
	Platform PlayStation 2 Genre Action / Shooter Publisher Eidos Developer Traveller's Tales / TT Games ESRB E (Everyone) Released Q4 2006

- Well done and immersive graphics - Nice score - Makes a strong attempt to bring the Bionicle universe to life

- Clunky controls - Distracting interface - May induce motion sickness


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Bionicle Heroes

Score: 4 / 10

For the last several years, Lego has had a new line of character-oriented model kits built around a common universe called "Bionicle." The components are derivative of Lego's popular Technic series of kits, and the models all tie in to an ongoing series of stories. There have been numerous additions to the kits. There have been books for schoolchildren. There have been at least a couple CGI animated films. And now, we have the inevitable video game.

Bionicle Heroes takes place on the island of Voya Nui (all of the Bionicle character and place names have a distinctly Polynesian flavor to them), where a lone Toa hero must use a variety of masks to overcome the band of unspeakably evil Piraka who've made the lives of the local islanders completely miserable. By changing masks, the hero gains a different array of weapons and abilities, all in his quest to beat the Piraka and save the island. And if you don't feel the urge to giggle even a little bit having read that paragraph, you're either a serious collector of Bionicle models or you correctly sense the level of depth this game has to offer. Which is to say, very little.

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One of the positive things about this game is the graphics. Visually speaking, Bionicle Heroes is well done. TT Games has translated the look and feel of the Bionicle models into a whimsical and yet very convincing world. From plants to animals, you get the feeling that you're interacting with life-sized Legos, or at least as life-sized as your TV will allow.

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Lighting and shadow are well done, all the bells and whistles are out in force, and this is the PS2 version. While it's not quite as detailed as the character models found in the animated movies, the game delivers on the graphics with nary a hitch or stutter.

As for sound and music, again, the game does well. While the music score is well played, the shifts between the exploratory music and the battle music are not as smooth as they probably could have been. The tunes get a little repetitive after a while, but that can happen even in the best games. Sound effects and voiceover work is well executed. Again, not quite flawless, a little repetitive at times, but still quite good.

So, if Bionicle Heroes looks good and sounds good, how does it play? In truth, it plays like crap. My first big complaint is the perspective that the developers chose for this game. They didn't quite make it a first-person perspective, which would have made it a really nice FPS, and they didn't quite make it a third-person perspective, which would have made it a really nice action game. Instead, they somehow tried to split the difference and ended up buying the worst of both perspectives. Notionally, you're seeing the landscape from a third-person perspective over the right shoulder of the main character. But the placement of the main character along the left side of the screen serves to create a visual distraction if you're looking around and trying to target an enemy, as well as creating a blind spot for enemies to hit you from the left side. Additionally, this title serves as the first video game I have ever played which has caused motion sickness or spatial disorientation. Not Freespace, not Homeworld, not any other game I've played in my very long love affair with them. Compounding this sin is the mechanics behind the masks. The idea of specialized equipment for specialized situations is as old as Mega Man, if not older. The difference here is that you're given several masks at the start, but not all of the powers associated with them. Collecting items or remains for points is also nothing new, nor is the idea of turning them in to buy items. Somehow, these tried and true mechanisms fall apart in Bionicle Heroes. The gameplay mechanics completely destroy the beautiful illusion created by the graphics. The fun factor goes out the window. All of the neat little touches that help suspend your disbelief are undone by the controls and the presentation of the interface. You cease to care about blasting the bad guys and become more concerned with not blasting your lunch all over the living room.

Is this game guaranteed to make everybody hurl? Not necessarily. But an upset stomach is simply the final insult from a game that gets everything right up to the point where you actually start moving.

Axel Cushing

April 7, 2007