Duplicating the success of one surprise hit can be a terrifying prospect for a new developer. The temptation, of course, is just to do the same thing again, and make sure that you pump out that sequel as fast as possible to ride the wave of hype built up behind the first game. UK-based developer Traveller's Tales is anything but a new developer, however, which is why it's such a mystery that even after releasing , a sequel that really just transplanted the same gameplay from the critically and commercially acclaimed into the world of The Original Trilogy, they tried to make lightning strike thrice with even less effort.
Bionicle Heroes should have been a game that captured the slightly more mature angle of one of LEGO's biggest lines of toys in years. It's clear that there was an understanding of the characters and the world, but hastily throwing the same LEGO collecting and building gameplay at a -style over-the-shoulder camera and control scheme does not a good game make, and worse yet, it becomes obvious early on that without the charm and humor of the Star Wars universe, the formula becomes excessively tiring after just a couple of hours.
For those that either don't have kids or aren't kids enough at heart to have jumped into the whole Bionicle universe, the game doesn't really do a very solid job of explaining things.
There's really no over-arching narrative to explain what's going on, just a simple cutscene that explains that formerly cutesy Piraka creatures have donned masks and gone all evil, y'know...
. 'cause. As a mysterious savior that arrives via tube to the island of Voya Nui and is handed one o' them nasty masks, you're able to transform into various Bionicle forms to.
.. well, basically to shoot stuff.
A lot. Very sloppily.
This effectively leaves the exploration of any of the source material up to the player, either by actually reading some of the books or watching the TV shows (or, like me, an hour or so on Wikipedia) to glean that the game is based on the Legends storyline, or, if you're truly masochistic, by buying storyline bits with the Bionicle pieces you pick up while playing through the game.
The money is better spent on upgrading your various robots, however, dropping endless loot into categories to upgrade things like weapons and armor. The whole mask system is inherently flawed, however, not only because of the fact that any time you pick up one of the many, many masks scattered throughout the levels that you auto-switch to that 'bot, but because the game is fundamentally broken by the fact that if you collect enough Bionicle pieces -- and like LEGO Star Wars you can find them everywhere -- you kick off Hero Mode, which makes you invincible for the rest of the level until you find something that requires that you use your new golden-robo powers to build it.
This means that if you're truly diligent about picking up pieces to fund your bankroll for unlocking things like cheats and storyline details and utterly useless basic hints that should have been explained in the first level as tutorial pop-ups or just looking in the instruction manual, you should be hitting Hero Mode a couple of minutes into the start of a particular stage.
Since basic objects that can be blown up respawn, there's basically an endless supply for Bionicle pieces, which was offset by jacking up the prices for most of the Cantin--err Enclave store items to stupid levels.
I know it sounds like I hate the game (and, well, I do), but it's just that there was a lot of potential here. Instead, you'll trudge through areas, using a clunky movement and sighting control scheme, switching masks to interact with a smattering of objects that need to be built Force-style to move on to more stuff you can shoot.
Granted, the game is aimed at kids, but repetition -- especially for those with short attention spans -- is not a good thing, and despite the game's whole hub system for exploring worlds and the levels tucked into them, there's really little beyond shoot/build/Hero Mode/build/shoot/stop to restore some flowers/Hero Mode/build a 'bot to fight the otherwise invincible boss/almost kill boss/lost Hero Mode/circle strafe until boss is dead/repeat. The window dressing might change, but the core gameplay is almost universally the exact same for the whole game as the first level you play through.
Some of the best parts of TT's Star Wars efforts like the humor and tight controls and -- I dunno, fun -- are nowhere to be found here.
Even the little cutscenes you can unlock for Pirata freed from their evil state are only cute the first time you see them. Needless fetching of silver and gold canisters only adds another layer of monotony for folks cursed with being anal about collecting everything in a level (some actually require revisiting past levels once you've upgraded enough or unlocked a special Bionicle bot).
Maybe it's just that the game doesn't really look all that bad, showing that there was more than a little effort put forth to make things presentable.
Some nice software bloom effects give the impression that the game is sporting software HDR (one of the newest trends I'm sure we'll see a lot more of going forward), so sunlight glinting off metal and lighting up water is nice, but the game does sort of fall into the trap of a series of elemental themes that aren't terribly creative. Stuff like open water looks nice, but then you'll tuck into a cave and it all feels like a muddy mess, leading to textures that look great in some places but stink in others.
There's detail in the creatures, too; animation, one of TT's primary sources of life and humor, at least give the various flora and fauna of Voya Nui some pep -- and no matter the setting, seeing a clump of loose pieces flying together to form a complex object is indeed cool.
Still, there are some minor framerate problems in place, and the overall polish of the game just seems off for something that is hitting on six year old hardware.
The counter-balance to the admittedly decent visuals is the audio, which is pretty horrid across the board. Thanks to a lack of real voices, you'll hear only grunts and groans from enemies, the plink of picked-up Bionicle pieces and some explosions here and there.
You'll also be subjected to some absolutely painful music for the different levels that tries to be brassy and rich, but just comes off as false bravado. Not that the music in the levels sticks around for too long; as soon as you kick on Hero Mode, the level tunes are shunted to the side and you're treated to the same tune recycled endlessly until you build something heroic.
The real stinkers of the game, however, are the camera and controls.
Your Bionicle forms take up too much of the screen, and the whole over-the-shoulder view, right down to the laser sight, just reeks of trying too hard to be like RE4. It isn't, and the way your character sloppily spins in place and trudges through levels is never something that really gets any more natural the more you play through it. Targeting objects can be hit-or-miss, leading to a bit of backing up and moving around to get things right.
In short, it's just needlessly clunky -- even for robots.
Traveller's Tales has already done this game before -- twice. They've done it with more heart, more pure fun and more engaging source material, and as such, even for Bionicle freaks, there's just no reason to pick this game up.
God help the kid that gets this as a present when they should have gotten one of the LEGO Star Wars games instead. Seriously, just avoid this game and pick up one of TT's better efforts.
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