to a game that actually starts with a slow burn. Just before you reach the shuttle that'll take you off world, you're woken up as the transport carrying you to Butcher Bay begins its landing pattern.
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