The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena

Overview

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is a science fiction first-person action game for Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Mac OS X. It is a sequel to The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, which was remade and included with the new Assault on Dark Athena campaign. It was released on April 7, 2009.

The game picks up where Escape from Butcher Bay ended. Richard B. Riddick is a dangerous space criminal who can see in the dark. He and Johns, the bounty hunter who took him to Butcher Bay, are dragged aboard the Dark Athena, a huge mercenary ship run by Gale Revas and her second in command, Spinner. Riddick avoids capture and sneaks through the ship using the same stealth tactics as in Butcher Bay.

Dark Athena has better graphics and artificial intelligence than Butcher Bay and adds a multiplayer mode. The single-player campaign was expanded to include Riddick escaping onto the Dark Athena. Vin Diesel, the voice and likeness of the title character, took part in the production.

Tigon Studios and Starbreeze Studios developed the game and Atari published it. Vivendi Games announced it on May 22, 2007 as a remake of Escape from Butcher Bay with Assault on Dark Athena as a bonus chapter. After the Activision Blizzard merger the game was dropped in July 2008, and Starbreeze later said it was nearing completion and looking for a publisher. Atari's parent company picked up the publishing rights in October 2008. By December 2008 there was enough new content for Dark Athena to stand as a sequel.

A demo came to Xbox Live on March 4, 2009 and to PlayStation Network on March 12. Virtual Programming released the Mac OS X version on April 16, 2010 as a download.

Reviews were positive, praising the voice acting and the use of shadows. One review said you may not hear better voice acting all year. The AI and the multiplayer were criticised, though the Pitch Black multiplayer mode was singled out as the best part of it, and one review said the game was better than Escape from Butcher Bay.

Screenshots

Game details

Genres

Action-adventure, Stealth

Developer

Starbreeze Studios and Tigon Studios

Publisher

Atari

Series

The Chronicles of Riddick

Composers

Gustaf Grefberg

Designers

Jerk Gustafsson

Writers

Tommy Tordsson, Mikael Säker, John Zuur Platten, Flint Dille

Producers

Samuel Ranta-Eskola

Modes

Single player

Yes

Online multiplayer

Yes

Release dates

Editions

Buy this game

Trophies

Trophies51

Platinum possibleYes

Platinum

1

Gold

3

Silver

5

Bronze

42

Total

51

Points

1350

• Platinum Get all Trophies. Platinum 1.06% of players
• Medium Security Jail Break Complete the Escape from Butcher Bay campaign on normal difficulty. Silver 14.26% of players
• High Security Jail Break Complete the Escape from Butcher Bay campaign on hard difficulty. Gold 3.92% of players
• Chain Smoker Collect all cigarette packages. Bronze 2.76% of players
• Bell Boy Complete all side missions in Butcher Bay. Bronze 5.28% of players
• Main Frame Hack Find the Butcher Bay main frame and input your DNA. Bronze 65.21% of players
• Eye Shine Find Pope Joe and let him perform the eye shine surgery. Bronze 46.33% of players
• Kill Abbott. Get the opportunity to kill Abbott. Bronze 40.6% of players
• Ring Fight Champion Beat all competition in the Tower 17 ring. Bronze 39.12% of players
• Control a Riot Guard Find and control a Riot Guard. Bronze 30.73% of players
• Kill a Heavy Guard Find and kill a Heavy Guard. Bronze 27.14% of players
• Control a Heavy Guard Find and control a Heavy Guard. Bronze 26.35% of players
• Kill Rust Find Rust and kill him. Bronze 69.08% of players
• Master of Athena Complete the Assault on Dark Athena campaign on normal difficulty. Silver 12.52% of players
• Champion of Athena Complete the Assault on Dark Athena campaign on hard difficulty. Gold 3.13% of players
• Open the Vents Get a Dark Athena vent tool. Bronze 34.99% of players
• Stealth Master Get through the Cargo Bay without being noticed. Bronze 4.2% of players
• Control an Alpha Drone Find and control an Alpha Drone. Bronze 22.73% of players
• Kill an Alpha Drone Find and kill an Alpha Drone. Bronze 25.38% of players
• Melee Master Find and beat Iron Lord. Bronze 40.36% of players
• Kill Spinner Find and kill Spinner. Bronze 22.83% of players
• Ulaks Find and equip yourself with a pair of Ulaks. Bronze 50.74% of players
• Rebel Start a Riot on the Athena. Bronze 32.95% of players
• Control a Mech Find and control a Mech on the Dark Athena. Bronze 30.23% of players
• Escape the Athena Find a way out of the Athena. Bronze 28.66% of players
• Master of Drones Complete the Main Decks using only two drones. Bronze 21.79% of players
• Honest Fighting Find and kill Jaylor in a fair fist fight. Bronze 6.88% of players
• SCAR gun Find and equip yourself with a SCAR gun. Bronze 27.48% of players
• Sniper Rifle Find and equip yourself with a sniper rifle. Bronze 5.74% of players
• Margo's Locker Find and open Margo's Locker. Bronze 29.41% of players
• Miles Letter Help Miles and transmit his message. Bronze 10.51% of players
• Gabril Find and help Gabril. Bronze 5.89% of players
• Bounty Hunter Collect all bounty cards. Bronze 2.36% of players
• Winner level 1 Win 10 matches. Bronze Needs online 2.61% of players
• Winner level 2 Win 100 matches. Silver Needs online 2% of players
• Winner level 3 Win 1000 matches. Gold Needs online 1.72% of players
• Basic Weapon Handling level 1 Kill 10 people. Bronze Needs online 7.65% of players
• Basic Weapon Handling level 2 Kill 1000 people. Bronze Needs online 2.11% of players
• Basic Weapon Handling level 3 Kill 10000 people. Silver Needs online 1.75% of players
• Advanced Weapon Handling Prove that you can use your weapon under difficult circumstances. Bronze Needs online 2.35% of players
• Killer Get a 4 kill long kill streak. Get a double kill. Get the first kill in a match. Bronze Needs online 3.5% of players
• Murderer Get a 8 kill long kill streak. Get a triple kill. Get the last kill in a match. Bronze Needs online 2.55% of players
• Dominator Get a 12 kill long kill streak. Get a quadruple kill. Get the first and last kill in a match. Silver Needs online 2.42% of players
• Hero Capture a flag. Capture a powercell. Win a round alone against at least 3 enemies. Bronze Needs online 2.35% of players
• Juggernaut Keep on going no matter what. Bronze Needs online 2.55% of players
• Underdog Never give up. Bronze Needs online 2.34% of players
• Sniper Master They'll never see it coming. Bronze Needs online 2.45% of players
• Explosive Master BOOM! Bronze Needs online 2.37% of players
• Trigger Happy Don't stop firing until you are sure you are out of ammo. Bronze Needs online 2.3% of players
• Melee Expert Close and personal. Bronze Needs online 2.86% of players
• Funwrecker Ruin someones day. Bronze Needs online 2.36% of players

Space and patches

Update patch01.02

These are the patches Sony still hosts for this disc ID. The game's real history can be longer.

Playable today

Reception

Aggregates

Outlet	Platform	Score	Scale
Metacritic	PS3	80	100

Critics

Outlet	Score	Scale
Edge	8	10
Game Informer	9.5	10
GamePro	4.5	5
GameTrailers	8.4	10
IGN	7.4	10
Official Xbox Magazine	9	10
TeamXbox	8.8	10

Staff and cast

Staff

Role	Name
Producer	Samuel Ranta-Eskola
Designer	Jerk Gustafsson
Programmer	Magnus Högdahl
Artist	Mattias Snygg
Writer	Tommy Tordsson
Writer	Mikael Säker
Writer	John Zuur Platten
Writer	Flint Dille
Composer	Gustaf Grefberg

Cast

Character	Actor
Riddick	Vin Diesel
Gale Revas	Michelle Forbes
Spinner	Wade Williams

Notes for collectors

• One disc holds two games: the new Assault on Dark Athena campaign and a remake of Escape from Butcher Bay.
• Sony lists patch 01.02 (about 23 MB, minimum system software 02.50) for both BLUS30156 (North America) and BLES00311 (Europe).
• The PS3 trophy list has 51 trophies. 20 of them are multiplayer trophies, from Winner level 1 to Funwrecker.
• Butcher Bay has its own trophies, including Medium Security Jail Break and High Security Jail Break for finishing it on normal and hard.
• The game was dropped by Activision in 2008 and picked up by Atari before release.

Credits

Region

US

Time to beat

about 9 hours