Escape from Butcher Bay is a de facto prequel to the big-budget sci-fi film epic, The Chronicles of Riddick, which performed poorly at the box office earlier this year. Its protagonist, Richard B. Riddick, is a hardened, antiheroic criminal who is locked up in the titular prison at the game's start. Players control Riddick as he navigates his way through the interplanetary penitentiary, and lays down some of the backstory behind The Chronicles of Riddick and the first film to feature Riddick, Pitch Black.