User Rating: 9.4 | The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay XBOX
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (COR)is one of four truely must own action titles on the Xbox. COR quickly takes its place alongside Halo, Ninja Gaiden, and Panzar Dragon Orta as true immersive gaming experiences that gamers will want to continue playing once the game has been completed. As a gamer you will notice the quality in this game from the very start as there is translucent green moving fog in the title screens background. With a click of the start button it quickly goes into the uber menu system that is innovative and one of the coolest I've seen to date. The developer has created some of the best graphics seen on a console with its use of a fairly new technique now as normal mapping. This graphical technique will became more familiar with gamers upon the release of Doom 3 later this year. The game games use of lighting is superb and also contains dynamic paricle effects. The sound is top notch dolby digital with incredible voice acting from at least three or four true movie actors. The gameplay is where its at. You will be drawn in by COR excellent blending of first person shooting, shealth, and hand to hand combat gaming styles. Starbreeze was wise to implement a counter system where a gamer can force an enemy to turn and fire their upon on themself. The sthealth mode allows for the always cool neckbreak and the hand to hand combat is what Breakdown should have been. There has been talk of the lack of multiplayer in COR, which would have been nice, be lets be honest here. COR has a central character in Riddick and how realistic would the game be if there was a multplayer or co-op mode in the single player game using multiple Riddicks? Not very much in my opinion, so I'm fine with COR being limited to a single player adventure. Yes what you have heard about the game being short is true. The game will last around 10 hours the first time through, however, COR has such a great presentation and the gameplay is put together so nicely that you will be compelled to play this game at least a second time. Therefore, COR has replay value based on the immersive gaming experience even with the lack online play or co-op single player action. Please don't let any of these shortcomings deter you from getting this game to play. It is an excellent game onto itself and in fact warrant a reason to purchase an Xbox for those individuals on the fence about getting the console. 
