Thursday 21 February 2013

Bionicle Heroes Review

I've been with Bionicle from the beginning to the end. I've been into it since 2001 to 2010 and collected a vast amount of the sets released for it. 2006 is where I REALLY got into the series. 2006 was, in my opinion, the top of the Bionicle series. During that year they released a video game based on the 2006 storyline. I am here to talk about it.

Story-4/10- The story is very basic. These bad dudes named the Piraka have taken over an island and have a thing you want. You, being the almighty god chosen Toa, have beat them and get the thing back. There's also something about the Piraka turning the animals of the island into monsters, but that's just an excuse to bring in old bad guys from previous years.

However, the game has a myriad of continuity problems, such as dead characters being alive, good characters being evil, and thing that really shouldn't be on the island being there. However, this is null and void, as it makes up for these errors in the extra content, which I will get to in a minute.



Gameplay-7/10-Unlike the other LEGO games, this game is a third-person shooter, mostly dealing with combat and no puzzle solving. Each of the six characters has a different weapon, the water Toa has a gun that shoots a constant stream of water, the fire Toa shoots rapid fire, uh, fire, and the stone Toa shoots grenades. None of the guns have ammo, basically making the game significantly easier then most third-person shooters.

Each character also has a different ability that allows them to go to secret areas or just go farther into the level. The water Toa can walk on water, the air Toa can jump, the stone Toa can climb walls, the ice Toa can zoom in and shoot far away targets, and the fire Toa can walk on lava. The most important of these abilities is the earth Toa's ability, which allows him to build things out of LEGO pieces. Each Toa also has an unlockable second ability to help  you get extra things.

Money is always an important thing in the LEGO games. In the other games you have to collect enough money to get a "True something" achievement, but in Bionicle Heroes it is a very big part of the game. Collecting enough money allows you to go into Hero Mode, which makes you invincible and able to move golden LEGO pieces. Alas, it is only temporary and goes away after you move the gold LEGO pieces. Enemies will constantly respawn until you gain Hero Mode. Speaking of.

The game has three types of enemies, being a more combat heavy game. These enemies are the Visorak, AKA the spiders. They shoot at you and are really easy to kill. The second type are the Bohrok, who have shields that really don't help them. The third type is the Vahki, who follow the wise words of Chumbawamba and get back up when you knock them down. The enemies simply act as fodder for money and as simple distractions in boss fights.

As for the boss fights, there are a lot of boss fights. Sadly they are pathetically easy, and mostly follow the same pattern: Go into Hero Mode, build a gold object a couple times, wait for the boss's shield to go down, and then shoot them. The bosses range from characters from almost all the Bionicle series, with characters like Nidhiki, the spider dude, to Brutaka, the big gold dude.

Of course, it wouldn't be a LEGO game if there wasn't a lot of stuff to collect. There are two types of collectibles, the silver canisters, which unlock character bios, and the gold canisters, which unlock info on the various special items in the Bionicle world. Both types are hidden equally, with the gold canisters being no harder to find then the silver ones.

Graphics-6/10- As usual, I find it very difficult to talk about the graphics. They are simply okay. It blends the darker, realistic style with the LEGO pieces much better then most of the other games. The character models also look very accurate to the toys they are based off. The cutscene's are also very humorous, as is the norm in LEGO media.

Overall-7/10- It's not the best LEGO game, but it certainly isn't awful. If you can find it in a rental store, or find in a bargain bin for 10 bucks, then I'd recommend buying it. Stay tuned for my next post which has something to do with this review.

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