In a way, you’ve got to feel sorry for Starbreeze Studios. With Syndicate, the shooter-centric re-imagining of the 1993 strategy game of the same name — there’s absolutely no way to please everyone. Fans of the original are going to scoff at how the new developer turned it into a shooter, but fans of shooters like Call of Duty and Battlefield are unlikely to give it a shot. It’s a shame too, because when Syndicate works, it works very well, it’s an intelligent shooter that dares to break from the norm, but when it doesn’t work, it’s a mess. One of the most disappointing messes of recent memory.

In the world of Syndicate, Corporations rule the world, and are willing to kill for turf and resources. Each private citizen also has a chip implanted into their brain, which these corporations can access at will for advertising or even worse. Your protagonist, MIles Kilo works for Eurocorp, a company that has developed a chip so powerful it lets users slow down time and even access the data from other chips. Syndicate finds Miles struggling with his choices, and figuring out why he works for who he works for. As you probably already expected, throughout the events of the game, Milo uncovers a conspiracy..yadda…yadda..yadda..

It may not be the most original story, but it would have done Seabreeze well not to abandon it as early in the game as they did. The game takes obvious inspiration from titles like Deus Ex and Bioshock (going as far as to ripoff a few of those game’s best moments), which did their best to craft a compelling narrative, but in this aspect, Syndicate often comes off as lazy and forgetable. There comes a point early in the game where integral pieces of info are dumped into optional info boxes and the story is kicked into the background. Though Syndicate often hints at the importance of player choice, it’s incredibly linear, with one ending, no matter what you do.

It’s a shame that Syndicate’s campaign is so forgettable and lackluster, as generally speaking, the mechanics are sound, tight and fun. The guns, which range from the more traditional firepower to the more out there, all feel like appropriately weighted and its often compelling to switch them out to see just what each can do. What really sets Breach apart from other shooters though is the Breach system, which allows players to access an enemy’s dart chip for some pretty cool results. Using the breach system, you’re able to slow down an enemies response time, make him fall to the ground stunned, commit suicide, or even turn the gun on his own squad-mates.

Using the breach abilities quickly becomes a strategic element in a very trigger happy shooter. There are plenty of times where you’re going to come upon a room full of heavily armed shooters, and the decent enough AI combined with the game’s refusal to adhere to its own set of rules regarding cover makes it nearly impossible to go in guns blazing (at times), so you’ll have to strategically use your abilities to take them out. My personal favorite is causing one enemy to fall to ground, making the others go to check on him, then making one of them turn against the others, and making my work easier for me. It’s just a shame that midway through the game, Starbreeze took the easy way out and rids you of a majority of these powers.

If Syndicate has a saving grace it’s just how fun the game becomes when teaming up with another human user. Up to four players can join together in a series of standalone co-op missions that require actual communication and cooperation, leading to some impressively cool and chaotic moments. The mix of careful planning and satisfying kills often reminded me of the co-op missions of the Splinter Cell games, a favorite of mine for years. With how well done this portion of the game is, I often wondered why Starbreeze didn’t base more of the game on it.

If you’re going to play through Syndicate, you better be a fan of the color blue, as the game continually insists the future will be a blue society, and assaults your eyes with blue hue after blue hue. Besides the overuse, Syndicate looks impressive, and performs well even when the action get really hectic. I was incredibly impressed with just how well the game animated, especially when using the breach abilities.

The Blast Factor: There are moments where you’ll swear that Syndicate is one of the greatest first shooters in recent years — it’s beautiful, fun and mechanically sound, but playing deeper into the game will reveal it’s darker side. In short — Syndicate is a mess, a beautiful mess that somehow works. It may not be the shooter it could have been, but Syndicate is definitely worth a look.

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is an odd game to review, as we are looking at two distinct titles within one package. First, you have the remake of Escape from Butcher Bay “" which, by the way, despite being one of last generation’s better games, was not part of the Xbox backwards compatibility program-and secondly, you have the sequel to that game, Assault on Dark Athena. The names alone do a good job of explaining the differences between the two titles; in Escape, you sneak in the shadows and deliver as many stealthy kills as you can, like some kind of demon in the shadows that is terrorizing the prison. In Assault, you still have stealth kills, but there is more of an emphasis on gun play and blatantly open attacks on your pursuers. This is a problem, one that is obvious to anyone who has tried to utilize Riddick’s gun play over long stretches of time before.

That is not to say that the new content found in Assault on Dark Athena is bad; it’s just that after replaying an improved version of one of the last generation’s gems, the issues stand out and take away from the experience. In the end, depending on your level of tolerance, you’re going to end up with a fantastic remake that has yet to really show its age coupled with either a decent sequel in Athena or one that ultimately disappoints.

As Richard B. Riddick, you help out some prisoners by doing them some favors “" favors which often involve killing other prisoners “" and they help you get on your way to escaping from Butcher Bay, a prison in the desert that no one has ever escaped from. You hide in the shadows, shoot out lights, snap necks, drop from the rafters “" all of these stealth kills are highly satisfying, and if you limit your gun play to involve shadows, even that is fun as the AI struggles to find where you are versus where you were when you fired. The AI is not stupid in this game, as they will find you and come after you once they sense you are in the area. They will turn if they hear you coming as well, so you need to be sneaky and quiet, not just unseen. Luckily, Riddick has a stealth mode that allows him to walk quietly, and also lets you know if you’re in anyone’s line of sight; blue vision means you are unseen, while a return to regular vision means someone has the potential to catch you. You do have to be careful in making sure that guards are not hiding in the shadows like you were, as once you pop out they could converge on you. Like I said, the AI is not stupid.

Escape from Butcher Bay is a game that had tons of attention lavished on it in the past, so I’m not going to go into too much detail here given that there’s an entire other game to review; just know that if you loved the original, this remake is fantastic, and is worth revisiting just for the visual upgrades, given that it comes in a package with another game.

That game is not up to par with Butcher Bay though; Assault on Dark Athena tries to mix run-and-gun gameplay with stealth, and it doesn’t do a great job of either. Here are some issues you need to deal with: there are tons of weapons and ammunition available, and the level design is set up in a way where there are tons of open spaces “" that means there isn’t anywhere to hide. Combine those two together, and you realize the game is telling you to shoot first and hide in the shadows later, which takes away from Riddick’s core gameplay. When you move from the confines of corridors into a more open world, this is magnified. Fewer places to hide, more shooting to be had, and as you will realize, that AI that is not so stupid is now also nearly impossible to kill with ease.

They could sense your presence in corridors when you weren’t visible if you made too much noise, but now you can’t even hide effectively. They have better accuracy and range than you do with Riddick’s limited (and imperfect) gun play, and they have far more health than you do as well; the imbalance between the number of shots you can take and the number you need to fire shows that this is meant to be a stealth game, but it’s tough to pull off when the level design screams run-and-gun. This is not a one-on-one thing either, as Athena often pits you against groups of enemies, or against a turret that can maul you in no time.

Again, this is a worthwhile package, even if you’re just buying the remake of Butcher Bay. You get two games for the price of one, and now Riddick gets to experience multiplayer as well, which is a neat addition to the series when you’re talking about the Pitch Black mode. If you have never experienced Escape from Butcher Bay before, you’re in for a wonderful game, while the remake is worth owning just to play through it again in it’s prettier form. The greatness of Escape from Butcher Bay is quite an experience (let’s say it’s a 9), while the disappointment that stems from playing ‚ Assault on Dark Athena is unavoidable (let’s give this one a 7), but at least you purchased both for the grand total of $60.

Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is available on Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC, and retails for $59.99.

Riddick is back and he is badder than ever.

Yup, everyone’s favorite futuristic escaped convict will once again be showing up on gaming consoles around the world in Atari’s The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena.

This demo, produced by Starbreeze Studios, is a preview of the sequel to the previous Riddick game called Escape From Butcher Bay.

Though not everyone enjoyed the movie, I have a feeling that a lot of people are going to enjoy this bloody game (which blurs the line between stealth and FPS gameplay) even with the lackluster Vin Diesel voiceovers.

The Dark Athena demo jumps right into the storyline, so I recommend reading up on your Riddick beforehand. Here is the long and short of the plot: Riddick finds himself upon a shipped called the Dark Athena. When the ship’s captain, Revas, finds out that the fabled convict is aboard her ship, she quickly orders her soldiers to hunt him down. From there, you must guide Riddick through the dangerous craft using nothing but your stealth skills, wit and awesome weapons.

One of the first things I noticed about Dark Athena were the very impressive graphics.

Still, even with the great graphics, the very dark shadows along with the mostly black enemy character models led to frustration. Riddick does have a sort of night vision capabilities, but I often found that to be more distracting than helpful.

Controls will initially be confusing for new players, especially for those who are used to playing Call of Duty titles. Switching weapons will always seem to be a chore and some attacks seemed to be a bit longwinded. Attacking is very easy; just toggle the right trigger. Reloading is B and crouch is X. Everything else gets a bit more complicated. In short, Dark Athena needs more than a loading screen to explain the buttons and controls of the game, so hopefully the full title does a better job.

When it comes to features, one thing that really stood out to me was the Drone Control. This is an excellent aspect where you can take full, first person control of the robot-like Drone soldiers. Each Drone is equipped with a fully automatic rifle and decent health. After one of your Drones is killed, you can take control of another one rather quickly, so don’t be afraid to run your soldier into a messy situation.

Another interesting characteristic of this demo was how unobvious the objectives were. This could be a very good thing or a very bad thing, depending on the kind of gamer you are. If you are the type who likes to quickly knock out achievements, I would call this part of the game quite frustrating. However, if you like a good challenge in your video game experience, Dark Athena will probably be a pretty pleasurable experience for you.

For those who have experience in the previous Riddick title, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, you probably have noticed that this hands-on reminds you quite a bit about it. It is true, most of the gameplay hasn’t changed much from the original game. From what I can tell, the only significant differences between Dark Athena and Butcher Bay are the improved graphics and character animations.

If you do plan on downloading this demo (and I do recommend that you do), be sure to determine if you want to use the stealth abilities or just go out and kill some people. If you would rather take the more homicidal route, be sure to turn the difficult settings of the demo WAY down. It will be nearly impossible to take on your gun slinging enemies, especially during the early goings of the demo when you are only equipped with shivs. If you want to take the slower, more traditional route, feel free to play on a harder setting.

Though playing the actual demo was quite fun, I would almost consider the opening video (viewable by staying idle at the starting screen) to be a much better preview of the game, giving players a better appreciation of the enhanced graphics and animations.

Go ahead and download this demo. To some, it may be an acquired taste. To others, it will be a nice little bit of nostalgia. But, for most, it’s going to be a fun ride.