Content review for this game:
Pertaining to the ESRB rating.
Escape from Butcher Bay | Assault on Dark Athena |
Content sum up: While Riddick's demeanor is more tolerable, and you can turn blood effects off, it doesn't do much to lessen the extremely violent and brutal (blunt force trauma-oriented) combat, or the chaotic gunfights; the atmosphere is dark and gritty, with rough, hostile inhabitants; it's filled with harsh language (like seventy-six uses of the f-word alone); and contains heavy sexual content, including a male prisoner who is openly into necrophilia (raping the dead), and a scene of (fortunately undetailed) male masturbation. In some ways, the first honestly seems tame in comparison—there are simply more appropriate games for younger teens. So I recommend this game for ages 17+. |
Blood and gore: The blood spurts in thick, dark and moderate amounts when you hit, cut or shoot an enemy. Blood does linger, splatters onto walls and floors, and there is static blood smeared and splattered on floors and walls throughout. When you engage in fist fight with enemies, their faces gradually swell, bruise and bloody as your fists also bloody, and when you slash at them with knives, shivs or Ulaks (dual, U-shaped blades; all can be used to slit their throats or jam in their eyes, chest, neck, or sides) their clothes will rip, with bloodstains visible around the tears, as their blood splatters on your arms, hands and weapons. Bodies do linger, and you see many dead, bloody mercenary and (later in) colonist bodies scattered throughout. However, blood can be turned off by going into the pause menu, "Game," and "Gore" off—this will disable all blood in the cutscenes and gameplay (offline and online), including the static blood on walls, floors, bodies, and objects—bloody sound effects remain.
Specific scenes of blood & gore:
(If "Gore" is off, these would instead be considered scenes of Intense violence).
Intense violence: After Riddick and Johns escape Butcher Bay in a stolen spacecraft, they go into cryogenic sleep for a journey to the next (unknown) destination. This trip is soon cut short however, as the Dark Athena prison ship, led by Gale Revas (an old acquaintance of Riddick's) has their ship in its sights. Riddick awakes just before they board—managing to hide in the rafters—and upon entering, they find Johns still asleep in his cryo chamber, with Riddick's empty chamber next to his; they leave with Johns, unknowingly letting Riddick onboard. Now that he's been set loose on the Dark Athena, Riddick needs to traverse the ship undetected as he takes out its crew and converses with their (relatively) innocent prisoners, in order to ultimately escape—again. Things soon get more complicated, when Riddick encounters Drones (former human colonists turned into mindless, remote-controlled soldiers), and finds that the Athena's crew is invading planets, killing the weak and keeping the strong for conversion. Riddick likes the dead to stay dead, and he'll do what he does best to stop it: kill...
After completing a training sequence, evading Revas' crew and sneaking onto the Dark Athena, you'll start your escape. And the base gameplay consists of exploring the ship while conversing with and doing fetch-quests (retrieve items and kill) for prisoners, in order to collect intel and supplies. You will then use eyeshine to navigate the dark, as you crawl through vents, climb stacks of crates or ladders, and shimmy across piping and ledges; shoot out lights, lure and sneak up on the Dark Athena's crew, take them out (retrieve security cards), and hide their bodies. When you're not sneaking around, you'll use your arsenal (later, pilot a mech and then Alpha Drone as you wreak havoc) to combat them, as you refill your health at NanoMed stations. And you'll solve minor puzzles by using downed Drones' attached weapons to clear away obstacles (in a later sequence you'll remotely pilot Drones as you clear barricades/enemies), and the later S.C.A.R.'s air charges to shove crates out of the way (or next to walls, as to climb up them), or shoot out-of-reach buttons to activate lifts and bridges.
You'll be combating the Dark Athena's mercenary crew, their Drones (former humans, now mindless, remote-controlled soldiers), and later, mechs (mercenaries encased in large, mechanical suits), Spider-bots (spider-like, turret-equipped robots that stick to walls) and Alpha Drones (giant versions of the human Drone, equipped with a missile launcher and heavy machine-guns). You will be fighting them with your fists, a hatpin (retrofitted as a shiv), combat knife, Ulaks (dual, U-shaped blades with sharp ridged edges), club, pistol, assault rifle, shotgun, submachine-gun, Tranquilizer Gun, Drones' arm-attached guns (pick up their downed bodies, lift their arms and shoot), and (the later) S.C.A.R. gun (a weapon that shoots up to five charges at once; when detonated, they expel deadly pulses of compressed air).
The combat system is intensely violent and mercilessly brutal, and consists of beating enemies with your bare hands (hooks, jabs, uppercuts, etc.) and adjoining blunt force trauma, finishing them off by grabbing them by the throat or shoulders to repeatedly beat them in the face or neck; you'll use your shiv, combat knife or Ulaks to slash the enemy and finish them off by repeatedly sticking it in their side and necks, stabbing and ripping it out of their chests, doing the same to their eye or slitting their throats; you'll snap mercenary and Drone necks (with a crunch); Disarm them of their guns by forcing it under their chin and pulling the trigger; your varied arsenal to pump dozens of shots into their bodies; the butt of your weapons to bash at them in close quarters; the trank gun to stun them, and then knock them in the back of the head or kick them while they're down to finish them off; and the S.C.A.R gun's compressed, explosive air charges to take out—and fling—any nearby enemies.
For the fact that—at first—the Dark Athena's crew doesn't know of Riddick's presence, he's more empowered than the average protagonist. Add this element of surprise with Riddick's incredible and deadly skills, and they're more preoccupied with the fear that their ship will be taken over, than with a confidence of catching and killing you. That said, Riddick is not invincible, and you are on an enemy ship with no place to hide—if you're found, that is. And to avoid the crew and—merc-controlled—Drones, you'll have to sneak within the shadows (or chance a swift death; even when armed, you can only take a few hits) while you use stealth and your eyeshine ability to navigate the dark, which can only be used effectively in darkness—if you're exposed to bright light, it will blind you. The enemy unknowingly uses this to their advantage by using laser-pointed weapons and flashlights in the dark, and if you're detected (which isn't too difficult to accomplish), they'll open fire, scream out expletives and bash away in close quarters. With this, the fact that they're on a constant search for you, and that you can't always shoot out the spotlights in the more open areas, you're never safe.
After they learn of your presence, enemy encounters only step up later in; you'll have to navigate a vast elevator shaft as you climb stacks of crates and hide from a circling spotlight, with armed mercs at the end; use a downed Drone as a shield while riding a lift down a long shaft, using its built-in gun to dispatch of enemy sharp shooters firing from all directions; run down a long corridor with very little cover as a powerful mech pursues closely behind, barraging you with fire from its machine-guns; sneak past and then evade two mechs through a tiny, spotlit door—which they fully block; explore the streets of a colony city being invaded by droves of Drones, while Spider-bots are shot from the sky, attaching to nearby walls and use their laser-targeted turrets to fire on your position (killing you in a couple of hits); and you'll later encounter (over a dozen of) giant Alpha Drones (in a row), which barrage with missiles and their arm-mounted machine-guns in very cramped quarters—although you are capable, it doesn't change the fact that you're always outnumbered.
Riddick will also have to make a couple of pseudo-moral choices: early in, you come across a dying colonist. There's the choice to comfort him—Riddick style—by saying he can look for his family once you clear the enemy anyway, or simply blow him off. And later in, you find a partially converted drone lying in an operating room, as he weakly asks if you can find and letter in his cell and then send it to his family—you can agree, or turn him down. He'll then ask you to put him out of his misery, you can do this, or let him lie there in pain. Concerning character, Riddick hasn't changed from the last, but because of the presence of (mostly) innocent prisoners (including a cute little girl) it does show that, although he's still his cold, indifferent self, as long as they don't get in his way—or better, assist him in his escape—not only does he not harm them, but seems to goes out of his way to free them. And later in, Riddick comforts the little girl (again, in his own way) when her mother is murdered, and even attempts to save the main villain, simply stating, "It didn't have to be this way."; Riddick never harms the innocent—he says they die simply on account of his presence.
The cutscenes contain several moderately violent scenes (the prisoners and colonists are seen being shot down by the Dark Athena's mercenaries, etc.); a few of the side characters are killed, including the little girl's mother; and the concept of Revas' men invading innocent people's colonies, killing them without prejudice, then discarding the useless and turning the remaining into mindless Drones, is quite tragic. When it comes to age, while Riddick's demeanor is more tolerable this time around, and you can turn blood effects off, it doesn't do much to lessen the extremely violent and brutal (blunt force trauma-oriented) combat, or the many chaotic gunfights; the atmosphere is dark and gritty, with rough, hostile inhabitants; it's packed with language (like seventy-six uses of the f-word alone); and unlike the last installment, it contains a heavy amount of sexual content, including a male prisoner who is openly into necrophilia (raping the dead), and a scene of (fortunately undetailed) male masturbation. In some ways, the first honestly seems tame in comparison, and there's simply more appropriate games for younger teens; it's just more suited to older teens and adults.
Strong language: There's over six dozen uses of the f-word, two dozen uses of sh*t, under a dozen uses of a**, b*tch, hell, d*mn, p*ssy, p*ss, God d*mn, and God, three or under uses of SoB, a**hole and d*ck, and one use of the words bastard, c*nt and c*ck sucker. Other than the main script, you will frequently hear the f-word and sh*t during overheard conversations between enemies; and the Dark Athena's mercenaries frequently use the f-word, sh*t, SoB, d*mn, hell, a**, and a**hole, (p*ss and p*ssy very infrequently; at the very worst, they'll call you a "C*ck sucking mother-f**ker!") while they fight and/or pursue you. There is no option to turn language off.
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