Vin Diesel might not be your first choice when it comes to people that you’d like to meet down a dark alley, there can be little doubt that out of all the movie-game crossover folks he is the one who not only takes things most seriously, but also probably one of the few who go a fair way to understanding that sitting in a sound recording booth getting paid ridiculous sums of money to provide lifeless voiceovers for games is not really going to endear you to a few million of us type of folks who enjoy our gaming.

Hence, when it was announced that Starbreeze, in conjunction with Diesel’s very own Tigon Studios, were going to be re-doing the original Chronicles from Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay and lumping it in with a brand new game in the form of Assault on Dark Athena, hopes were high. The added extra of multiplayer seemed like it was going to be a tasty cherry atop a massively delicious cake.

Sadly though, it seems as if a few of the ingredients have gone somewhat stale since Riddick took his original bow on the Xbox about half a decade ago. Whilst you can commend the efforts in brushing up the visuals and the like on the original Butcher Bay, you end up feeling with both games that they are somewhat antiquated in the way they play. Ironically, it’s Dark Athena – the game that’s five years younger than its predecessor – that ends up coming off worse for this, for a couple of reasons.

See, Butcher Bay’s strength was (and still is) that large sections of the game require stealthy sneaking action, with the player crawling around trying to find dark hidey holes from which he can take out patrolling enemy troops when the need arises. It’s not until the latter stages of the game that you really get that much in the way of guns save for a few sections early on, and for the most part you have to rely on your wits and ability to monitor patrol paths and take advantage of the scenery.

The way it all works and progresses is pretty clever too, with you having to guide Riddick around various areas so you can chat to people and undertake tasks for them as he tries to escape from the Butcher Bay prison. It’s reminiscent of games like Oblivion at some junctures as you wander about doing little sidequests for people to gain yourself handy items and weapons that make up for your lack of firepower, and the result is that it doesn’t really feel quite like anything you’ve played before.

Dark Athena, which picks up where Butcher Bay left off, isn’t quite so based on this, and the increase in gun use takes it out of the range of being quite so much a sneaky action game and puts it more into the realms of being a fairly reasonable shooter instead. Throughout the game you are thrown some bizarre kind of drone enemies that stroll around looking for you, yet once you down them you can pick them up and use their attached guns whilst holding their body up as cover from incoming bullets. The net result is that instead of sneaking up and doing away with enemies on the quiet, you instead find that downing a drone and backing into a corner whilst firing wildly at your opponents ends up having a far more useful outcome when it comes to clearing areas.

It’s not that it’s a bad game by a long chalk, and the fact you are getting two pretty decent adventure/shooter titles for the price of one means it is a good value package, even for those who have played the original before. The shame is, however, that it is that same original game, albeit with a little tarting up, that ends up being the best thing on the disc, which is probably not what you’d be hoping for. Whereas the hand-to-hand combat is quite satisfying in both titles, the gunplay feels slightly treacly and not anywhere near as enjoyable.

It’s not as if Butcher Bay is exempt from the problem pile either, as despite it being a game I found more enjoyable to play it still has a few issues that are common to both titles. Primarily, the main annoyance with both is that the map you can use from your pause screen is pretty much useless as it doesn’t show where you are at any given point, and combined with both titles often being slightly vague on what the heck you are supposed to be doing next you find yourself running around in circles trying to work out what the heck you are doing.

Another issue that both games have is that the enemy AI is incredibly frustrating, with soldiers often seeing you for no apparently good reason and refusing to take good cover positions more often than not. Sneaking around in the shadows and making use of Riddick’s ability to see in the dark is all well and good, but when you get rumbled by a guard with his back turned to you and all his mates pile in and drop you to the floor quicker than a sack of poo it begins to drag.

The multiplayer part of the bundle isn’t exactly stellar either, although if you ignore the usual deathmatch etc types of modes, some fun can be found in Pitch Black mode, in which one player is Riddick as he crawls around in the darkness taking out all the other players who, as marines, need to hunt him. In general though, once this has been exhausted there’s not much fun to be had elsewhere, with the whole deathmatch kinda thing sitting rather awkwardly inside Riddick’s stealthy framework.

It all adds up to being a somewhat disappointing experience, especially when you take into account how brilliant Butcher Bay was back in 2004. The fact that it’s been given a graphical overhaul (which looks nice enough) and that the audio side of things is so well done – in particular the voiceovers, which are very well-performed – adds a sheen to what was already a golden egg, and even though it still suffers a few issues you can forgive it. When it comes to Dark Athena, though, things really should have been kicked up a notch and made it a superior sequel rather than a slightly inferior one. As it is, what you’re really getting is a good remake of a good game, bundled with a sequel that really doesn’t do it justice. C’est la vie I suppose.