The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay 2004

Is it still worth playing?

Starbreeze Studios' 2004 first person action game for the Xbox, a prequel to the film Pitch Black, in which the murderer Riddick tries to escape the maximum security prison of Butcher Bay. There is no head up display: health appears as small white boxes when you are damaged and is replenished in designated areas. Guns are rare for a long time. A DNA scanning system blocks firearms early on, so most fights are melee, with bare hands or improvised weapons such as shivs and clubs and combos made by stringing punches together. The other way through is stealth. Crouching allows silent movement, hiding, dragging bodies, dropping on enemies from above and executing them from behind, and Riddick's eyeshine lets him see in the dark but blinds him in bright areas. Fists and shadows, with guns held back, still give the escape its own tension today.