20 Remakes and Remasters That Are Worse Than The Original

18. The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay (2009)

While the Vin Diesel-starring film The Chronicles of Riddick may not have been up to scratch, its video game tie in certainly was. Serving as a prequel to Pitch Black, Escape from Butcher Bay sends us into action as Diesel’s incarcerated alien murderer Richard B Riddick. Taking place inside the titular maximum-security prison, from which no prisoner has ever escaped before, Riddick must do the impossible and break out using all tools at his disposal.

The hand-to-hand combat and stealth systems make it a game worth returning to, and it’s regarded as one of the greatest games of all time, which rose far above the standard of movie tie-in games to become a piece of art in its own right. Developer Starbreeze Studios sought to capitalise on this by remaking the game for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, as Assault on Dark Athena, with new and expanded content.

Unfortunately, it got kicked around various publishers and didn’t see the light of day until 2009. By then, the game had morphed into something else, with Butcher Bay being more of an add-on to the Dark Athena story. Gone are the things that make Butcher Bay such a great play, and here to stay are garish, overlit scenes that lose the detail and mood of the original. The altered visuals and stealth mode change the feel and vibe of the thing, and in all it lacks the finesse of the original.