When I set the game to the usual 1920*1080 resolution, the FOV is absolutely insane. My usual problem with FPS games is that the FOV is too narrow, usually because they're console ports or something, but here it's the exact opposite. It's so wide that I can't judge any distances at all.

I spot a drone coming along a hallway and estimate I have plenty of time to get into cover, then as I turn sideways he's bloody well almost on me. It's damn near unplayable, and it's really compressing models etc.

Anyone figured out how you set the FOV on this game?

I found this - "I couldn't find a way to change the FOV and it is set pretty high for proper screenshots. One way around this was to use the weapon zoom while in noclip mode (as the weapon is removed from view). This also adds a DoF blur that is set to the focal point of where the crosshair is, this can be a pain if you want to focus on something close up and also have a narrow FOV. One solution is to also bring up the weapon radial menu (Z key) while zoomed in, this changes the focus to very near to the camera. If you don't have a gun yet, use the giveall command to provide one, if you have this selected before going into noclip you will be able to use it to interact with the world."

http://www.deadendthrills.com/forum/discussion/108/guide-the-chronicles-of-riddick

I think there's no FOV correction in Butcher's bay (Assault on Dark Athena offers more options, afaik).

Instead of a Full HD resolution (1920x1080), try a HD resolution (1280×720) and check if it makes a difference. As the aspect ratio is exactly the same, the picture quality should be still very good on your monitor and more than sufficient for the game's base resolution.

Hmmm lower resolution certainly doesn't deal with it... although if i lower it to a 4:3 it might resolve it. The pixel ratio doesn't explain much...