The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena includes two single player campaigns. One is a graphically enhanced version of The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay and the other, called Assault on Dark Athena, continues the story almost directly after the end of Escape from Butcher Bay with Richard B. Riddick and Johns in hibernation on board of a ship deep in space. A group of renegade mercenaries finds them and brings them on board of their giant ship called the Dark Athena where they transform people into mindless drones. Of course Johns is a too valuable target to transform so they plan to collect the bounty that is on his head after he freed Riddick from the prison. Riddick on the other hand - well he managed to evade capture and is now really pissed.

As in the first campaign, the player once again assumes the role of Riddick, controlling him a standard first person shooter fashion through the corridors of the ship. But Riddick isn't one who runs guns blazing through the enemies. Instead the dark is his friend. Hiding in the shadows he uses his special ability to see in the dark, sneak up on enemies and perform an instant melee kill with whatever weapon he has currently equipped. This not only applies to his melee weapons that range from his fists to the newly double-carved blades but called "Ulaks" but also to the bigger stuff he'll find on his journey like assault rifles, a mini-gun and such. If he hasn't a gun available, he can pick up a dead drone and use hers. At one point in the single player campaign he'll even take over the control of a full-blown mech to reek havoc on the ship as he did back in Escape from Butcher Bay. If an enemy manages to actually hit the player, Riddick can use NanoMED health units to replenish his health. Since these only have a limited amount of charges he can refill them with NanoMED Catridges scattered around the levels. The bigger NanoMED health units permanently increase his health. And on his way through the Dark Athena he also finds bounty cards, the equivalent of the cigarette packs Riddick collects in Escape from Butcher Bay, unlocking extra content like artworks or personal profiles.

Completely new to the game is the multiplayer mode allowing up to 12 players compete against each other in several game modes including Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Arena. Butcher Bay Riot and Pitch Black. While the first three are self-explanatory, Arena puts up to four players in small areas in either one-on-one or two-on-two fights while everyone else is spectating and waiting for their turn. Butch Bay Riot on the other hand puts three teams against each other with each team buying their weapons, ammo and armor before each round. With the goal to bring the power node located in the middle of the map to the enemy base, the guards, prisoners and mercenaries don't really fight each other at once. Instead each group has one specific enemy. So the prisoners go after the guards base while the guards attack the mercs. The last game mode, Pitch Black, puts everyone in a dark area with one player playing Riddick with his dual-blades and his night-vision ability and the others all playing mercs only equipped with their weapons and flashlights hunting him down.