Escape from Butcher Bay/ Assault on Dark Athena

Format: PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Developer: Starbreeze
Price: £24.99-£39.99
Reviewed by: David Valjalo

[ratings]

A re-release of a five-year-old game sounds like premature embalmment for a title that didn’t set the charts on fire first time around. What pleasantly surprises is that Escape From Butcher Bay is such a solid and playable action title that, with its new lick of next-gen paint, stands tall in today’s climate. One of the few videogames to both surpass and do justice to its franchise father’s film component, Butcher Bay remains a strong, muscular action title – albeit one that lacks a lot of the grace and speed that has since been pioneered by titles like Mirror’s Edge and Crysis.

A prequel to seminal indie SF flick Pitch Black, Butcher Bay takes players on a gruelling journey through an interstellar prison  system that’s as clichéd as it is well-designed. Role-playing elements and possible side-quests are the key distractions from the main story that transform the experience from a high-protein shoot ’em up to a banquet of adventure.

It’s a shame then to find the new content less a step-forward than a brief expansion. The Athena component of the package that sees our antihero running and gunning through the holds of a fascistic spaceship and later planetside in a gorgeous slice of dystopian pie, is short and mostly uninspired. With the exception of controllable drones, there’s little beyond a new hand-cannon to satisfy the hunger brought on by the superior, grimier Butcher Bay.

With its unrivalled use of Hollywood collaboration it may be a giant leap for videogame production, but it’s a small step for a potentially great franchise.

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