Dark Athena Will Please Fans Of The Films, But Not Many Else.
In a post Modern Warfare world of First Person Shooters, it is becoming incredibly hard for up and coming franchises to hold their own against the heavy weights. The latest offering from the Riddick fiction, Assault on Dark Athena, proves to be just another victim in a long list of coming close, but not quite close enough. Even with a strong presentation, and added incentives, this title fails to attract anything more then fans of the series. All that being said however, this game does a fine bit of fan service for those who are loyal.
Dark Athena is not a bad game. It succeeds in the most important aspect of a video game, which is to satisfy. Fans of the Riddick movies will enjoy playing as the dark protagonist. Just as it is in the films, Riddick is limited to very short and precise conversation. Usually you would want dynamic conversation in your gaming experience, but this is really exactly how the dialogue should be. As everyone knows, Riddick isn’t one for long-winded speeches. Aside from Vin’s excellent voice talents, the game features a solid supporting cast and some really immersive environmental sound effects.
The sound quality isn’t the only thing that locks you into your role. You can’t get far in either game without using the ever-popular eyeshine. This particular brand of night vision simply amplifies everything to the point where you can comfortably navigate through vents, sewers, or any other dark areas you might find yourself in. This is particularly important because without this, you just straight up can’t see. You can spend a full minute walking into a wall and not realize it unless you turn those eyes on shine. Of course the best part of this is that the enemies don’t have a shine job, so you can sneak up on them and safely sanitize the area before you jump out hiding and progress. This is the best strategy whenever it is possible but Dark Athena isn’t only a stealth game, it also doesn’t shy away from the barreling in guns blazing approach either.
There are many areas in Butcher Bay and Dark Athena where there is just simply no shadow to hide in and the enemy already knows where you are. This is where both games start to lose their cool. Now I am in no respect the best FPS player of all time, but I have played many shooters and I know how to handle myself. That being said, this title is at the far end of the forgiving tree. Aside from the fact that you start with next to no health, the AI’s hits just seem punishing. Even with the regenerative nature of the health, if it regenerated back to full, that would be one thing, but it doesn’t. Instead if fills to the nearest bar that you have, leaving you many times fighting your way through with 1 or 2 bars of health keeping you from an untimely demise. Add to that the janky feeling of the gun control and the terrible aiming sights and you have a recipe for frustration. The sights are fine, when you are looking through different lighting, but try to aim while hiding in shadow in a well lit room and it is easy to lose the blue sight on the SCAR weapon. It isn’t a good day when an FPS doesn’t handle well when you are shooting.
All of that aside, the absolute worst part of this game is the loading. Dark Athena has the most loading screens of any game I have played in a long time. It wouldn’t even be such a bad thing if it weren’t for the time it takes to load. Originally it was easy to pass off the loading screens in Butcher Bay to just being there because it was a port of an older game, but when you are 20 minutes into Dark Athena and you are greeted with those same loading screens, then you realize that this is just how it is going to be. Nothing takes away from a moment of running down a hall mowing down enemies like a 10 second loading screen at the end. It isn’t even like the game looks that great to begin with, what is loading that takes so long?
Aside from the loading and the health system the only other issue that you will face are a few glitches. Nothing that is game breaking, just your average people getting stuck in walls, video sequences of you opening a vent not syncing up with what is happening, things of that nature. It is worth mentioning only because it shouldn’t be in a full $60 game. Luckily you don’t have to pay $60 for this game because if you are reading this, you can easily find it for the far more attractive price of $20. So at that point, if you like the fiction that the Riddick films have started, by all means pick this title up. It really is a good story when it’s all said and done.
