Being as i haven't played this game since oh 2011 on the Xbox 360, and just watched the entire trilogy (Pitch Black, Dark Fury, Chronicles of Riddick) it seems time to play the game that i installed something like 8 months ago and had yet to touch. Time to give some thoughts on it. This will probably take a week before i get the full experience so...

Partially through Butcher Bay:

Graphics: Mixed bag.
*Looks nice - With all the settings on max my video card and computer aren't chugging at all.
*Awesome body animations - Feels fluid, especially when Riddick moves. yeah he shuffles his feet a little re-situating himself after you turn/move, but you can see how he's standing more by his shadows so it's actually pretty cool.
*Weak models - Several times Riddick's arms look more polygon, although Vin Disel is built, it could have used slightly higher resolution body models.
*No FOV - which makes the sides skew and stretch badly and is hard on my eyes.

Audio: Good overall, not much stands out
"What the hell's happening to the lights!?" - hmmmm :)
"Combat Analysis: To conserve Ammo, walk over less threatening squishy opponents"

Other: Meh
*Really weak AI - The AI is really really weak. Someone mentioned AI doesn't exist and is just well placed scripts, and that is heavily true here. No one knows your coming, yet enemies spawn to guard a spot or throw grenades without even seeing you... Sometimes guys that should be neutral to you start attacking you, or if you shouldn't be a target when not hiding, you are still targeted...
*Keyboard Prompts - This is annoying where it keeps telling you 'Press E to interact' when i'm clearly using the 360 pad and it should say i should press Y instead. Yeah Keyboard should be priority, but it really should switch like Dust when it detects you're using something else as a primary.
*Bad checkpoints - Sometimes you'll get a checkpoint somewhere when you have only 1-2 bars of health, then the next room the guard immediately guns you down from halfway across the room, no cover or stealth, thus requiring 14 replays until you get it right.
*Animation Glitches - In my game so far there's been a dozen animation glitches, usually when sneaking up behind someone and snapping their neck the two animations separate into their own parts of the guy just standing there, then falling over, then doing the snapping animation over empty air. Issue with preloading? or using the CPU at half power because the GPU's doing all the work? Don't know...

I really don't remember having this many issues with Escape from Butcher Bay... Anyways, i'll keep playing and update this list as we go. If anyone actively has questions i'll answer them to the best i can through either game, although Athena will have to wait till i finish the first game...

Naturally i'm getting annoyed with how it does the checkpoints and some of the elements that don't give you any chance to be stealthy....

I wonder how i had the lenience to play this back a few years ago...

Maybe i was on medication... Yeah i'll accept that as my excuse...

So, finished the escape from butcher bay... Lots of minor annoyances... But nothing too horrible. Sometimes the choice of stealth isn't there, although i missed certain missions due to it skipping forward to the next part without letting me know at what point i would lose access to doing those parts... Namely Double Max security.

It was probably my post you were referring to with the scripting complaint (or at least, I mentioned it most recently).

Did it ever get better or was it like that throughout the game? I still haven't forced myself to play more than a few fights after the first guy in a mech.

A number of the events were scripted, but some of the AI wasn't, namely pre-spawned that you had to get around. I can't say it got better, but some of them were waiting for you, even if they weren't lobbing grenades at the area you should roughly be because you passed an invisible line in complete darkness.

I want to say... at least 70% of it was scripted, some of it well done where you can't tell it is, and the other 30% you just enter an area where you can either sneak by or go guns blazing.

Nah, The A.I. don't change except in Hard mode, there they have quick aim (They react quickly than an human) and quick reflex when using cover (Show, fire, hide everything before your bullets reach them), making hard to kill them.
In the Dark Athena is the same history.

In general I have mix feeling for those two games, I just finished in the last weeks.
The prison is more or less O.K. but the mix of Stealth and kill is not balanced, sometimes the stealth is almost impossible, however almost all the scenarios have 2 paths.
If you play in the Hard mode, is more or less balanced/just but you truly need a lot of good luck with the grenades (In normal when you take a small portion of the hit you lost one single bar, in Hard you usually die). Still is good and probably will try again the Hard mode in a future.

The second one is similar, fixed some minor problems in the first game though is totally lineal... but then... suddenly... the developers... The developers thinked "HEY! Lets force that the lasts levels need one unique weapon for everything including bosses"... ARGH!
In the hard mode, this $#"$"#$ slow, stupid weapon is the death for you, and even if you are able to stealth will not work anymore as the enemy has now more HP. Everything can kill you fast, and you are now forced to be slower... I downgrade my play to Normal due the frustration (I swear, the Tranquilizer gun was MORE powerful than this "#$$"$, "$"$#"$#"#$, 42#%#$"#%$#. 35$#"#$"!$ weapon).