Pong and Beyond

753rd played so far

Genre: First-Person Shooter
Platform: PC/XBox
Year of Release: 2004
Developer: Starbreeze Studios/Tigon Studios
Publisher: Vivendi Universal Games

Although tie in games are usually seen as bad, we have seen some good ones – Goldeneye is the one that everyone loves, while Star Wars arguably has some games that are better than the movies. Still, a spin off of a random action flick that didn’t make much headway critically doesn’t feel like a great base to build on. Still, Vin Diesel helped out making the game and it clearly was good enough to have two entries on the list, so we’ll see how that works out.

Our Thoughts

While most of these adaptations would have focused on the action points of their movie, Escape from Butcher Bay creates its own plot around the titular Butcher Bay – with the help of Vin Diesel, who consulted on the game.

I mean, I haven’t seen the movie, so I’m not sure how much overlap there is, but reading the summary of the movie’s plot doesn’t really trigger any recognition, so while I’m sure there are some references, it’s pretty standalone – probably to the game’s advantage.

The game starts with a lengthy escape sequence that serves as the game’s tutorial. You still end up failing, but the way the game plays it works incredibly well and felt strangely more satisfying than you getting recaptured. It fooled me, for sure, but there’s no need to spoil that.

After that, the game drops you in an action adventure hub. You help people with missions, there’s some fighting, but also exploring and finding items. The game starts alternating between these adventure hubs and action focused segments, but it all breaks up the monotony and adds character to the areas, especially when prisoners start to interact with each other. It gets lost a little after the first area, but shows signs of showing up again – a decent back and forth.

Final Thoughts

This game shines in those adventure segments, when you get a feeling for a real world rather than connected rooms. Those action segmets are fine, but it’s that world that stands out as much as it can, with the situations and options it creates.