We have a situation here. If companies start taking movie licenses seriously, we may not have craptastic games like Enter the Matrix to pan anymore. Starbreeze, Tigon and Vivendi Universal, thank you. Thank you for delivering not only well done mid season surprise, but also easily my favorite game I've played so far this year.

I don't even know where to start to be honest. Escape from Butcher's Bay is packed with everything you want in a great game. The entire presentation is well planned and executed. Not only is it a well polished game, overall, but it also always tends to be fun. Not only is it refreshing to see people taking a movie licensed game so seriously, but Riddick is a prime example of how Hollywood inspired games should really be.

Instead of just the standard regurgitation that most movie games strive for, Riddick actually tells a story not found in the films. Sure, Shiny claimed that they had this, however they forgot to actually include a fun game along with giving you some video footage that they scraped up from the cutting room floor and jammed on a disc. Escape from Butcher Bay employed David Twohy who wrote the original Pitch Black and created the whole Riddick Universe. The end result? We end up playing a game that truly feels as if it is a part of an overall story instead of just being an afterthought.

In addition to having a decent overall story, Riddick also features some of the finest vocal work heard this year in a game. Along with the obvious work from Vin Diesel, we also get to hear work from other familiar voices such as Xzibit, Ron Pearlman, and a personal favorite of mine, John DiMaggio who made me feel bad for taking out generic guards since they sounded like Bender from Futurama. Even the character called Johns, the bounty hunter featured in the original Pitch Black is voiced by the original actor, Cole Hauser. I will never grow weary of developers giving a damn about their voice work in a game.

The aural delights didn't end with just the voice acting though. Gustaf Grefberg produced a perfect soundtrack for the game which dynamically changes with the action in game. For example, if you are playing more of a stealth game, the soundtrack is more subdued and ambient. Pop a few rounds into a group of guards and the tempo is kicked up to match the hell you are unleashing upon the soon to be deceased. After playing through the game and enjoying the excellent credit scroll, I found myself wondering if they released the soundtrack like Bungie did with HALO. Apparently, I didn't even need to worry about it since Vivendi Universal was gracious enough to give gamers a complete set of MP3s straight from their website.

The sound effects are also completely enjoyable as Star Breeze created all of their own assets for the game instead of just using a lot of standard sound effects which we have all heard a million times before. The end result is a game that does actually sound unique and will stand apart from the crowd. Again, the overall attention to detail is ever present in every thundering crack of gunfire or sickening slam as a pipe meets up with someone's head.

How about we spend a little time talking about the graphics? Basically, Chronicles of Riddick stands up against just about every game on the Xbox, or any system for that matter. The characters look incredible while the environments are wonderfully detailed. You can make certain texture pixelate by zooming in on them, but that doesn't really happen in normal gameplay for the most part. There is some odd compression in the cut scenes every once in a while that tend to pixelate heavily. Again, nothing earth shattering, but it does jar you from an overall excellent package.

Starbreeze employed a technique called 'normal mapping' which basically applies a high res map across a lower resolution polygon model. In addition to looking like a high poly count model, normal mapping also allows light to react to the map as if it were a fully fleshed out polygon model. In practice, a flat wall polygon, will have a normal map with bolts and such which will reflect light from every detail. The end result is an incredible looking game with enough horsepower leftover to push plenty of gameplay along with ease.

Lighting is heavily used in the Chronicles of Riddick, which obviously plays into the whole character of Riddick. Not only is lighting used as a gameplay mechanic, but it also factors in heavily to the overall look and feel of the game. You will traverse though pitch black air passages, dank prisons with flickering lights, to even an ultra clean super secure lockup that is basically the polar opposite to everything else you have seen in the game up until that point.

I'm sure everyone has seen comments about the minimalist approach to the on screen information displayed during the game. Starbreeze did not include a HUD for most of the time spent in the game. Instead, Chronicles of Riddick uses more interesting ways to give you information which helps immerse you in the game even further. If you want to check out how much ammo you have left in your mini gun, you actually have to look down at the display on the weapon. Your life meter is usually only seen when you take damage or replenish your health. Your weapon selection is only briefly displayed when you select a weapon.

The minimal screen clutter really struts it's stuff when you are engaged in stealth mode. In stealth mode, the screen takes on a very slight fish eye effect as well as seeing a light, transparent overlay which resembles lines in the iris of your eye. The screen takes on a blue tint when you are perfectly hidden in the shadows. The overall style and subtlety of the effect really help you jump into the game with both feet. Hell, you can even see your feet when you look down while walking or crouching. You also tend to see your shadow against the wall and your arms resting on your knees when crouching down and looking down a drop. All of these little touches help your emersion in this world and keep you hanging on for the whole ride.

If it wasn't enough for the game to look and sound like a top tier title, the damn think plays better than a lot of other games on the market too. The gameplay is a healthy mix of all out action and stealth which isn't overly demanding as it can be in other games such as Splinter Cell. If you are sneaking and get spotted, you generally will have a fair enough chance to fight your way out. Sometimes you still get stuck, but the auto save points generally aren't too far behind where you were just turned into a smear.

At it's heart, Chronicles is a first person shooter. However, it does take quite a few turns along the way to differentiate itself from the pack. First and foremost would be the fine tuned hand to hand combat system embedded in the game. Sure, it's not the first FPS to include some punching, but it feels right in Chronicles and not just a tacked on afterthought. Not only can you put together brutal combos of punches, but you can also pull counter moves which allow you to go up against a fully armed guard with your bear hands and turn his own weapon against him leaving quite a spatter against the wall. It's also very satisfying to skulk around the levels and silently take out guards by snapping their necks and then dragging their bodies to a dark corner so they don't tip off the rest of the soon to be deceased.

The gameplay is just satisfying all the way around. It's fun to play hand to hand, it's fun to strategically pick people off with a rifle, it's fun to sneak around and even more fun to go all out in a frenzy of firepower. The cream on top is the 'eye shine' mode which is the whole gimmick of the Riddick character. Basically, Riddick has special eyesight which allows him to see in the dark, however, bright light can be blinding. Riddick generally wears his trademarked goggles which help him avoid those issues.

Throughout the game, you have chances to take advantage of Riddick's gifts by shooting out the lights and then removing your goggles to enter into his trademarked sight with the simple click. It works well and adds a great deal to the gameplay. You have to be careful not to run into a guard with a flashlight pointed in your face or a bright room because the effect can truly be blinding.

The enemies you face in the game have pretty decent AI as well. Guards will search you out if they catch onto to you. They will become alerted if they find a body or hear your footsteps. They'll dodge gunfire and take defensive positions behind cover. I'm sure we can find examples of smarter AI out there, but I don't think anyone is going to have any serious complaints about it from what I've played. You also have to come up with some nice strategy to get around some situations. Like I've said, the mix of gameplay elements really shine in Chronicles.

The last level in Chronicles of Riddick was also practically a reward level. It was just all out fun and I don't want to spoil it for everyone. The ending 'boss' fight was also really enjoyable, but the trip there was just a treat. As a matter of fact, there are all kinds of treats thrown about this title. Sure, you can throw a body into a thresher complete with some of blood spatter dust effects, but you can also obtain packs of cigarette packs which open up all sorts of unlockables. Some of them are tame pictures from the Chronicles of Riddick movie, but some of them are pretty fun, such as the game demo where the voiceover is worth the price of admission.

There are really very few complaints to make about the game. Every once in a while there was a body you couldn't carry because it was stuck in a wall or something. You could also take a small issue with the weapon selection. Scrolling through the weapons didn't actually set the weapon to use. You needed to click the action button once to arm yourself. There were a couple instances where that moment of hesitation actually did cost me a life or two. Other then that, and the annoying pit level which thankfully was the shortest level in the game, it was all gravy.

Bottom line, Chronicles of Riddick is one of the finest games I've played this year. It is a complete package and goes a long way to show other companies how to really produce a movie licensed game. I loved pretty much every part of this title and applaud the efforts of everyone involved. This is easily on the list of games that should push Xbox sales and it's one hell of an exclusive. I can only hope sales reflect the quality of this title. Get this game if you have an Xbox and if you don't have an Xbox, get one, then get Chronicles of Riddick.