One of the best linear FPS's I've played. Well designed levels and interesting weapons. Riddick excels at stealth gameplay - typical passage of play involves creeping around behind a box and knifing someone in the back, or blowing out the lights in a room and using your night vision to your advantage. Enemy AI is pretty solid, with good use of cover and plausible guesswork when they fire at your predicted location in the dark. I preferred Dark Athena purely because of the drones, but Butcher Bay felt a bit less linear, and had grisly aliens to dispatch so both were fab. Both games will keep you busy for a goodly while, but replay value is close to zero.
I agree with Herzalot: the game does suffer from awful repetition. A large number of quests are exactly the same (deliver passports, destroy convoy, etc). There is a somewhat badly executed overarching storyline which, when you can figure out what is going on, is rather good. Graphics are laptop-meltingly superb, despite the dull brown colour scheme. Enemy AI is passable, with flanking manoeuvres and use of vehicles, although their hearing is annoyingly good. For all it's faults, FC2 is light years better than FC1, which I honestly couldn't play for more than a single dull hour. Best game to compare it to in my experience would be the Stalker franchise, which definitely had more depth and variety. FC2 manages a more earthy, realistic environment. Nothing can compare to the joy of whizzing over the dunes in a buggy chasing zebra, or stalking a thug in the long grass. Good value at $9.99!
