Both single player stories feature impressive visuals with plenty of great textures and shadows. Dark Athena looks better than Butcher Bay, which is to be expected; however Butcher Bay also has some odd visual glitches that came along with the updated graphics. Often when Riddick is talking to a fellow prisoner, his back will take up most of the screen, making it nigh impossible to see his conversation partner. Other times, when being healed by the Nano Med units, Riddick will go through the healing animation twice, even if only being healed once. Still, even with these oddities, both games look excellent. Both games also sport excellent voice work. Vin Diesel returns as Riddick and brings along Lance Henriksen and Michelle Forbes for Dark Athena. Even Cole Houser is back, reprising his role as Johns.

When your time with single player is done, you can jump into the game's various multiplayer modes. Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Capture the flag are the usual fare, with Butcher Bay Riot, Arena and Pitch Black offering some new twists. Arena is like the arena matches of old, with one on one or two on two matches undertaken while the rest of the players wait for their turn on the sidelines. Butcher Bay Riot pits prisoners against mercs against guards with the goal of moving a power cell to your base. At the beginning of each round, money, awarded for kills in the previous rounds, can be used to buy weapons. Pitch Black pits a bunch of soldiers against a lone Riddick, in the dark of course. Whoever kills Riddick becomes Riddick and the cycle begins anew. Multiplayer matches were hard to get into due to a lack of players; however the matches I could get into were lag free.

Even with the inconsistencies between the game modes, it's still hard not to recommend the game as Butcher Bay is so dang good. If you've never played the original game, it's well worth your time to pick it up and while Dark Athena doesn't compare, it's still fun—up to a point. If you played the original, well, it's worth your time too as you'd be surprised how much fun going back to Butcher Bay can be. If all you're interested in is the new content, both single and multiplayer, give this one a rental as unfortunately the new stuff can't hold a candle to the original content.

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