Assault on Dark Athena Hands-On

Richard B. Riddick is one enigmatic guy. He's a self-confessed ruthless killer, yet he often finds himself at odds with the bad guys. But whether he's a sinner or a saint, he's a bad enough dude that most sensible people keep their distance from him and his Ulak Blades. We recently got a chance to play through early portions of The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, the part-sequel-part-remake of 2004's Escape from Butcher Bay game, and we were not disappointed by his combat prowess one bit.

Riddick's lethal with, well, just about anything.

As in Butcher Bay, stealth is still the way to go, and sneaking up behind your enemies with one of the numerous melee weapons you obtain throughout your journey results in an incredibly savage yet disturbingly satisfying execution. To aid your clandestine operations, you can toggle Riddick's "eye-shine" at the touch of a button, which amplifies ambient light in darker areas to make things more visible. Just make sure you don't run out into bright lights without your goggles on though, or you'll be temporarily blinded.

How not to be stealthy.

Many of the enemies you encounter are drones--human bodies retrofitted with machinery to turn them into mindless, well, drones--and they've got powerful guns built right into their arms. You can't remove these weapons, but you can drag their corpses around with you for some semi-portable firepower, and this tactic is actually used to solve some puzzles. You will find several proper guns though, including a handy stun gun, which knocks a merc or a drone out long enough to be finished off with one of Riddick's stylish executions.

It's not all shivs and shanks in Assault on Dark Athena.

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is coming out in March of this year on PS3and Xbox 360. For more details, be sure to check out our more extensive previews of the single-player campaign and the multiplayer madness.