Vin Diesel kicks arse. There I've said it and I don't care what you think. I also liked XXX and although he has only really been in a handful of mainstream Hollywood movies I find he has an on-screen presence that few actors have these days. There's this quiet, lurking, get the job done, arse kicking action guy that's always just below the surface. Even if there was a movie of him painting his house, you would probably pay $15 to watch it as there's this constant feeling from him that anything could happen at any time.

The character of Riddick was first seen in the low budget Sci-Fi movie ‘Pitch Black'. Shot in Australia around Coober Pedy it was pretty creepy and had some cool moments, but the highlight for a lot of people was the main character of Riddick. Enigmatic and with a colourful criminal past, the character won many people over that were looking for their next ‘Anti-Hero'. The game, rather than continue the story is a prequel to Pitch Black and explains how his ‘Shine' gift (his ability to see in the dark) came to be. The story puts you in the place of Riddick and as the title of the game says, has you attempting to escape from Butcher Bay, the inescapable Triple Max security prison, home to the most violent prisoners in the universe. The plot also sets up many story elements for the next movie that is due out soon.

Best of all though, rather than simply follow the tried and tested (and mostly failed) path of the standard movie-game-tie in, the developers ‘Starbreeze' have given us an entertaining game filled with next generation visuals that rival and in many cases, beat anything we've seen so far. Chronicles of Riddick : Escape from Butcher Bay (from now on CoR) is filled with great action and a first person mode, that while it features little environment interaction is extremely well done and a great blend of straight out FPS action and stealth. It's what all games of this type should be, delivering a quality game rather than big flashy names and shallow million dollar marketing campaigns. Starbreeze can hold their heads high because to be honest, there hasn't really been a FPS game of this quality for ages (with a few exceptions) and they have delivered a fantastic mature game that ranks up with the best Xbox titles already out.

As mentioned, to no great surprise, the aim is to escape from Butcher Bay Prison. The Police/Bounty Hunter character ‘Johns' seen in Pitch Black is along for the ride in his quest to deliver his prize bounty, Riddick, for the most money he can make and the game portrays their back story pretty nicely. Suffice to say it isn't long before you wake up in your new home, a filth encrusted cell in a dank hell hole named Butcher Bay. So now, you're in prison what do you do? How to pass the time? For me personally it would most likely be spent crying (not biting thank you!) into my pillow and avoiding the group showers. Not Riddick however as in true hard arse form, your task is to become the baddest bastard around and get out. And why not.. no point moping around so get yourself a shiv and prepare to get your knuckles bloodied.

With profanity and blood covered walls CoR certainly does earn its mature 15+ rating. Numerous expletives also fill the script so its best to play this one late at night after the kids are asleep, or wear headphones and turn off the subtitles. Vin Diesel supplies the voice over for his Riddick character and surprisingly does a fairly passive job at it. There's little emotion in any of the lines he delivers but the performance is dark and brooding which suits the game. The voices for the other characters all sound great and suit their characters rather well. Each of the other inmates has their own agenda and while the conversations don't tend to drag on for long it's your main source of side missions throughout the game and you can choose to complete them or totally ignore them. It has little to no real impact on the main plot line.

The prison itself is suitable gritty and CoR features some of the best looking graphics and A.I seen in an Xbox game yet. Through the use of ‘normal mapping' everything from the environment to the games characters looks stunning and appears extremely detailed. CoR also features realistic physics and bodies crumple and fall with satisfying results. The level of detail on the characters is amazing and I spent ages simply zooming in (with the black button) just to check out the detail in their faces and clothing. Everything has a ‘sheen' to it which is ok on the environment but on the characters does give it a slight artificial look but the guards might spend their nights polishing their uniforms, who am I to judge them!

The lighting in the game is suitably moody as well, and there are numerous occasions where stealth and Riddick's night vision is the best way to progress instead of an all out attack. Your shadow and silhouette also casts itself on the environment and gives you a fantastic sense that it is actually YOU in the game and not just some character you control. Further examples of the excellent lighting are shown when you switch the flashlight on your weapons but you are better off staying stealthy and sneaking around the dark, grabbing an unsuspecting guard from behind and snapping his neck, cutting his throat with a scalpel or pushing him into an industrial fan, which are just a few of the more interesting scenarios that present themselves.

Sure, you can also just wade in with your shotgun blazing but there is a large portion of the game where you have to rely solely on your fists and cunning so it pays to master these skills. If there's no option but to confront a guard head on there are some awesome animations such as blocking a blow and then slicing the guards neck, turning a guards shotgun up under his chin to take him out quickly, bending a guard over and using his own pistol to shoot him in the stomach. There are some nasty touches to the game, but everything is handled and presented so well that I found myself going back to certain sections (you can't save anywhere but there are loads of checkpoints) just to experiment taking out the guards in different ways such as sneaking up and grabbing them from behind and ending their virtual life with a nice satisfying snap. It does pay to be careful though and drag bodies into the shadow areas or their buddies will find them. Pressing in the left thumb stick puts you into stealth mode and increases your field of view as well as enhancing your vision and hearing, the guards will still spot you though and hiding in shadows doesn't simply make you invisible.

There are times though when there is no option but to go in guns blazing and the enemy A.I reacts very well. They try to do their best to take you down and preserve themselves at the same time. They take cover, are pretty handy with their weapons and once alerted to your presence they will even deviate from their set patrol route and try and find you. They also tend to have a long memory and in one area I managed to get past a guard in heavy armour that saw me at the last second. I hid around the corner and could hear him searching for me in an area that he had never gone into previously while I was watching his patrol pattern. It's moments like these that make CoR stand out. The amount of weapons might be limited but this game isn't a straight out shooter and what's on offer, various shiv's, brass knuckles, a pistol, shotgun, rifle, experimental rifle and later on you even get hold of a mini gun that sounds incredible in the games Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound. The action and stealth sections throughout the game are balanced nicely and towards the end of the story, after a number of plot twists, you are rewarded with the chance to wreak some outright carnage in a massive battle suit that even offers you advice such as "conserve ammo by stepping on biological life forms”. LOL, great stuff (-: