Reviewed: January 3, 2007
Reviewed by: Mat Houghton

Publisher
Eidos Interactive

Developer
TT Games

Released: November 15, 2006
Genre: Action
Players: 1
ESRB: Everyone

8
8
7
8
8.0

Supported Features:

So you are just about as up to speed as I am, and I’ve played the game.

Once you get used to it though, the game plays smooth, and you generally have a good field of vision. The only place where it gets restrictive is when you’re walking through small tunnels or hallways.

Aside from the camera problems and perspective Bionicle is built similar to the Lego: Star Wars games. You have a central hub from where you can select your level, view the secrets you’ve found, and buy upgrades/bonuses with the pick-ups you’ve been collecting in your travels. While this works well for Star Wars, it isn’t quite as effective here.

For starters the levels are longer and more time consuming than those in the Star Wars games, so you aren’t quite as enthusiastic about hopping through a stage three or four times to get all the goodies out of it. Worse, the game is built so you have to go through a stage at least twice to get everything. That is, if you wait for that second trip until you’ve beaten the game.

The main play element to the game is that you have six different masks you can switch between. Each one has its own unique weapon and abilities that help you progress through each mission and a special ability that helps you access secret areas. There are also six bosses that you can play as after you’ve beaten them, and playing as them gives you access to other areas. Not only all of that, but there are random piles of rocks that you can only manipulate after you’ve beaten the final boss, so if you want to get everything you’re either in for a bit of a slog or just wait to replay anything until after you’ve finished.

Switching between masks actually gives you a good variety of game play, with weapons that range from a grenade launcher to a sniper rifle, and special abilities that let you build things with spare Lego parts, climb walls, or walk on lava. You also have as many life meters as you do masks, so if you’re low on health you can switch to a mask you don’t use very much, “die”, and then switch back to your favorite with full health.

While this is a neat trick, it means you are never really in danger of being unable to complete a mission. To make that even harder, after you collect a certain amount of pick-ups (they were called studs in Lego: Star Wars) you enter hero mode, turn gold, and become completely invulnerable. Hero mode isn’t permanent though, as you have to use your power to manipulate stacks of gold blocks to clear a path or help you fight the boss, and once you’ve done that you start back over as just a robot. Wise use of hero mode and the ability to switch masks makes it easy for you to juggernaut through levels with little or no damage.

The graphics overall are slightly too bright, so you get very rich colors, but also a little too much lens flare and blurring. So despite the fact that everything is built out of Legos the effect is much softer and more organic looking than you would expect. I will say that the TV I’ve been playing on isn’t the best piece of technology so some of my impressions could be colored by that.

While all of this is nice, what really makes this game pop is the special effects. All of the weapons have unique effects and as you upgrade them they get cooler. The grenade launcher alone is worth it, because you go from a little glowing sphere to a basketball sized rippling ball that explodes across most of the screen, shock wave included. Not only that, but the character models change to reflect the upgrades as well.

The cinematics are put together using slightly better than game graphics, and aside from being a slightly juvenile are pretty funny. They don’t carry camp as well as the ones from Lego: Star Wars, but there isn’t as much to poke fun at here.

There is little voice acting in the game, mostly just a bit of narration at the beginning. While this does cut back on depth of story, most of the cinematics are sight gags anyway, so you don’t really notice the absence of impassioned (terrible) acting.

The audio effects are as impressive as the visual ones, with great explosions, crumbling structures, and laser blasts wizzing left and right.

While it isn’t quite as addictive and flat out fun as Lego: Star Wars it is a good time. You won’t be dragging all of your friends to come see it, but you will certainly get your money’s worth.