The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay is a 2004 action-adventure stealth game developed by Starbreeze Studios and Tigon Studios and published by Vivendi Universal Games. Released for the Xbox and Microsoft Windows in 2004, the game's story is a prequel to the futuristic science fiction film Pitch Black. Actor Vin Diesel—who was involved in the game's development—reprises his role as that film's protagonist, Richard B. Riddick.
The game follows Riddick, the anti-hero of the two films Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick, as he attempts to escape from a maximum-security prison called Butcher Bay. Escape from Butcher Bays designers focused on exploring Riddick's character in a prison break setting to differentiate the game from the film. The game's influences include the film Escape from Alcatraz, and video games such as Half-Life, Thief: The Dark Project, and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell.
Escape from Butcher Bay received acclaim by critics, who lauded its graphics and its implementation of stealth, action and adventure elements. Some critics consider the game superior to the film, a rarity among film tie-in games. However, they commonly lamented its brevity and lack of multiplayer components. The game is cited as one of the greatest video games ever made. It went on to win several accolades, including the Golden Joystick Award for Unsung Hero Game of the Year and the Spike Video Game Award for Best Game Based on a Movie. In 2009, the game was included in The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, with enhanced visuals.
Gameplay
thumb|left|alt=A pair of human arms with brown tape on them holding a screwdriver in the right hand. A man working on a machine, wearing a green jumpsuit and a black shirt, is in front of the arms with blood splatter on the wall to his left.|Riddick in stealth mode, preparing to stab an enemy with a screwdriver
In Escape from Butcher Bay, the player takes control of protagonist Richard B. Riddick as he attempts to break out of Butcher Bay prison. on-screen cues are limited to flashes when a new weapon is selected, By finding cigarette packs hidden in levels, the player can unlock concept art and video files. A DNA-scanning security system initially prevents Riddick from using firearms, but a limited arsenal later becomes available. Riddick eventually meets Pope Joe, for whom he retrieves a lost radio, which Joe calls a blessed voicebox. A woman named Shirah (Kristin Lehman)
In contrast to other film tie-in games, which often closely follow the events of their source material, the development team of Escape from Butcher Bay focused on differentiating the game from The Chronicles of Riddick. They sought to explore Riddick's character in a prison break setting, and took inspiration from films such as Escape from Alcatraz. Starbreeze was also inspired by video games such as GoldenEye 007 and the Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell series. The opening sequence, in which Riddick is escorted into Butcher Bay, is a tribute to Half-Life, the game's hand-to-hand combat was inspired by Punch-Out!!, and the stealth mechanics, such as hiding in the shadows and leaning, were inspired by that of Thief: The Dark Project and Deus Ex. Starbreeze focused solely on developing the game's single-player mode, and did not include multiplayer; the company believed that such a mode would require a design team twice as large and another year of development.
Vin Diesel, the lead actor of The Chronicles of Riddick, provided his voice and likeness for Riddick. He and director David Twohy also contributed to the game's plot and character design; the game's story was developed in conjunction with the film's. Per the filmmakers' instructions, the designers made the origin of Riddick's "eyeshine" vague. Diesel offered guidance to the game's lead writer during voice recording sessions; this included dialogue rewrites to reduce Riddick's lines, as Diesel believed the character spoke too often.
Starbreeze intended for Escape from Butcher Bay to feature more complex role-playing game systems, but feedback from Diesel and game testers dissuaded them. Starbreeze senior producer Peter Wanat said, "We tried to limit the number of really hard or really intricate RPG elements, and that was a choice because we wanted the game to be playable." A PlayStation 2 version that was in development was cancelled so the company could focus on the Xbox version.
The game uses normal mapping, which allows detailed textures to be drawn on models with lower polygon counts; this increases visual fidelity, without sacrificing higher frame rates. It also featured dynamic lighting with per-pixel stencil shadowing and self-shadowing.
Escape from Butcher Bay was completed in 18 months. The game was released in North America on June 1, 2004, shortly before The Chronicles of Riddick. North American pre-orders of the game included a DVD of promotional content, such as a partial interactive walkthrough and footage from the film. The game's soundtrack, composed by Gustaf Grefberg, was released by Vivendi as a free download on June 24, 2004.
Following rumors, Vivendi confirmed in July 2004 that a Windows port of Escape from Butcher Bay was in development, entitled "The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay Director's Cut". The game features a higher display resolution, additional cigarette packs, and new scenes where Riddick steals mechanized riot armor. It includes developer commentary which details the game's creation and design decisions.
Expanded remake
The audio of Escape from Butcher Bay was generally well received, In regard to the music, FiringSquad's Jakub Wojnarowicz stated, "It's not good enough to sweep you away[,] but it's also not bad enough to stick out like a sore thumb". The game's length was commonly criticized. Reviewers noted that it could be completed in eight to fifteen hours,
Sales
The Xbox version of the game had sold 159,000 units by August 2004, and was among the best-selling games on any platform during June 2004; it was later re-released as a Platinum Hits title. Conversely, the PC version sold 32,500 after six months on shelves.
In a December 2008 interview, Ian Stevens (Head of Tigon Studios) said that sales were lackluster because consumers were not "big on Vin Diesel" and "highly skeptical of a film property translating well as a video game".
Awards and accolades
Both versions of the game were given editor's choice awards from IGN, and the PC version was IGNs PC Game of the Month for December 2004. It later won GameSpots annual "Most Surprisingly Good Game" and "Best Game Based on a TV or Film Property" awards, and was a runner-up in the publication's "Best Action Adventure Game", "Best Original Music", "Best Sound Effects", "Best Story", "Best Graphics, Technical", "Best Voice Acting" and "Most Innovative Game" categories, as well as for „Game of the Year”. The editors of Computer Gaming World presented Butcher Bay with their 2004 "Action Game of the Year" award, and hailed it as "the best movie prequel ever produced". Computer Games Magazine named Escape from Butcher Bay the tenth-best computer game of 2004.
IGN later ranked Butcher Bay 12th on its list of the 25 greatest Xbox games of all time. Game Informer placed Escape from Butcher Bay as the 8th best on their list of 25 greatest Xbox games of all time. Escape from Butcher Bay was nominated for GameSpots Game of the Year award for 2004, but it lost to World of Warcraft. Computer and Video Games called the PC version the 98th best PC game of all time. Billboard's Digital Entertainment Conference nominated Riddick as its Best Character in a Game and a Golden Joystick Award for "Unsung Hero Game of the Year". GamesRadar placed Escape from Butcher Bay in their "Top 7 movie games that don't suck" list, and said that "Escape from Butcher Bay was a triumph on almost every level." In 2013, IGN ranked Escape from Butcher Bay as the 27th greatest first-person shooter of all time.
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 95%;"
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! Year !! Award !! Category !! Result !! class="unsortable" | Ref.
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| rowspan="3" align="center"| 2004
| Golden Joystick Awards
| Unsung Hero Game of the Year (Editors' Award)
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| style="text-align:center;"|
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| rowspan="2"| Spike TV's Video Game Awards
| Best Game Based on a Movie
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| style="text-align:center;"|
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| Best Performance by a Human Male <small>(Vin Diesel as Richard B. Riddick)</small>
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| rowspan="4" align="center"| 2005
| rowspan="2"| 8th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards
| Console First-Person Action Game of the Year
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| rowspan="2" style="text-align:center;"|
|-
| Outstanding Character Performance - Male <small>(Vin Diesel as Riddick)</small>
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| rowspan="2"| 2nd British Academy Video Games Awards
| Action Game
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| style="text-align:center;"|
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| Xbox
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|}