That is an IGN opinion piece from Ryan McCaffrey, who labored at Official Xbox Journal from 2002-2012 throughout the authentic Xbox and Xbox 360 period earlier than becoming a member of IGN, the place he stays “the Xbox man.” In the run-up to Xbox’s twenty fifth anniversary, he’ll be sharing his recollections from the platform’s first quarter-century.
After I labored at Official Xbox Journal, the very first thing you stumbled on while you entered our space of the workplace was our demo station. There sat a small sofa and our largest TV, a behemoth 36-inch CRT that might show at 480p – which means, the identical decision as each different console sport, however with out the interlacing, thus making a crisper picture. As a result of when builders got here by means of to point out us their in-progress video games, we wished them to look their greatest. I used to be by no means extra grateful for that massive 480p TV than when a then-unknown (at the very least to me) Swedish developer named Starbreeze got here by to point out off the licensed sport they had been engaged on: The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay.
“No matter,” I believed. “It’ll simply be an inexpensive film cash-in.” After which I really noticed it and my jaw hit the ground.
Humorous sufficient, the very first thing that made my eyes go vast wasn’t even the sport itself – although that might occur in just a few extra moments. No, I and the relaxation of the OXM workforce had been transfixed by Riddick’s front-end menu display. See, it was a normal-mapped 3D cube whose letters erupted from and receded into the shiny, fantastically textured dice while you moved from one choice to the subsequent. Regular-mapping was a brand new graphics toy then; we’d actually not seen it earlier than on a console. However the Xbox was totally succesful, and different video games on the console moreover Riddick went on to place it to good use.
However again to Riddick. The Starbreeze workforce proceeded to point out us a first-person prison-break sport with insane lighting, RPG-like dialogue with myriad NPCs, an superior hide-in-the-shadows stealth system constructed round the titular anti-hero’s “eye shine” that enables him to see in the darkish, some horror parts, and an affordable bit of first-person taking pictures as effectively. And once we received our fingers on the full sport forward of its launch in June 2004, they’d efficiently constructed a whole sport this good. It had the graphics, the audio, the environment, the story, the gameplay. It had every thing.
Riddick didn’t simply break the licensed-game curse, it was a bona fide Sport of the Yr contender on Xbox that 12 months (it was received by a bit sport known as Halo 2 that launched in November of that 12 months). And for those who’re questioning, “Wait, what licensed-game curse?” For you youthful readers, video video games primarily based on licensed properties had been virtually universally, take-it-to-the-bank assured to be horrible. This wasn’t for an absence of effort by sport builders. Slightly, it was sport publishers who thought they may spend the least quantity of cash attainable – be it on expertise, size of growth cycle, or each – and it wouldn’t matter as a result of folks would purchase the sport anyway as a result of of the licensed property adorning the entrance of the field. And I suppose they have to’ve been proper on some stage, as a result of for years, good (not to mention nice) licensed video games had been the exception, not the rule.
Riddick was the first crack in that dam that has since damaged (see additionally: Batman: Arkham Asylum). It’s actually not that each licensed sport is sweet now, however video games like Riddick and Batman: Arkham have lastly proven publishers that in the event that they put money into prime expertise and provides them ample sources, that they’ll make manner, far more cash than simply going for the low-cost money seize.
Additionally, Vin Diesel himself deserves some credit score as effectively, even when Starbreeze will get the lion’s share of it. Diesel was (and presumably nonetheless is) an enormous gamer, and he took an energetic position in the mission by means of his Tigon Studios growth workforce that assisted on Escape from Butcher Bay. Diesel didn’t need his character headlining a crappy sport any greater than gamers did, and in partnering with the then-relatively-unknown Starbreeze, he helped guarantee that Richard B. Riddick wouldn’t undergo the identical destiny so many different characters making the transition from the massive display to the game-console display did.
As phenomenal as Escape from Butcher Bay was, it’s arguably nonetheless fairly criminally underrated. If you happen to by no means received an opportunity to play it, it’s not too late. Positive, the graphics received’t blow you away (and even impress you) in 2026, however the gameplay holds up fairly effectively.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s govt editor of previews and host of IGN’s weekly Xbox present, Podcast Unlocked, and a co-host of Subsequent-Gen Console Watch. He is a North Jersey man, so it is “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.