The Game Boy: The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Boring Exploration

Nathan Grayson — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 04:12:18 -0500

Ignoring the absolutely, hilariously awful second movie, the universe of Vin Diesel vehicle Richard B. Riddick is undeniably fascinating. Each of its good entries dishes out only as much juicy info as Riddick and a small cast of supporting characters see fit, creating a potentially infinite playground for Diesel’s be-goggled antihero to bully around. And, as with any well-constructed sci-fi setting, no trip to Riddick’s take on the final frontier is complete without a liberal helping of the four W’s. What’s the deal with this planet? Why is Riddick performing fistic genocide on half of its population? Who made these totally rad mechs? And where can I get one?

The answer to all of these questions is simple in Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena -- explore.

Or at least, that’s the logical solution, and in a universe where even a quick moment of hesitation is liable to end with someone on the receiving end of a knife to the eye socket, it’s probably best to avoid asking too many questions. So, during my still in-progress playthrough, I’ve been plumbing the grimy depths of Alcatraz’s out-of-this-world cousin, Butcher Bay. Unfortunately, as of now, the only reward I’ve received for all my exploration is a pack of smokes. And by “a pack,” I mean somewhere in the upper double digits. Suffice it to say, it’s a good thing Riddick doesn’t use the same cigarette storage methods as Solid Snake.

But for me, this literal smoke stack still presents a problem. Sure, I’m being rewarded for my constant exploration, and yeah, the Special Surprises inside each carton – ranging from concept art to behind-the-scenes tech demos – are pretty neat, but after a while, everything just becomes so predictable. Under those crates? A cigarette carton. On that ledge? A cigarette carton. Behind your ear? Well, you get the idea. And really, isn’t the main appeal of exploration – and, to an extent, gaming in general – discovery and subsequent mastery of the unknown? Why take a hike off the beaten path when I already know what lies just around the corner – especially when, in all likelihood, said main path will provide me with far more varied rewards for my trouble?

What I’m proposing, then, isn’t that we rub secret areas and things of the like off the map, but that we simply transform them into a slightly more appealing proposition. The potential benefits, as you’ll soon see, are enormous, as demonstrated by the following example.

When I was a youngster who still believed that videogames ran on magic and some sort of graphical lynchpin located in the middle of level three, I absolutely adored The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. To me, the game’s world wasn’t a set adventure, but rather, some kind of fantastical platform for discovery, fueled by the monstrously creative mind of Shigeru Miyamoto, as inspired by some trees in his backyard. But, like Riddick, exploration was an all-too-limited prospect, with life-granting pieces of heart, in this case, forming a strangely relevant counter-commentary to Riddick’s cigarettes. My sense of wonderment upon booting up a videogame was, after spending many hours with Ocarina of Time, never the same.

That is, until Fallout 3 came along. And while Zelda and Fallout may make a bit of an odd couple, their exploration aspect, at least on a basic level, differs in only one fundamental way: Zelda consistently tosses me the same heart-shaped letdown as a reward, while Fallout 3 mixes things up a little. In measured servings, Bethesda’s recent opus rewarded my exploration with special weapons, kooky characters, special quests, and enthralling fragments of the Wasteland’s past. Granted, when boiled down to that level, even Fallout 3 didn’t actually provide an inimitable amount of variety in its reward system. They key here, then, is that even a little exploration-based reward variety – even in the background of a game that essentially has you performing variations on the same few actions time and time again – is potentially enough to keep players chomping at the bit 50 hours into the experience. Or at least, that’s how things were for me.

Better still, single-player action games need not be the only reapers of a tweak to their reward systems. MMOs, especially, could use a few dashes of color on their largely black-and-white priority lists; after all, loot and experience points aren’t going to cut it forever. Granted, recent WoW expansions have been making some strides in this field, but there’s still room for improvement. And that’s just one possible example. So, what games or genres do you think could benefit from more varied exploration and rewards?

The Game Boy is the soapbox Nathan Grayson stands atop to pass down proclamations about the world of gaming. Installments are posted at least once per week. In the event that expectation isn’t met, it’ll be safest to assume that Nathan became a victim of the ensuing Porkpocalypse. That, or he’s too busy playing the game he’s supposed to be writing about.

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The Game Boy: The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Boring Exploration