My Top 100: #20 – The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay

 

During the Summer of 2000, there were lots of movies I wanted to see in theatres, but just never got around to it.  Mission Impossible 2, Mission to Mars and Final Destination all seemed like movies I’d enjoy, so when I eventually got a PlayStation 2, one of the first things I did was rent those DVD’s.  I didn’t own any games or memory cards yet, so what else was I going to do in the meantime?

Among the other movies I had wanted to see in theatres was Pitch Black.  My good friend Mel was always fun to go see movies with, but she wasn’t big into sci-fi, and wasn’t too keen on that suggestion.  I can’t recall what we ended up seeing that night I called her up wanting to see it, but it sure as hell wasn’t Pitch Black!

In any case, that was the first movie I ever watched on DVD, and I enjoyed it quite a bit.  The jump in quality from VHS to DVD was amazing!

The Riddick game looked cool, but it wasn’t really a must-buy for me.  It was only when Josh bought the game that I got to see just how awesome it really was.  The graphics looked better than anything I had seen in that generation of consoles, and the gameplay was somewhere between Half-Life and Splinter Cell.  Not only that, but you also had Vin Diesel’s gruff voice narrating the whole thing.  It was as immersive as a game based on a movie could get, really.

Escape from Butcher Bay is a prequel to Pitch Black, and it sets up two major elements of David Twohy’s space saga.  Our good bounty hunter friend William Johns (a role reprised by Cole Hauser) plays a prominent part in the game’s story, and his connection to Riddick is explained.  You also learn how Riddick got his trademark “eyeshine” and night vision, which was one of the things from the movie I thought would be cool to see.

Though you start in a modest cell with nothing but your wits and a toilet at your disposal, you need to fight, pay off, and con your way through the game.  You encounter a ton of crazy inmates and crooked prison guards along the way (including one voiced by Xzibit, dawg), from the bowels of the prison complex, all the way to the very top, where you pay a “visit” to the warden himself.  All of this leads into the events of the first movie rather well.

That sense that you get from starting with so little at the bottom of the food chain, then proving yourself as the king of all badasses by finally escaping, is really quite satisfying.

 

 

It makes sense that this game reminds me of a movie.  What doesn’t make sense, however, is that it reminds me of the time I saw Spider-Man 2 in theatres.

Bear with me!

Plans to see Spidey 2 kinda came together at the last minute.  I was running the show at work one night, and it wasn’t until about a half-hour before closing time that we decided to go see it.  I was still relatively new to the closing process, but I was pretty sure that I’d be able to get everything done quickly, drive to New Maryland, pick up Josh, the drive back to the movie theatres, get tickets, and get to our seats before show time.  I still had to be mindful of not making any mistakes, so getting it all done in a hurry was going to be a challenge!

It was pretty damn close, but I pulled it off.  We sat down just as the trailers were starting!  Not too shabby!

The first trailer shown was for The Chronicles of Riddick movie.  I had learned about it when reading an article about the game, but I didn’t really think it’d be all-out sci-fi epic like this.  I mean, Pitch Black was a fun, almost indie horror flick set in space, and didn’t have that big a budget.  Chronicles looked to be the polar opposite of that…  and it looked awesome!

After seeing that trailer, I knew I’d at least have to give the game a try.  Once Josh got it, it was on from there!