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[Deified Data]

I've been putting off playing these games for a very long time. I don't know why. My backlog isn't very big. I guess I always figured that the hype for them was pretty overblown - that perhaps they were a slightly superior licensed product which led people to label it "great".

But, a few hours into the "Butcher Bay" campaign, I'm starting to understand what people saw in it. First, I find it very cool they they released Dark Athena with a remastered version of Butcher Bay for those of us who didn't get the chance to play it on its original release. I don't know how the remaster stands alongside the original, as I've never played it. It looks a lot better than I thought it would, for what it's worth.

I haven't touched Dark Athena yet, but in Butcher Bay I've just gotten to the Mines. I'm really loving the prison sim elements of this game, carring out rec yard hits with screwdrivers and whatnot. I was a little disappointed at how quickly the game moved on from that, but I was pleasantly surprised to find myself in another prison yard a few hours later, so I guess the action is cyclical in a way. Game is very well-paced. It never lets you get too comfortable with a particular weapon or playstyle. Stealth is fun and effective, though I wish there were more instances where it could be used as opposed to outright gunfights.

Honestly, I think this game might usurp Bioshock's position as my new favorite FPS, though it's undoubtedly more than that.

 

[Parakeetman]

Another thing I really dug was the whole vision blurring when you brought up your weapon to aim. More so the assault rifle. Not a lot of games do this and its more "realistic" than being able to see your weapon perfectly crisp, which would mean that your eyes are focusing on the weapon rather than your target.

Indeed was and still is an awesome game and am thankful that they made the PS3 port or else would not have had the chance to play this gem by suggestion of a friend.

 

[d0c_zaius]

Butcher Bay is great, but Dark Athena let me down.

 

[Deified Data]

Butcher Bay is great, but Dark Athena let me down.

May I ask why? I haven't touched it yet.

 

[chubigans]

I absolutely love this game, and feel it was the best game on the Xbox hands down.

It's the small touches that really stand out. There's one segment of the game that you can just gun your way through...but if you take your time to search things, you can actually pull off a stealth/undercover mechanic and gain tons of items and weapons without firing a single shot, and engage in a ton of dialogue you wouldn't otherwise hear. Took me a third playthrough to find that out.

Just an amazing game all around. It gets better as you go, in my opinion, though Dark Athena was a little bland sans the planet stuff. It was mainly due to the level design I think- a spaceship was a bit less interesting than the future prison settings of the first game.

One of my favorite FPSs of all time.

 

[Blablurn]

bought it last week bought it runs like ass on my laptop. and this device is not too bad. one day... one day!

 

[SniperHunter]

Butcher Bay is great, but Dark Athena let me down.

Agreed...too much shooting in Dark Athena. I didn't like it at all

 

[B_Rik_Schitthaus]

The environments and people feel so real, that's what makes Starbreeze's FPS games so good (a part from Syndicate).


You should get the Darkness next, the shooting isn't very good but it expands on a lot of the successes of Butcher's.

 

[Mr. Sam]

Still got a huge backlog to work through but have been meaning to get to this since I saw my mate playing it years ago. I've got Metroid Prime to get through first.

 

[Struct09]

I actually played Dark Athena first, and followed it up with Butcher Bay. Kind of glad that I did, since it allowed me to appreciate DA for what it is before experiencing how great BB is.

 

[CREMSteve]

Loved Butcher Bay when it originally came out, I think I bought an Xbox just to play it and Halo.

The re-release was great too, but a few of the mechanics were showing some age. Still had lots of fun playing through it though.

Athena really didn't grab me at first, I actually walked away from it after losing interest, but eventually I went back to it, and for whatever reason, seemed to "click". I'd say now, that it's every bit as solid as Butcher Bay was, just lacked the first impression impact that Butcher had the luxury of.

The multiplayer is pretty fun though.

And yes, The Darkness is awesome. Haven't played the sequel yet, waiting for budget release.

 

[Deified Data]

I absolutely love this game, and feel it was the best game on the Xbox hands down.

It's the small touches that really stand out. There's one segment of the game that you can just gun your way through...but if you take your time to search things, you can actually pull off a stealth/undercover mechanic and gain tons of items and weapons without firing a single shot, and engage in a ton of dialogue you wouldn't otherwise hear. Took me a third playthrough to find that out.
Just an amazing game all around. It gets better as you go, in my opinion, though Dark Athena was a little bland sans the planet stuff. It was mainly due to the level design I think- a spaceship was a bit less interesting than the future prison settings of the first game.

One of my favorite FPSs of all time.

I hate that I have no idea what your talking about. Is this segment before or after the mines? I may need another playthrough...

 

[Gen X]

I loved Butcher Bay back on the original Xbox, but never made it far through due to the amount of games I was getting at the time. Considered getting it again though.

Probably the wrong place to ask, but has there been any word on Starbreeze doing another Riddick game to tie in with the upcoming movie?

 

[Mr. Sam]

Haven't played the sequel yet, waiting for budget release.

Not a Starbreeze game and, if I'm not mistaken, quite stylistically different to the first.

 

[Dead Man Typing]

I was talking about this game about 4 hours ago... GAF is watching me...

I heard a lot of the negative comments about Dark Athena before I played it. But honestly, I had a great time with the game. I love Butcher Bay and I think Dark Athena held up to that standard. Maybe it wasn't as good but it was definitely worth playing through once.

Maybe I'll revisit them one day.

 

[CREMSteve]

I loved Butcher Bay back on the original Xbox, but never made it far through due to the amount of games I was getting at the time. Considered getting it again though.

Probably the wrong place to ask, but has there been any word on Starbreeze doing another Riddick game to tie in with the upcoming movie?

Would probably depend on how well Athena sold, considering it barely survived development and was canned by Activision, and only saw the light of day thanks to Atari stepping in and purchasing the rights.

Anyone know how many units it moved?

 

[CREMSteve]

Not a Starbreeze game and, if I'm not mistaken, quite stylistically different to the first.

Yeah, which is why I'm perfectly content with waiting.

 

[scorpscarx]

Totally these games are awesome on soooooooo many levels. Thoroughly enjoyed them both twice, in a hot tub, at the same time!

 

[d00d3n]

I hate that I have no idea what your talking about. Is this segment before or after the mines? I may need another playthrough...

It is the end of the "first prison". Prison guard quarters after you get the eyeshine job done.

 

[pa22word]

May I ask why? I haven't touched it yet.

It was canceled midway through development by Activision when the merger went down due to a "lack of profitability". Atari picked it up and gave Starbreeze just enough of a budget to get it in a good enough state to ship.

Kind of a sad end to what would have been a great game, because playing it you can see moments of brilliance shining through the cracks of an otherwise very disappointing sequel.

 

[Arklite]

The environments and people feel so real, that's what makes Starbreeze's FPS games so good (a part from Syndicate).


You should get the Darkness next, the shooting isn't very good but it expands on a lot of the successes of Butcher's.

Syndicate also has good environments and the few characters were well acted, plus it has very nice shooter mechanics. Never understood the bad rep aside from old Syndicate fans being bitter.

Also, completely forgot I still need to get The Darkness and Dark Athena. I remember loving the script of Butcher Bay so I hope theres some good stuff in DA.

 

[Meier]

Butcher Bay was one of my favorite games on the Xbox. Right up there with the Bioware titles. Loved it.

 

[chubigans]

It was canceled midway through development by Activision when the merger went down due to a "lack of profitability". Atari picked it up and gave Starbreeze just enough of a budget to get it in a good enough state to ship.

Kind of a sad end to what would have been a great game, because playing it you can see moments of brilliance shining through the cracks of an otherwise very disappointing sequel.

I didn't know that. Explains some of the problems I had with the game! Man, that's tragic.

 

[pmj]

I'm pretty sure that before release the devs were saying Dark Athena was originally supposed to be a short expansion for the Butcher Bay HD remake, but that they kept adding content to until it was big enough to be a sequel. It certainly feels that way, but I think they did a good job with it.

 

[Speevy]

Even setting aside the combat and story, no game has ever made you feel more like you're actually in prison.

 

[d0c_zaius]

May I ask why? I haven't touched it yet.

hmm its kinda hard to explain in one point, but it just doesn't have the same vibe. feels too combat heavy and some of the charm is lost. I also didnt appreciate the level design or flow like I did in Butcher Bay.

Agreed...too much shooting in Dark Athena. I didn't like it at all

yup. I still love Starbreeze games though (I liked Syndicate too).

 

[B_Rik_Schitthaus]

Syndicate also has good environments and the few characters were well acted, plus it has very nice shooter mechanics. Never understood the bad rep aside from old Syndicate fans being bitter.

The world of Syndicate is just corridor with some windows, it's nothing on The Subways and City of the Darkness or the Cells and Courtyards of Butcher's.

 

[AOC83]

I played it the first time back in 2004 and it had graphics that i had never seen before, was completely blown away. One of the few games that truly showed what the XBox was capable of.

Assault on Dark Athena was also fun but not quite as good as Butcher Bay.

 

[Dan Yo]

Butcher Bay was a fantastic game. One of those few instances where the game actually surpasses the subject material it's based on (especially in the case of the Chronicles of Riddick film).

Starbreeze made that character and universe look WAY more interesting than the films ever did.

They have a knack for that. The Darkness inspired me to check out the comics. Hint: the game is cooler.

Starbreeze really deserves more recognition for their ability to tell stories in games.

 

[RedSwirl]

The cool thing about Butcher (and to a lesser extent Athena) is that structurally it feels like an RPG set in a prison, which ends up doing a really good job of filling out that world.

I agree that if you liked this game you should check out the first Darkness game. The action sucked but the story and world felt really well fleshed-out. Starbreeze is definitely a special developer. The guys who left and started up at Bethesda are working on Dishonored now right?

 

[Deified Data]

The cool thing about Butcher (and to a lesser extent Athena) is that structurally it feels like an RPG set in a prison, which ends up doing a really good job of filling out that world.

I agree that if you liked this game you should check out the first Darkness game. The action sucked but the story and world felt really well fleshed-out. Starbreeze is definitely a special developer. The guys who left and started up at Bethesda are working on Dishonored now right?

Amazing if true. The whole time I've been playing Butcher Bay I've been thinking "please, let Dishonored play like this game".

 

[Darklord]

May I ask why? I haven't touched it yet.

Dark Athena is great and then it's about to end...aaand then it gets dragged out for several extra hours so it isn't too short where it has virtually no story, then it jumps back on course and ends.

 

[donny2112]

carring out rec yard hits with screwdrivers and whatnot.

Once I found out the achievement for doing all that was something like "Bell Boy," I stopped doing all the prison side quests. Riddick ain't nobody's bell boy. :lol

 

[d00d3n]

The cool thing about Butcher (and to a lesser extent Athena) is that structurally it feels like an RPG set in a prison, which ends up doing a really good job of filling out that world.

I agree that if you liked this game you should check out the first Darkness game. The action sucked but the story and world felt really well fleshed-out. Starbreeze is definitely a special developer. The guys who left and started up at Bethesda are working on Dishonored now right?

No, the guys who left and started up at Bethesda are called Machinegames. The project that they are working on has not been announced yet. They guys that are working on Dishonored are called Arkane Studios.

Machinegames have been hiring lots of people lately. Here is the size of their ice cream buffé at work dated 2012-06-20. Source.

There are approximately 50 pieces of cake to go with the ice cream. Taking into account downstaffing during the summer months, Machinegames should be way past the prototype phase at this point. Will be really exciting to find out what they are working on.

 

[Kolgar]

Funny, I was just thinking about these games this morning.

I played through Butcher's Bay twice--once on the original Xbox, then again on PC. Loved it.

Early impressions put me off of Dark Athena, so imagine my surprise when I scored the game for ten bucks and loved it to pieces. It was one of those rare games that drew me in and held me close for days, and when I finished it, I felt satisfied yet sad that the game was met with such apathy.

The games have a special place in my collection and in my heart, and I hope you enjoy them, too.

 

[Deified Data]

Wrapped up Dark Athena over the weekend...I can see where a lot of people are coming from, but at the same time I found I was able to sneak through a lot more of Dark Athena than Butcher Bay. I could be imagining it, or it could also be that Athena felt significantly shorter.

Overall, I enjoyed the focus on melee combat with Riddick's ulaaks - you were actually a threat to gun-wielding enemies if you could get the drop on them. The SCAR gun was fun, though it was sort of a "utility" gun near the end that could accomplish just about every role better than rifles, shotguns, etc.

The ending...was abrupt and unsatisfying. Hated it. The last two bosses could be easily dispatched with one hit, which was weird.

Spoiler

We never found out what happened with Johns.

There was a serious dearth of sidequests.

Overall, a lot of fun, but unlike Butcher Bay is didn't really leave me with the desire to replay it.

 

[Derrick01]

I've tried playing BB on Steam but I don't think I "get" the stealth in the game, it doesn't seem to be designed well at all. Most of the time they want me to get by guards in very tight corridors with no hiding spots so I'm left to take them on directly, which is tough with his limited health.