Darkly Shining: Ars Speaks With Vin Diesel…Game Developer

Tie-ins—games based on movies—have earned a well-deserved reputation for shoddy quality. As a result, such games are seen as little more than attempts to separate fans of the films from some extra cash. But one title stands out among the masses of inferior games: The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay.

Butcher Bay was one of those games that took us all by surprise when it came out in 2004. Not only did it have a great story, but it also featured some of the most intense action we’d seen in a long while and some mighty-fine stealth sequences to boot. The high quality of the game was, needless to say, a delight, far better than the film version of The Chronicles of Riddick.

Five years later, it looks like lightning might strike twice, thanks to The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena. Playing the recently released demo reveals a game that is just as tense and thrilling as its predecessor.

Wanting to know more about it, Ars sat down recently with Vin Diesel, Tigon’s Head of Production Ian Stevens, and lead writer John Platten. Our conversation revealed something that most gamers don’t know: Assault on Dark Athena is the fruition of a love story between its designers and the source material.

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