Support NeoGAF

[Rolf NB]

I've just beaten Athena too. Want to throw a few things out there.

• Checkpoint spacing is important.
• Enemies should have some semblence of a reaction time between detecting a player and taking action. Crouching slowly through a doorway and getting plugged with burst fire the instant I edge out from cover is bad. Especially in a "stealth section" (which shall be defined by a complete lack of ranged weapons available to the player). Bonus points for simulating common player limitations like finite turning speed.
• Enemies should not have randomized "critical"/"head shot" attacks. If I lose two and a half blocks of health within half a second of exposure to an arbitrarily lucky spider drone, instead of a half block or so, I don't say "wow, this game is challenging in the good way". I reload from the last checkpoint.
• Don't have infinitely respawning enemies.
• Don't have infinitely respawning enemies that don't drop ammo.
• Don't have infinitely respawning enemies that don't drop ammo in a fucking stealth section.
• Don't have infinitely respawning enemies that don't drop ammo in a fucking stealth section and throw infinitely respawning rail turrets (w/ search lights) on top.
• Avoiding object intersections during animation is a noble goal, but don't ever let it interfere with gameplay. If I try to fire my gun into the face of an enemy, a shot should always go off, no matter if the firing animation "fits" between me and the enemy. The way EfBB handles this is particularly annoying in case of the minigun, as its rev-up can be interrupted by an enemy (or by crossing through a doorway in certain ways), and then you'll have to wait another two seconds before you can fire again. BAD.
• Stealth indicators (blue tint) should be reliable. If noise/proximity/whatever is a factor in how likely I am to be detected, show it. Don't lie to me with a full blue tint while an enemy is already engaging me.
• Don't bait and switch on stealth. There are many spots in EfBB where you can approach an enemy from behind crouched and as quietly as you want, but they'll magically turn around and shoot you in the face before you can get close enough to do a stealth kill. If you want to prevent stealth kills of specific enemies on purpose, turn them around so that the player can tell beforehand.
• If you want me to solve a stealth section by exploiting enemy patterns, make sure enemies settle back into that pattern after I've upset them.
• Make sure to give me feedback about the current alertness of enemies.
• Avoid arbitrarily locking doors in a game with non-linear segments and side quests. If I have stuff left to do in an area, I need to know about points of no return so I can avoid them until I'm done.

 

[Rolf NB]

I'm playing the PSN rerelease of Wolfenstein 3D and can't help but notice that even that has better shooting gameplay than Riddick: 1)connecting shots stun enemies; 2)alerted enemies start moving but don't fire immediately; 3)every time you alert an enemy you get an audio cue.

I also like how you can consistently see enemies. Dark Athena has a lot of problems even with that, especially in the mid-section

Spoiler

back on the colony planet

.

It's really sad.

One more for the list (I forgot yesterday):

• Arbitrary windows of invincibility on boss enemies are bad. If what I have to do to win a fight is essentially keeping my enemy in a
  Spoiler

  stun lock
  , let me do that. Don't punish me for doing it "too well".

 

[Hypereides]

Im in the midst of a trophy run on Riddick and I gotta say the servers are some of the worst crap Ive ever played.

The worst part is that, they should've learned this from their past game (The Darkness), matches are litterally unplayable and trophies/achievements for anyone will take ages to acquire. The requirements are MEGA high.

What in the right mind made them believe that some one would play the MP when its so severely unoptimized. I could forgive the first atempt, but this is horrible.

The same goes to Monolith. FEAR 2 & Condemned 2 MP servers havent changed a bit. I dont get why these developers allowed this. If they expect their MP's to be played they really have to make it properly accessible.

I will be very surprised if anyone manages to platinum/get all achievements on Riddick. Its pretty frustrating.

 

[Peronthious]

As many flaws as Butcher Bay has, the ending of the game is one of the best I've seen in a long while.

 

[Struct09]

Finally finished up both games. I never got around to playing EFBB when it first came out, but I decided to play the games out of order. Based on things I've heard people say about the games I didn't want to have any of the same expectations when going into AODA. So I started with AODA, and I think it worked out for the better.

I really liked both games. The voice acting and atmosphere are awesome, it really was a breath of fresh air for me from all the other first-person games I've played lately. And when the gameplay was good, it was GOOD. The games do a great job of making you feel like Riddick.

It's hard for me to decide which one I liked more. Each game was a rollercoaster of quality - there were moments of brilliance, but there were also moments where I wasn't having much fun. The way I see it, between the two AODA had the highest of high points, and EFBB had the lowest of lows.

Some positive and negative things that stuck out:

AODA
+ The characters and voice acting. Some of the best I've ever experienced in a game, it's at least on par with games like MGS, GTA, and Uncharted. It's good in EFBB, but it's really polished in this game.
+ Sneaking around and using the Ulaks.
+ The fight with Revas where

Spoiler

you take her hairpin and shove it in her neck. That was so awesome.

- It pretty much becomes an FPS. It's not as bad once you get

Spoiler

the SCAR gun

- The final fight is a joke

EFBB
+ The second act of the game, where you have the tranq gun. Since you could easily shoot out lights, each area kind of became a playgound, and I wish both games would have put more focus on this type of gameplay.
+ The variety. This game has three distinct acts, and you're not usually doing the same thing for very long.
+ The ending
- Some areas seemed like they weren't play tested enough. Some frustrating areas where you didn't have the tools to take care of the guards, and the way to get through was running for a door and praying that your life bar holds out.
- A number of technical issues. Most notably the game wouldn't always mark checkpoints when it should (I could die, redo a section, and then it would grab the checkpoints when it should have).

If there's one glaring flaw that unites the two, it's the archaic health system. It might not have bothered me so much had the game stuck to stealth/melee fighting, but when it turned into a shooter it just made it more frustrating.

Flaws aside, I really enjoyed the games, and I would absolutely love to see more Riddick. I got a copy of The Darkness a while back for $5, but haven't got a chance to play it yet. I may not get around to playing it for a while, but I look forward to it.

 

[Peronthious]

+ The fight with Revas where

Spoiler

you take her hairpin and shove it in her neck. That was so awesome.

I just want to know

Spoiler

how the hell she, or the kid for that matter, survived.

 

[SolidusDave]

ok I played through Butcher's Bay and Dark Athena on normal.
I liked EfBB more, the atmosphere and characters were just better and that part feels a bit more thought-out (btw. it was the first time I played BB, main reason I bought AoDA).
AoDA has the nicer "gimmicks" like Drone-control and the SCAR (though after getting that I rarely used other weapons), BB was more epic in the end.
I think AoDA would have been a lot better, if the miniquest/NPC part was in a not yet "cleaned" city instead these few cells on the ship, that was not like BB at all.

I bought it for 23€ from play, not too bad after two months, obviously that depends if you are the player or the developer :lol
After the a bit disappointing ps3-comparisons, it moved away from my first-day-buy-list. Though I have to say, besides the general slightly dated looking graphics (athena is better in that regard, much bigger levels too) and the "upscaled/softer" IQ, I noticed only how bad the first scene looks (there were some screenshots of that back then), no other part of the game looks like that.


The main reason I write this post is the MP. Whoever thinks tagged-on-MP is really a added value to a singleplayer/story based game, FU.
I just tested it, NOT A SINGLE game was in the server list. Basically, this is now junk data, for which the developers had to work a fair amount of time which could have spent on things like polishing the Dark Athena part.
I'm sure there were some guys playing in the first 2 weeks, but why "demanding" MP in every game?! Everyone knows, people will stick to the "real" MP-games or very good and popular MP-parts (I'm ranting on half-assed MPs in games you know they won't sell several millions).
With Riddick, having two SP-games for the normal price should be a better feature to convince people than a mp-part anyway.
Or.. give me a pretty much perfect sp-Campaign, then I don't care whatever else you include into that game.


oh and does anyone know why the UK-Store does not have the free commentary for Butcher Bay? It is available for the US and Asia versions but not for the PAL?! The not so free MP-Mappack ( see above, :lol ) is in the Uk store...

 

[Kifimbo]

Never played EfBB until two weeks ago. Finished it and I loved it. It's not great but there are some moments of greatness. It's really different from pretty much every FPS out there. Sadly, that's probably why it didn't really sell well.

I'm gonna start Dark Athena soon. Is it longer or shorter than EfBB ?

 

[SolidusDave]

I'm gonna start Dark Athena soon. Is it longer or shorter than EfBB ?

mhh I think it is about the same length. Maybe a bit more environments (or at least bigger level-sizes) but you don't have much going on with optional quests etc. (nearly nothing at all actually), in EfBB I invested some time in that. (though you still explore because of the collectable bounty cards, this time you even have to be more creative because you can move crates with the SCAR gun)

 

[Peronthious]

They're about the same in length, though I probably blasted through Dark Athena a bit faster since for the most part it's a by-the-numbers shooter.

 

[BruceLeeRoy]

Started this just a couple nights ago. I remember loving EFBB so I started with that but about 4 hours in either because I remembered most of it or the ridiculous .ai I quit and started up Dark Athena. I have to say I am enjoying DA far more. Though there are still some really janky areas that don't really work that well I have to say more often than not the game is a success. As was already pointed out the voice work is really excellent I was not expecting that kind of quality.

Does AODA pick up right after EFBB? I can't remember what happened at the end of EFBB I remember your in a

Spoiler

space station

or something. Why do I start in outer space with Johns?

 

[BigBoss]

Does AODA pick up right after EFBB? I can't remember what happened at the end of EFBB I remember your in a

Spoiler

space station

or something. Why do I start in outer space with Johns?

AoDA picks up right after EfBB, Riddick and Johns escape Butcher Bay aboard the ship you see in the beginning of AoDA.

 

[BruceLeeRoy]

AoDA picks up right after EfBB, Riddick and Johns escape Butcher Bay aboard the ship you see in the beginning of AoDA.

Gotcha thanks bro.

 

[gregor7777]

Was there ever a patch for the PS3 version that sorted out the washed out visuals?

I thinking of picking this up today. The demo really bothered me though.

 

[MauriceM]

It's a decent game, but I'm a little pissed I bought it without knowing about the DRM. That's $5 too much still I'm giving to those bastards. Anyone else get it during the D2D sale? Did they ever patch out the DRM?

 

[Tokubetsu]

It's a decent game, but I'm a little pissed I bought it without knowing about the DRM. That's $5 too much still I'm giving to those bastards. Anyone else get it during the D2D sale? Did they ever patch out the DRM?

I got it during the sale. Pissed about the whole DRM thing but I'm still enjoying the game. As far as the game goes, I loved "The Darkness" to. death. It made a Starbreeze believe outta me and one of the few CoR fans out there I was excited that they decided to redo EFBB before I got a chance to get the original version.

If Assault on Dark Athena, EFBB and The Darkness are anything to go by, Starbreeze is up there with the big names in terms of atmopshere and voice acting talent.

 

[tehvampire]

I really liked the combat in this game.

Riddick had some brutal finishing moves like that one where he stabs an enemy twice in the chest then once in the eye!

 

[Metal Gear?!]

I have been told in the other thread that the PC version has no commentary mode even though it says it has all the content of the original PC release. Is this true?

 

[Diablohead]

Sup ladies, I finally own this on 360 and first things first I am playing over the original Butcher Bay, I only played through the game once on the xbox before making a stupid mistake and selling it towards another game.

You can tell by a few of the areas that it's just had a light and texture adjustment but damn does the game still look great, one thing the original did well was cool dynamic shadows and here they use it to the extreme, I love it all and the excessive bloom in areas, so cool.

I am about half way into it now and while looking very forward to playing the new Athena story I am taking my regular time over the remake.

*edit* for the multi I am skipping it completely, cool as the idea is to play with stealth kills online, too many people move on after game releases and only stick to the main titles, so multiplayer like this just dies up and is rather pointless, especially when the achievement list asks for 10,000 kills! fuck that.

heh I also noticed that some of the guards use the same voice actor as marcus fenix.

 

[Jason's Ultimatum]

Is there a way or will I be going back to the area in prison where I fought these guys to meet Abbot? It's also the same area where the feed ward is. I went to the mines and found this dude's glasses and other stuff for the guys up above during the side missions and I want to complete them. Right now I really don't know where the hell I am. I just got done riding in one of those robots going through doors and killing other robots and soldiers. =\

BTW, game is awesome.

 

[AgentOtaku]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=381397

Finally scouting locations for new Riddck film!

 

[Jason's Ultimatum]

Arg. How do you kill that

Spoiler

huge fucking beast at the end of AODA? I keep shooting those things at him and pressing L2 for them to explode. I just hide in the tunnels and run back and forth. Over 30 minutes and it still doesn't die.

 

[Jason's Ultimatum]

Finally beat both games.

-Some of you guys were right. The game is plagued by shitty level designs. Sometimes it's impossible to even use stealth, which forces you to use the shitty weapons that feels like a 1995 PC game.

-When stealth can be used, it's very satisfying and brutal.

-Graphics are amazing, but is it me or do the graphics in AoDA look way better than in EfBB? It looks like there's more AA, lighting is natural, the poly count is higher in AoDA.

-Ending boss fight. WTF? All I did was

Spoiler

shoot that chick win the scar gun, opened the door and kept punching her until she fell.

Not very satisfying considering the encounter you had with her earlier.

Other than that, I wish AoDA would've had more side missions.

 

[Diablohead]

The graphics differences are because EfBB is a port with updates, not a completely new game. I not started AoDA yet and i'm already quite impressed with the visual updates of the first game.

I am finding this game much harder then it was on the xbox though, playing on normal (did start on hard but had to lower it at the first DNA room) and well I just can't remember the best way to defeat those huge walker armour things, normally I leave them and run but this time I am just stuck near the heli pad with two of them right near me, can't do shit so I might have to jump back to the start of that chapter or something.

If you missed butcher bay the first time around this remake is great, but I think they somehow messed up a few parts of it.

 

[TrAcEr_x90]

Just got this off goozex for ps3. Man, the story and environments are awesome. Voice acting is top notch.

I wasnt too happy with one part where I felt like I had to shoot every damn light out and then hide while a guard searches for me, take him out, and repeat the process, taking me like 45 minutes to get past a part. And if i died, guess what, start the process all over again.

 

[ShinobiFist]

Just got this off goozex for ps3. Man, the story and environments are awesome. Voice acting is top notch.

I wasnt too happy with one part where I felt like I had to shoot every damn light out and then hide while a guard searches for me, take him out, and repeat the process, taking me like 45 minutes to get past a part. And if i died, guess what, start the process all over again.

I'm playing this game on hard, I don't know why I did that. lol. But I'm having fun. Did anyone ever got to try the online for this?

 

[Darkpen]

I'm going through Assault on Dark Athena, and I'm at the point where you get Dacher his code pad or whatever, but I noticed that the items I got earlier (like the health thing and a piece of paper that has some dude's locker number) had disappeared. I tried reloading an older checkpoint, and whenever I get to around where you pick up the stun gun, I lose all of my items from before, with only my vent tool in my inventory.

Is this a glitch, or will the game magically let me open that dude's secret locker so I can get my trophy?

 

[pmj]

I was a big fan of Butcher Bay back in the day (2004 apparently), but boy has it aged. The parts that were wonky back then can be infuriating today, at least on hard difficulty when the margins are so tiny. Many levels and scripted behavior are incredibly poorly conceived, such the part where you return to your cell block after the mainframe area and it's so dark and blurry that you can barely see anything, any time enemies are scripted to run out and attack you and there's nowhere for you to hide, any part with turrets on rails and the areas with infinitely spawning enemies.

Dark Athena is just as wonky controls-wise, but level design and enemy placement and patrolling behavior is vastly improved and it works much better as a result. Still, improved as it is, Butcher Bay felt better in 2004 than Dark Athena does in 2009. Starbreeze really needs to work on the shooter part of their engine.

I'm going through Assault on Dark Athena, and I'm at the point where you get Dacher his code pad or whatever, but I noticed that the items I got earlier (like the health thing and a piece of paper that has some dude's locker number) had disappeared. I tried reloading an older checkpoint, and whenever I get to around where you pick up the stun gun, I lose all of my items from before, with only my vent tool in my inventory.

Is this a glitch, or will the game magically let me open that dude's secret locker so I can get my trophy?

I finished Dark Athena two days ago and I still can't remember. Margo's locker is in the fan room, go and check if you can open it.

 

[sazabirules]

Did I screw myself in Butcher's Bay by not finding the minigun? I snuck past the Riot Guards and killed the humans near the hangar but no cutscene started.

 

[lowrider007]

Did I screw myself in Butcher's Bay by not finding the minigun? I snuck past the Riot Guards and killed the humans near the hangar but no cutscene started.

I personally didn't grab it, it's very cumbersome weapon anyway.

Only started playing this a couple of days ago and am right at the end now, likes others have said it's certainly not aged well, graphically it's not too bad but the mechanics and level design feel very dated by today's standards, although the first person brawling was fun.

 

[sazabirules]

Yeah I finally figured out how to sneak up and shoot both Riot Guards in the back with the shotgun. I can't wait to finish this and start Dark Athena.

 

[Rated-Rsuperstar]

Starbreeze are the masters of first person story telling. Riddick has more characterization then every other fps. Better then Half life in my opinion.

 

[Rated-Rsuperstar]

Finally got around to finishing Dark Athena. Athena was challenging but fun.

Spoiler

I liked the fact that the little girl of all people, takes control of the drones at the end of the game and turns them on the crew.

Starbreeze's Jason Bourne game is gonna be awesome.

 

[Rated-Rsuperstar]

Almost done with Butcher Bay. Shit this game is hard.

Spoiler

The infinitely spawning aliens at the end of the game is just terrible.

Infinite enemies are my most hated game design. Granted this was 2004 but it still isn't fun.

 

[Benedict]

I bought this game cheap recently and have put it on my to-play list (played the original on the Xbox)
I looked at the trophies and saw lots of stupid irritating multiplayer trophies...

Are they at all possible to take now?
How many people are still playing the multiplayer part of the game?

 

[dak1dsk1]

I would appreciate a cleared PAL PS3 save-file. I want to replay this in commentary mode. Damn I wish there was some way to force this option on the console ports.

 

[dak1dsk1]

I bought this game cheap recently and have put it on my to-play list (played the original on the Xbox)
I looked at the trophies and saw lots of stupid irritating multiplayer trophies...

Are they at all possible to take now?
How many people are still playing the multiplayer part of the game?

I doubt you will find anyone playing it online.

 

[CJUNDERGROUND]

Just an FYI, most Best Buys are selling this for 12 bucks, not a bad deal at all.

 

[TheVampire]

Just an FYI, most Best Buys are selling this for 12 bucks, not a bad deal at all.

Pretty good deal since its 2 games in 1

 

[luka]

The multiplayer (PC) for this was so depressing. On launch day I found one server with a few brits and we had a couple fun matches. Then one person left and everything just fell apart. I tried a few times a day for a week after that and found nothing. No one played the pc version online ever again.

 

[Mr. Luchador]

Weekend Deal on Steam, though TAGES seems to be messing it up for a lot of people.

 

[bengraven]

Weekend Deal on Steam, though TAGES seems to be messing it up for a lot of people.

I can't activate it all. I'm getting the server time out issue.

I've never asked for a refund on Steam, but I'm considering it.

 

[soldat7]

Butcher Bay was great. Dark Athena was not great. Oh well, it was worth it for Butcher Bay.

 

[Mr. Luchador]

I can't activate it all. I'm getting the server time out issue.

I've never asked for a refund on Steam, but I'm considering it.

Haven't tried to activate yet, but that seems a similar story for a lot of people. The support isn't very helpful either, from what I've read.

Did you ask for a refund in the end?

 

[canadian crowe]

Sorry to necro-bump this, but I just got a new copy for the 360 and it keeps giving my a dirty disc error when I'm installing it. I have a 3 day old 360 slim, so it's not a console problem (I've already installed a bunch of games). Has anybody else had this problem before?