Bionicle: Voya Nui: The Online Game | a Review
originally published on 24/12/2022;
Hello everyone, I am the organic machine, G.E.M.Simov, an ancient sage who was once a great warrior. I’ve come to talk to you about an obscure little thing - about a Bionicle game called, fittingly: “Voya Nui Online Game”, henceforth dubbed VNOG.
Simple review details - I rank games on an out of 10 basis, granting up to 3 points in 3 categories, as well as a last, single point from my own self, depending on my experience with it.
Gameplay
Gameplay - this game has some of it. It features a square-based grid, through which the Player’s Character (the PC) is navigated by the player through the click of the mouse.
It is important to point out that there are two modes of play - there’s the ‘wandering’ mode, dubbed so by me, and the ‘combat’ mode. The wandering mode features unlimited opportunities for movement, the opportunity to open up the inventory screen and make use of all functionalities presented by it, as well as the opportunity to make use of the ‘digging’, the ‘waving’ and the ‘hiding’ mechanics.
The combat mode features a limited opportunity for movement, limited not just by a strict number of squares that can be traversed in a single turn, but also by turns - the Player takes turns with the Computer in a fight, seeing which controller (the Player or the Computer) can reduce the HP (Health Points or Hit Points) of their respective characters to 0 first.
If the Computer reduces the PC’s HP to 0 first, then the zone in which the battle took place is ‘reset’, with the PC being placed at the location where they were when the battle first started, the enemies will be restored to full HP and will cease their attempts to attack the PC (momentarily), while the PC will lose some Experience Points.
If the Player reduces the HP of the Computer’s characters (the enemies), the enemies are removed from the zone and the PC gains Experience Points, as well as, occasionally, items.
Experience Points are a resource that is used passively (through no active participation of the Player), awarding the PC with 1 level whenever certain thresholds (of experience points) are surpassed. Whenever the PC levels up, they earn a ‘point’ that they can use to increase one of three ‘stats’.
Attack, Defense and Technique. I have found that the PC gains everything, no matter which one of those three they pick, however the amount gained is different. Whenever Attack is selected, the PC gains a large amount of Bonus (which stands for bonus damage) and a small amount of Resistance. Whenever Defense is selected, the PC gains a small amount of Bonus and a large amount of Resistance. If Technique is selected, the PC gains a small amount of Bonus and a small amount of Resistance, but also increases their ‘Dodge’ (as well as their chance to Critically Strike).
Regardless of the choice made, the PC gains some maximum health whenever a point is expended, not whenever a level is earned, which seems to be a weird decision. Then again, the whole approach to getting a bit of everything whenever a point is spent is also weird. That, however, is not an issue.
Bonus and Resistance can also be increased by items. The PC can obtain items by ‘digging’ in specific locations during ‘wandering’ mode, completing quests (in the wandering mode) or killing enemies in combat. These items can have various uses and effects, but there’s a total of three types that can be utilized to increase Bonus and Resistance - those are masks, armors and greaves, each split into three tiers, with the high tiers reserved for the end game, while the low tiers and middle tiers can be obtained at any point in the game.
One interesting aspect of this system I’d say is the elemental bit of flavor added, but to get into that, I’ll also explain the concept of ‘character’ creation in VNOG. At the very start of the game, the player is presented with the opportunity to pick a character out of six. Each character has a different color which corresponds to the element associated with them. The element in question decides what kind of damage they will deal with their default attack (the special toa stone), as well as what element they will have higher than average Resistance and Bonus to, and what element they will have a lower than average Resistance and Bonus to.
Each item that can raise Resistance or Bonus is going to be an item with an element associated with it. That means that the Resistance and Bonus provided by that item is going to be higher when it comes to the element associated with it, while the Resistance and Bonus provided by it to the other elements is going to be lower.
The concept of this system is really interesting, in part due to the fact that there are other attacks - which attacks originate from weapons, which weapons are also elemental. In theory, having a higher elemental Bonus would mean that one does a lot more damage with a weapon that matches the element, and it is so, but the increase is nothing truly incredible… Or, rather, nothing that would provoke me to want to go for the optimal set of weapons and armor.
A bit later we’ll go more in-depth on why that’s a problem, but for now let me introduce you to the things that these items do, other than increase Resistance and Bonus. There are three types, as mentioned, and each has a different incredibly beneficial effect (more beneficial than the Resistance and Bonus increase). They are an increase to Action Points, which decree how many things the PC can do in a turn (attack or use certain usable items), an increase to Movement Points, which decree how many squares can be traversed in a single turn, and Range, which increases the range of all Weapons that have a range higher than 1.
Now, the usable items I mentioned are more of a gimmick that never sees real use, but I’ll list some of the things they potentially do. They need to be equipped from the inventory menu, and the PC can only have 1 such item equipped. There’s a number of specific types with different effects. Some can be used to heal the PC (only once per combat), and these are rarely ever useful, because it’s more efficient to just kill the enemy instead of healing, because healing takes up Action Points and essentially cripples the PC. If the enemy has done enough damage to warrant the use of the Healing item, then after the Healing item is used the enemy will get to have its turn, dealing damage once more.
The only point in time when this item can be useful is in the very late game, and then it is also quite unwise to use it, unless in conjunction with set-up from the previous turn that would allow the PC to avoid taking damage, yet will still need to have the HP in reserve (which means they are facing at least two enemies at once), which would indicate that the situation in which the PC can avoid taking damage for a turn through set-up and can also use the healing item is very unlikely. In short, there’s the item and it’s good, conceptually, but it is poorly designed, contextually.
Another item that can be used is a teleport item - which essentially trades in Action Points for movement, allowing the PC to travel a certain distance on top of that allowed by their Movement Points. Again, there’s no point in using this item. Most enemies that might require the use of this item (read bosses, perhaps) have ranged attacks that will negate the distance traveled. Most often the effect achieved through the use of this item can be achieved through the use of attacks, and thus it is pointless.
There are other items that reduce the Range or Action Points of enemies, which is, again, conceptually useful, much like the Healing item and the Teleporting item, but they are contextually worthless, because one does not deal damage through their use, and they eat up at least 50% of the available Action Points. All in all, the usable items were a big miss, though they’re very interesting. With that, we’ve got two misses. Why is it so?
It could be coming from one of the faults of the gameplay. In reality, that is not a fault of the gameplay - it is, actually, a strength of the gameplay, but it is still a bit of an issue. Each weapon type that is discovered and utilized provides the player with a different attack that they can use. Each attack does something different. Some simply do damage, while others have effects.
An example would be the default attack (the aforementioned special toa stone) which not only does damage, but it also reduces the Action Points of the target. Whenever the PC scores a critical strike (or a would be critical strike gets dodged by the enemy), the Special Toa Stone takes away 2 Action Points. With the fact that a Special Toa Stone can be used twice per turn, that means the enemy can lose up to 4 Action Points whilst also taking damage (sometimes enough damage to just outright die).
If the enemy survives, they are incredibly unlikely to be able to attack, because most enemies (with the exclusion of bosses) seem to have up to 4 Action Points and attacks that require 4 Action points to use. That means the usable item that makes the enemy lose Action Points is useless, because the Player can make the enemy lose Action Points without using that item while ALSO doing damage.
Now, the Toa Stone is bound to the element of the character, so it isn’t truly applicable to the issue with the elemental mechanic. However, the other weapons that are obtained can present a mish-mash of things. I can wield an Ice Weapon whilst having a Water Mask, a Fire Armor and Air Greaves - that doesn’t stop me from performing just as well as I would with Ice Equipment, provided what I’m trying to do is not to do max damage.
The weapons that are valuable and useful are the ones that end up in use. How, however, are these weapons useful or valuable? Well, let’s take a step to the side, or maybe forward, or maybe backwards.
To kill an enemy, the Player needs to make sure their PC’s HP does not drop to 0, while the HP of the enemy does drop to 0. However, the moment that appears and presents itself as a challenge to the player is the following:
Enemies start having more HP than the PC. At that point, fighting an enemy by simply exchanging blows is not going to end with a victory for the Player. Thus, the player is incentivized, and maybe even forced to, figure out how to make it so the enemy can not just trade blows with them.
This is where the value and use of weapons comes in. As mentioned previously, the Special Toa Stone is very valuable and very useful, because it can eat up to 4 Action Points from an enemy per turn. That, as mentioned, is enough to prevent that enemy from attacking at all. That, in turn, means that the enemy can not trade any blows with the PC, and then means that the enemy will lose in a few turns.
Another thing that weapons can do is to affect the position of enemies. Funnily enough, enemies have another option - they can lessen the number of Movement Points the PC has, though as far as I know that is not available to the Player, with the exception of usable items, which then simply renders it useless by merit of its lack of capacity to deal damage. However, the weapons that affect the position of enemies are fantastic.
Alternatively, weapons that have a vast range are also a very good choice, because they allow the player to stay outside of the attack range of the enemy and pepper them with attacks until the enemy dies. That, some would argue, is too strong, but consider the following - this is a Single Player game, and thus upwards balance - relating to how overpowered things are - is irrelevant. Downwards balance - relating to how weak things are - is, however, relevant, so worry not, that is considered.
In any case, there is a mechanism in place. Most weapons that operate at a greater range have ‘ammo’, which is a number equivalent to the number of times a weapon can be used to attack per battle. If the Player fails to kill the enemy in that many turns with the ranged weapon, then they have no choice and must get closer, or use another ranged weapon that they’ve equipped, because one can wield two weapons (the Special Toa Stone can not be unequipped and does not really count as a weapon).
However, well, there’s more to it than that. Or, rather, there’s less to it than that. There’s no combat encounter that will last longer than the number of turns required to deplete the ammo of a ranged weapon. If there was one such encounter, it would more likely end with the Player Character’s death, rather than the Player Character running out of ammo on one of their weapons.
It is a non-issue that could only affect either Players who don’t know what they’re doing (children or folks very new to the game) OR Players who have decided to engage far too many enemies at once, meaning that they can’t kill all of them with the single clip of ammunition they have.
Well, with that mostly covered, I’d like to reposition and center my focus on something else. The aforementioned engagement of enemies, be they far too many or a manageable number. See, the way engaging in combat works is very strange. Sometimes, as soon as the Player Character passes by an enemy, the enemy becomes violently aggravated and attacks the PC. However, other times the enemy is already in a state of rabies and mindlessly throws itself at the PC as soon as they move even a single square.
There are also instances of an enemy aimlessly walking about, ignoring the PC with all they have. Even if the PC is actively trying to get in a fight with the enemy, which is the fourth behavioral meme we’re going to take a look at. The PC can enter a fight with an enemy by clicking on the enemy’s model and walking up to the enemy. That works in the cases in which the enemy does not move after the command (the click) has been issued. If the enemy does move, then the command (Click with Adam Sandler) needs to be issued again.
This is annoying, because it presents an inconsistency that really works against the Player, rather than in favor of the Player, because it does not present an understandable system that can be recognized and, eventually, exploited in a sense, but rather leaves the Player with a vast amount of RNG (random number generation, also readable as just ‘randomness’) that they need to deal with. That’s a bad type of randomness, because it’s bound to how things happen overall.
There is one other way of dealing with engagements in battle, and that is the use of the ‘distraction’ mechanic. This is one of three additional mechanics that the Player has access to, aside from moving, clicking to interact and fighting. This one is the best explained and most developed in the game, due to the fact that it is part of the questline that the Player Characters goes through.
The distraction mechanic allows the Player to force enemies into attacking them without clicking on the enemies and going to them. HOWEVER… There is an issue here. Not only is there an issue in the way the mechanic is presented to the Player (which could dip into the Presentation section of the review), but there is also a problem with the functionality of the mechanic.
The distraction mechanic sometimes works, while other times it does not work. Sometimes it gets the attention of all enemies in the zone/on the field, other times it only attracts one enemy. There are instances which feature only one enemy becoming ‘distracted’ or attracted by the mechanic, yet all the enemies in the zone/on the field enter combat with the Player.
And when we ask… Why? We get no answer. As far as I can tell, it is, once again, totally random. It just happens. Not only that, but it seems as though there’s a great issue with the mechanic in another field of it. There’s the fact that, sometimes, it just does not work. I would go on to click the button that would initiate the distraction, my character would perform the animation, indicating that said character was performing a distraction, and none of the enemies in the zone/on the field would react in any way.
In addition to that, thematically, this is a strange way of calling the mechanic. ‘Distraction’ attracts the attention of the enemies. It does not make the enemies go to a certain location to distract them from the PC, it just gets the attention of the enemies. It’s more of an attraction than a distraction, and it quite often fails.
Then, there’s the ‘digging’ mechanic. It is also reasonably well explained in the game, though less attention is paid to it than is paid to the ‘distraction’ mechanic. That is owed up to the fact that the digging mechanic is just interaction - as in clicking - with an extra step, requiring the Player to situate the PC in a location (which location is highlighted with a bundle of rocks) and then click the ‘dig’ button in the hotbar.
The digging mechanic is interesting, in the sense that it works as a means of provoking the Player’s curiosity. What could be in there? What might I find under those rocks? Some great buried treasure? In essence, that’s all it is. The option to click the ‘dig’ button, which does something if the PC is positioned in specific locations.
The last additional mechanic that exists is ‘hiding’. This one… I think it might be mentioned. Somewhere, in the ‘How to Play’ section of the game, which is totally optional. This mechanic is, essentially, the opposite of the ‘distraction’ mechanic.
By clicking the ‘hide’ button on the hotbar, the PC will crouch and become a pseudo-transparent bundle of black lines. Doing so will make the PC immune to combat. Enemies who are rushing towards the PC will stop right next to the PC but will not initiate combat. Enemies passing by the PC will not attempt to initiate combat.
The hiding mechanic does what it says it does - it makes the PC hide and allows them to become insignificant for the enemies on screen.
With that, I feel as though a conclusion has been come to. This is a game that had a lot of potential on paper - a slew of mechanics and potential interactions were there, present and waiting for implementation. Unfortunately, that implementation did not wind up showing up.
Not only that, but instead of doing something simple and competent, the folks working on this game went ahead and did something simple, relatively competently, only to make it unbearably long and repetitive. I’ve mentioned Experience Points, so let me get in depth on that. To level up, the PC needs a number of Experience Points. Whenever the PC does level up, the next level requires more Experience Points to reach. How much more? Well, it requires an obscene amount, an amount so great that if I were to count the hair follicles on my body I’d come up short.
One needs to fight enemies so many times, and do it for such lengthy amounts of time, that it becomes mentally draining to engage in the activity of fighting them. When the fight is always the same, it becomes even more challenging to remain sane. At one point, the Player might grow tired of fighting every enemy in sight and attempt to walk past them, but because of the patented ‘fuck you’ technology relating to the way aggro is drawn (whether or not enemies attack the PC), that is not an option.
This game had potential. It squandered it and squeezed the wet rag for so long that the rag dried up. The game continued squeezing the wet rag, trying to squeeze something out of it, and so it squeezed a: 1/3
Presentation
We come to a very intriguing aspect of the game - that being the way it is presented, the way it appears, and everything else associated with the way one perceives it. This includes sounds, music, visual effects, still images, animations, the means through which information is conveyed to the Player and so on.
We will start with the simpler things. In VNOG, the variety in music scores is very lacking, as there is a whopping total of 2 music tracks to be heard throughout the entirety of the game.
There is the track that gets played during battle - which is a very competent track that does convey the excitement and danger of battle, achieving that through the apparent rapidity of its tempo, but mainly through the combination of drums and some sort of blowing instrument - I almost want to say trumpet, but I doubt that is what it is - being a background to an enchanting chorus that lets out cries which wind up seemingly interrupted… In any case, this might be evidence as to why I am not doing music critique, as I’ve no means of expressing what’s what in regards to music, but what is important here is that the battle track is VERY good for its purposes.
The track that plays in every other situation is different. The way I’ve dubbed it is ‘the exploring’ track, for that is the impression I am left with whilst listening to it. It is a lot more subdued, even if it still possesses the speed of the combat track, though in this case it is not a constantly rising, glorious call to battle, but, rather, an almost inquisitive combination of drums that heavily relies on vocal gasps - again in a lovely chorus - and a certain twist of a piano, which hints at a mystery. This track is also quite good.
However, everything comes in moderation, including good things. In the case of VNOG, unfortunately, the music tracks do not come in moderation. The transition from the battle track to the exploring track and vice versa is well done, with there being no overlap and an illusion of natural progression being present, however it is relatively sudden. That is, of course, not an issue when compared to the glaring problem of an endlessly droning loop of those musical tracks.
No matter how good they are, they start eating away at one’s mind when the time comes, for, as mentioned, this game requires a very large time investment. Many hours. Listening to the same 1:30 minute track for hours on end is not a good idea, nor is it a good time.
In keeping with the audible, there’s something else that needs to be added. There’s the question of Sound Effects, and whether or not they are good (or even passing). Similarly to the musical aspect of this section, it both fails and succeeds. The sound effects that ARE present are astounding. The incredible weight and power that is conveyed by some effects, played when an attack is performed, is sublime.
Then there’s the absolutely perfect audible representation of death - of a violent death - a loud sound, almost like a growl, but almost like an explosion, which ends with a quiet, fading whisper, as if it was whisked away by Death itself.
With those examples, however, the fun comes to a close. The remainder of the library of Sound Effects that VNOG has at its disposal is… Laughable, at best. I can never be too certain whether or not there was an actual sound that was played whenever a button in the game’s menus was pressed, for it is so ingrained in my consciousness that these buttons SHOULD be making a satisfying sound… And they do. However, that sound is also played whenever a button is pressed even if there’s no effect to come of the button’s press.
In fact, the button should not be clickable, but it is, and whenever it is clicked, it makes the exact same sound as it does in the situations in which it is clickable and has an effect whenever it is clicked. But that’s not a great issue, right? It can be ignored. Oh, but then there are some things that have no sound accompanying them. Movement, as an example. The Player Character and all non-Player Characters (NPCs) move silently. Even the enemies make no sound.
There is no sound cue when an enemy becomes aggressive and decides to attack the Player. There is no indication, other than the fact that it starts running at the Player… Even though there are moments when the model of the enemy that’s running at the Player is hidden behind the terrain.
There is also no sound cue whenever something is interacted with. Digging an item up through the use of the ‘Dig’ mechanic does not yield a sound effect - not even a previously used one. Clicking an NPC to talk to it, or to interact with it, does not yield a sound effect. Entering battle does not come with a sound effect, instead the combat music starts playing.
This creates dissonance. And dissonance is a bad thing in regards to almost everything, unless it is intended. In VNOG, however, it was evidently not intended, and is, thus, a mistake, a problem.
Though as soon as we transition away from the audible, and wind up in the world of the visible… We come to another mixed bag, though the mixture is strange. It is such, due to the difference in quality.
There’s the still aspect of things. The backgrounds, the terrain, the scenery. All of it is absolutely incredible. The artists working on that part of the game have done an amazing job. There’s a vast plethora of different biomes - from dense jungles, through icy coasts, past picturesque sandy beaches, just by the dry wastes oh-so reminiscent of a desert, beyond the mystical caves and all the way to blackened volcanic hillsides, this game looks astonishing. If one were to remove the User Interface, as well as every unit, this would be a phenomenal collection of landscapes.
When one involves the units of the game, a bit of a misstep occurs. That is owed to the fact that the units look as though the style utilized in their creation is slightly different from the one used in drawing the backgrounds. Now, this would be somewhat appropriate for an animated movie/show/series/project, but for a game, this is not that good. Especially in regards to games that feature aspects of a Role-Playing Game, because those require the immersion of the Player into both the game’s world as well as its story.
To immerse oneself into a world, it needs to look convincing. The backgrounds of VNOG accomplish that incredibly well. The units, however, come in and mess with that. It is, most likely, owed up to the fact that the unit models - as I’d like to call them models, though they could be very convincing sprites - are far less detailed than the backgrounds, which is evidently done to allow for ease in the animating process.
Still, it looks slightly off.
Lastly, the means through which information is presented. They are both somewhat sufficient and yet also somewhat inefficient. Due to the fact that this is a flash game, it is possible to excuse some failings, but then there are other failings that really don’t get to be forgiven. An example of excusable failings would include the big ‘Tutorial’, or rather ‘How to Play?’ button in the menu of the game. It is simultaneously very useful, due to the fact that it features a lot of helpful information, yet it is not all that useful, because one can not easily navigate to it at any point in the game.
One needs to essentially quit the game, go back to the main menu, go to the ‘How to Play?’ section, navigate through the pages and find whatever information they are looking for. After that, they need to click a few more times, return to the game and then do whatever it was that they needed to do. Again - excusable, as it is a flash game, yet still a bit of a failure.
Another example of information presentation would be the way some NPCs talk to the PC. In the text presented to the Player, there is information related to explaining how some mechanics work, such as the elemental damage and resistance mechanic, the distraction mechanic or the digging mechanic. There is also some explanation of the hiding mechanic, but it is very vague and inefficient.
That is one of the larger problems. The explanations provided in that manner are no sufficient. The Player can walk up to a bundle of stones - which are where the digging mechanic is utilized - only to dig and dig up nothing, even though they have not previously dug there. That would be because some dig sites are enabled by quests, while others are perpetually available, even if there is no visual distinction between them.
Or the distraction mechanic. It is presented to the Player in such a manner that makes them assume they can use it to separate enemies in small groups, to then fight them one by one, but in reality the distraction mechanic works more like a means of attracting the attention of all enemies in the zone.
Or the elemental damage and resistance mechanic - it is vaguely explained to the Player, but the information they receive is far too little. It informs the Player that weapons of a certain Element do more damage of that Element variety to the targets, but it does not explain how the damage bonus interacts with resistances, nor does it explain anything else. There is a lot of darkness around the PC’s stats, too.
Opening the inventory screen presents a lot of information. Unfortunately, it is not enough, as there are some inexplicable things that show up and present themselves to the Player. Dodge rate, initiative rate - what are those? How do they work? Does 1 point of Dodge rate equal a 1% chance to dodge an attack? What does Initiative rate even do, does it determine if the PC goes first in a fight? As far as I can tell, the PC always goes first, even if their initiative rate is 0.
That’s the problem with the way information is presented in this game. There IS some information, but it does not mean anything to the Player. It requires more information to be utilized, or rather it requires clarification and explanation, which are not provided.
This issue, although slightly bothersome, does not do all that much to take away from the ability of the Player to enjoy the game’s visual wonders, nor does it diminish the quality of the overall presentation. The game can be overcome through small amounts of trial and error, as a result of which no great lack of information can truly make things unsolvable. 2/3
Story
VNOG tells the story of a single Toa Hero coming to the island of Voya Nui, saving the Matoran from the Piraka and recovering the Mask of Life. It vaguely follows the story permeating throughout the entirety of the Bionicle Franchise, though there are many inconsistencies, but it does not present anything truly interesting, apart from a few funky interactions between characters.
In short - the story is very bare bones and is only there as a vehicle for the gameplay, which, i turn, is a vehicle for the advertisement that this whole game is, and the product being marketed is always on screen, be it in the form of a cool, nigh-invincible toa, a neat frumpy Matoran or a menacing Piraka.
At length, the story is very lackluster. The Toa lands, immediately wins the trust of Garan, a Matoran that greets them, then does a few tasks. After that, they travel to the Matoran village, which has been abandoned ever since the Piraka moved in, and the Toa does some more fighting. At the end of that section, Reidak - a Piraka - assaults the Toa, but is beaten back. For some reason, the Toa does not kill the Piraka, even if the animation that is played whenever Reidak is bested indicates that he has fallen apart and is as dead as one can be.
Following that, the Toa travels to the Matoran Fortress, where they meet the remainder of the Matoran on Voya Nui. They do a few chores under the guise of preparing themselves for a fight with Thok, another Piraka, then they go and fight Thok, with the goal of capturing him, but only beat him.
After that, they start looking for the Mask of Life in a network of caves under Voya Nui. There, they find some enslaved Matoran, and with a funky device made by the free Matoran, manage to free the enslaved one. Then, in the cave, they fight Thok and Reidak next to a teleporter, but even though the Piraka are beaten, they escape. The teleporter does not work, unfortunately.
Garan gets worms in his butt and asks to be escorted to the other end of the Island, where the Toa does a few more chores, does some sabotage and winds up in a fight with Zaktan, another Piraka. As is the norm, the Toa wins, but Zaktan escapes.
At this point, I feel as though there is barely any need for explanation and retelling to be done. The Toa does stuff for the Matoran, which stuff is barely consequential, then fights a Piraka, then does more stuff, then fights other Piraka. In any case, the Toa gets tasked with freeing three enslaved Matoran, who have each buried one part of a special weapon.
The Toa does so, and afterwards Garan finishes the weapon… Only for it to turn out being an absolutely unremarkable weapon, quite like most other weapons in the game. Either way, more things get done. The Toa gets tasked with infiltrating the Piraka Stronghold, but can’t do that, so he goes back to the Matoran Fortress, where Piruk, a Matoran, sends him on a few missions and then grants him a tamed Burnak (essentially a dog), which Burnak is then used to infiltrate the Piraka Stronghold.
Therein, the Toa fights Zaktan and Avak, beats them, only for the two to escape successfully. Unfortunately, more things go down, and a freed Matoran is recaptured and taken to the Chamber of Truth. More chores ensue, and the Toa manages to get there, frees the Matoran, then Garan presents a devious plan. The Toa, who has just left the Chamber of Truth, allows himself to be captured by Reidak, winds up taken to the Chamber of Truth, and is interrogated by Vezok, another Piraka. The Toa tells Vezok some random garbage, which insinuates that the Piraka will get some trust issues in relation to the other Piraka and will do some naughty things, but that does not happen.
The Toa breaks free from jail with the help of the dog, then fights Reidak and Vezok, beats them, and returns to Garan. More chores follow, then an even more devious plan is devised. A Matoran only pretending to be enslaved agrees to become the ‘wild goose’ to be the target of a ‘wild goose chase’, and gets taken to a special secret jungle sanctuary by the Toa. In the meantime, the Toa infiltrates the Lava Dam, drains the Lava and gets attacked by Hakann, the strongest of the Piraka.
This time, Hakann high-tails it out of there, before being beaten, which is quite interesting. Either way, the Toa now has to do some more chores, then he needs to find the unique key for the door uncovered under the lava, and then… The Piraka are already inside, without having the key. The Toa fights 5 of the Piraka at once (all except Zaktan), then fights a mysterious seventh Piraka who has equipped the mask of Life, THEN fights Zaktan in a one on one battle, as Zaktan evidently wanted to steal the mask for himself.
Obviously, Zaktan loses, because the Toa has equipped the Mask of Life (regardless of the fact that whenever the one character in the lore of BIonicle, who actually put the Mask of Life on, just DIED). Then, somehow, the mask winds up falling in the ocean. A teaser is presented for the upcoming, NEW line of Toa… And the Toa in this game gets Vacation time.
The story, as previously mentioned, is a lackluster bumble of stuff. It’s a means of moving the PC from one place to another, whilst taking up a generous amount of time, as a presumable means of shoving the image of Bionicle products into the face of the Player, which then would make Bionicle products recognizable and maybe even dear to the Player, thus resulting in potential sales.
It’s kinda bland, on its own. But, when compared to the story of Bionicle overall, it’s a horribly bad adaptation OR a tremendous downgrade. Compared to the other 2 flash games that bear the title of an Island in the Bionicle lore plus the moniker “Online Game” (those being the two “Mata Nui” online games) this one is dreadfully bad, contributing absolutely nothing to the story or the world, aside from, perhaps, a glance at Voya Nui itself. 1/3
Legendary Point
Does this game get the legendary point, so craved and wanted by all and none at the same time? I want to say yes, because this is one of those phenomenal relics of the good past. This is a flash game - A FLASH GAME - and yet it is almost as good as a proper, triple A game, taking almost 10 hours to 100%. It’s both a sublime experience, perhaps because I remember it as such from my childhood, and perhaps because I drew insane amounts of pleasure from the observation of and exploration of the island, Voya Nui, but at the same time it is a terribly annoying experience.
I had to grind in this flash game, so that I could feel comfortable going into certain fights, and even so some fights were seemingly impossible. The fact that some mechanics were dreadfully underutilized, even if they showed promise, the fact that stuff was clunky in a silly and unpleasant way - there are many gripes I have with this game.
Yet, even if that is so, I can not say that I do not cherish it in some manner. After all, I’ve gone through all this effort for this silly little game. So YES, I will give it the legendary point. I love Bionicle, and as a great part of Bionicle, this game gets my approval. It gets the Legendary Point, because I’ve spent many hours thinking about it, and a countless number toiling over things related to it.
Could I say that I love this game? No, definitely not, but I appreciate it in a manner that makes it impossible for me not to seek the good in it at the expense of the bad. 1/1
Conclusion
5/10. This is a flash game of incredible proportions. It potentially sits there at the top of the mountain of Flash with titles such as: “Siegius Arena”, “Zombotron” and maybe even “Mata Nui Online Game” (1 & 2). It is an outstanding work, for what it is, and yet in the context of games overall, it is stupefyingly mediocre. It has great promise, but it has stupendous faults.
I’d say the best approach to it would be to watch someone’s playthrough of it. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, there is no alternative to my performance, so do that. However, playing it is still very possible, courtesy of the Biomediaproject, so you could experience this wonder yourself. I’d recommend it to fans of Bionicle or of games like Wakfu and Dofus (as in tactical turn-based RPGs).
I tuck it under my belt, another shining achievement that I proudly display. It might be mediocre, but I will overrule the laws of the world and make an exception for it. A treasure it is, indeed…