So far I am quite impressed with the game, while it does lack in some areas, and gameplay is quite repetitive, any collector will enjoy the game, however if you are picky and don’t have that much to budget you may want to stay away.

Game Mechanics:

So far the main game itself is going from room to room blowing stuff up and collecting the money from your fallen foes. From there you can also seek out and find the different hidden canisters on each level, but of course you have to replay the level a few times after unlocking each character, and perhaps the best route to go is to play each level once and then after beating it, thus unlocking Vezon to play and fully upgrading each toa go back and play each level again. So far I have been unable to figure out how to play each area with it’s respective PIRAKA, but I think you have to grab them from the PIRAKA BEACH once defeated, so it may be you have to play each level a minimum of three times in order to find 100 percent of the canisters. Ill update later once I have this figured out. After you beat a level you go to a sort of “unlocked” screen which displays a bunch of canister lids as you either beat the level or gain an accomplishment. It also appears as you collect canisters throughout the level that it unlocks a mask and gives you a little data for it in the trophy room.

In short the game play is VERY repetitive and you will eventually get board, faster than many other games. Gameplay can be summed down to:

*Blow stuff up, get parts and enter hero mode, activate “constraction”, repeat until boss

*Boss fights: Blow up minions (since boss has a shield) save up parts, activate constraction, which damages boss. Some bosses have a phase where you are supposed to wait until they are vulnerable and then attack, you can tell this phase has engaged when your bar fills up VERY slowly to the point it seems near impossible. When the bosses’ hearts turn red they are vulnerable to attack.

*Using the parts you grab throughout the game, spend them to unlock certain items and features, as well as upgrading toa. You can upgrade each toa to his maximum in very few levels, in fact I had so much money I didn’t see half of the upgraded weapons since I had the option of skipping right to the next one up. Some of the unlockables are essentially cartoons at the Piraka beach.

*Attempt to get gold rating for each level, usually done by not losing a toa mask, which isn’t too much of a challenge but sometimes was difficult.

Trophy Room:

So far I have seen two sorts of trophy rooms, the first set can be located arching overtop of the tunnel leading to the level select interface, where you can view bosses and enemies you’ve unlocked and/or beaten, the other can be found elsewhere and lists achievements, completion, different characters, masks, when they where released as sets and a little text on each one from their original storyline. The information itself is simple and I can’t say it lists everything and every set but it does give us some decent information, though nowhere near as much as a well learned fan or collector would know. This does add to the usefulness of the game and to the gameplay.

Multiplayer…

None whatsoever, but it may have helped this game, being more appealing to younger audiences with fewer multiplayer games available to younger children, this may have helped. Being the X Box 360 version, it is possible, though unlikely, that a multiplayer mode or additional content be available via X Box Live Marketplace, which would be nice, and also gives it the potential to be revised later on.

Controls:

Well, perhaps oversimplified to the point it’s difficult to play but still workable, strafing being the key problem. Those of you familiar with it would want the traditional “Halo” style movement, but strafing is done by holding a trigger and moving in the direction you want to go, but if you’r locked onto an enemy, being plentiful in the game, you will strafe around him, forcing you to un strafe and lock onto another enemy. The y button and shoulder buttons shift between toa, with the Y button seemingly set to make you change to the appropriate toa when the icon telling you what toa you need to be to do something appears. In other words if you need Matoro to snipe a target to open a gate, being close the the optimal shooting spot makes a picture of Matoro’s mask appear with the letters “press y” if you do not have Matoro selected. At that point pressing Y seems to switch you to Matoro, the toa needed for the job, however it doesn’t always seem to work. The left bumper shifts toa masks to the one on the left while the right bumper selects the mask to the right. The toa mask all the way to the right in the box is your selected mask, and I wish it was the middle most mask so you could see the toa your switching to from the right since it wraps around from the opposite side. Of course you can simply tap it ‘till you get the right toa. Pressing B activates toa powers or an upgraded ability (which basically pops a door or digs a hole in context sensitive places), the A button fires (sometimes you want to mash it to fire a lot but you are intended to hold it down, gets annoying). Hmm. What did the X button do again??? Simply but the controls, though workable are often annoying. You will find the radar very useful when that over the shoulder view shows enemy location and hidden tunnels, especially with the left side often blocked by your toa, it can tell you something is there where the toa blocks your view. The radar has one problem though, sometimes when you are in a zone with multiple floors it shows lines representing each one until you don’t have a clue whats what! If it only showed lines and wall for your current level that’d be a big help, plus throw in a level map that can be viewed from the start screen and you’d be able to track locations you’ve been more easily when the area starts getting confusing.

Storyline:

I think the fallowing Imoticon best conveys my thoughts: >_
TT games did indicate from the start they scrapped pretty much everything except the “get the mask of life and defeat the Piraka” idea to make the game more fun, which it is, but I’m hoping for any “sequels” they consider tweaking the problems with the controls in this game and doing some in depth storyline, and adding some more mechanics to make the game a tad more challenging and less repetitive. They’ve already got the groundwork here if you ask me, a fun game to play but lacks something to grab you if you don’t care for unlockables.

Characters:

I have yet to play through as any PIRAKA except Vezon, but the main characters each have their own style and differences, though often you will lean towards Nuparu once fully upgraded, as he can destroy a lot of enemies with just one blast of his weapon. Every toa has their details, some move faster than others and each one is needed to do different things, usually its only a matter of switching to the right toa, but even if you lose a mask, they are plentiful and easily found using the markers on the map. Some toa powers just don’t seem to have been translated very well, and most amount to Hahlii walking on water, Nuparu climbing walls, Jaller walking on lava, plus each toa can activate a sort of mini constraction to break walls or open a door to reveal a hidden canister. Those are just some examples. The toa of course resemble the sets, though we often do not see their fronts, and they all use the same shape of armor when you do see their fronts briefly. When you unlock Vezon, you’ll notice the lack of a cape and his tool changes to a cannon’ish version of itself.

Details:

Bionicle fans will see some nice details, some better than others. For example, Axxon working WITH the piraka and is an enemy, Bohrok are listed as Bohrok Kal (though clearly not the kal). A majority of the words and carvings at the loading screens and throughout the game are written in matoran writing, and consistent with what they were for. An example being “loading, be patient”, so anyone who can read the font no problem will have fun reading over the signs and stuff as they go, though not very many can be found in the middle of the levels. Other details include looking t a enemy, and recognizing him! The bosses and enemies do look like their set forms, though kinda skinny and distorted. If you had a black and white tv you could still be able to tell most characters apart, with some difficulty on the bohrok, their shields being a tad difficult to spot. The time was taken to give each character their respective tool, though distorted into gun forms for the Inika, you can look at two vahki and see they have their respective staffs. Even the LEGO company and the developers for the second movie did not have that detail, since all vahki in the film used the green vahki’s staff. The Visorak’s projectile is set apart from other projectiles by their distinct grey spinners in the center of the blast, and their mandibles had the appropriate shape. So set wise they put a lot of work into the minor details too, but there are some small things that weren’t quite hit right that may bug you.

Overall:

The game is average, 7 out of 10, nothing really innovative and even BIONICLE fans might not like it, but it is many times better than any other BIONICLE game released with the exception of Maze Of Shadows for the GBA (Before this one was the outright best I had played). I will however recommend you get at least one copy of the console version, or rent it when you have a few days off the blast through the game. I did have a lot of fun with it myself, even though I am an older audience and the game is seemingly directed towards younger audiences (which reportedly enjoy the game more so than older fans). If you can get the 360 version that’d be the best option with potential downloadable content, slightly better graphics and lighting, and a motion blur effect that you’ll probably turn off as soon as you find the toggle for it in the options. Just to see the game and the characters, details, along with the gameplay itself makes me say it’s a worthwhile investment, not to mention for the price. Most games are $50.00 or even $60.00 dollars USD, brand new on the shelf this one is $30.00 for most platforms and $40.00 for the 360, I think one copy is worth your time for the price, but collectors who try to buy every BIONICLE item out there may find it a waste to have it on more than one console, with the exception of the GBA and DS version which I hope to have more details of soon.