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In 2004, a little-known company by the name of Starbeeze Studios showed off one of the best looking games anyone had ever seen (at the time) in the Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, and unlike some great looking pieces of software that remain vaporware for years (Duke Nukem Forever), they actually released it in just a few months. And it was a damn good game too. as Richard B. Riddick, the highly-underrated anti-hero, you worked your way through a brutal interstellar prison, shanking other inmates, sneaking up on guards and occasionally going wild in a giant mech. How the Riddick universe remains so unappreciated while people eat up garbage like Twilight and Transformers, I’ll never know. The atmosphere, the combination of stealth and action and of course, the graphics, were completely unmatched in 2004. And that’s the problem with the recently released remake/sequel Assault on Dark Athena. Starbreeze took a five year old game that has not aged terribly well, slapped a new coat of paint on it and called it good. Supposedly a few things have been moved around the levels, but these changes are so minor, I didn’t really notice. The combination of stealth and action that felt so novel in 2004 now just feels frustrating. Somehow the AI seems to have regressed even further, guards just charge at you blindly like in the original Doom. And with very little health, you will suffer many, many annoying deaths. The feel of an oppressive super prison is still there, which is nice, and Vin Diesel’s voice-acting is top of the line (maybe he should stick to that instead of trying to act in-person), but graphically, well, a lot of great looking games have come out in the past five years. Butcher Bay may have been the best looking game on the original Xbox, but on the 360, it’s only slightly above average. Oddly enough, the Dark Athena campaign, built exclusively for next-gen consoles looks noticeably better, and seems to have better lip-synching than what’s found in Butcher Bay. The first part of Dark Athena, taking place on the titular mercenary ship is a pretty good time, with Riddick sneaking through vents, helping out prisoners and again, taking control of a super mech (this time in space), but the game goes downhill quickly when you crash land on a nearby planet. Everyone knows Riddick works best sneaking around the dark, so Aguerra Prime, where the sun apparently never sets, makes for a very frustrating experience, especially when the God-awful spider drones show up. These little buggers can shoot you with pinpoint accuracy from a mile away, and you’ll be dead in seconds. If Butcher Bay can be a tad bit frustrating at times, Dark Athena will make you want to break something, or just return the game for something that’s more fun.