Review: LEGO Horizon Adventures

Developer – Guerilla, Studio Gobo

Publisher – PlayStation Publishing LLC

Platforms – PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 (reviewed)

Review copy given by publisher

Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West have become huge blockbuster titles for the PlayStation platform, so it should come as no surprise that this IP is getting its own Lego game! Get ready to step into the blocky shoes of Aloy and friends once again in Lego Horizon Adventures.

So Lego Horizon Adventures is neither a sequel, prequel, or a spinoff of Horizon Zero Dawn. It is a downplayed retelling of the first Horizon game that is more lighthearted and kid friendly. The dialogue frequently features slapstick comedy that you would expect from a Lego game that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but can also get quite boring after a while. Thankfully you can skip all dialogue cutscenes and go straight to the gameplay.

The gameplay loop revolves around your central hub known as Mother’s Heart and short mission-based quests to collect Golden Lego Bricks. You can spend your hard earned coin to unlock new areas, customize different buildings, purchase new outfits, or upgrade your character’s skills in Mother’s Heart. Each mission boils down to some combination of platforming, exploration, light puzzle solving, and mandatory combat encounters. You can use Horizon’s iconic Focus scan to scan for items of interest as well as machine weak points. You’ll have a boss encounter after a set of missions, which tends to be one of the highlights as most other missions get monotonous after doing the same thing over and over again.

You can take control of 1 of 4 total characters: Teersa, who throws chickens (yes you read that right); Varl, who throws spears; Erend, who swings a hammer; and of course Aloy, who uses her iconic bow and arrow. The inclusion of comedic Lego-specific power ups, such as the iconic hot dog cart, adds a layer of playfulness to combat encounters. The option to play as different characters is nice in theory, but in practice most of them play the same, which is a huge bummer. There are some powerups that are specific to a character, but those are few and far between. Defeating monsters and bosses awards experience points, which in turn levels up your character and makes them stronger and tankier!

In terms of progression, you can spend money to upgrade different nodes, such as gaining more experience when using the environment to defeat enemies or starting with a random powerup in a mission. Most of the purchases are simply passive upgrades that don’t fundamentally change up how the game is played. Enemies get stunned a bit longer or you heal a bit more from eating berries, and that’s about it. Every character also has their own unique upgrades, but they more or less feel the same: do a bit more damage or have more health. It’s nice to have progression, but everything here is extremely uninspired and plain.

What’s nice about Lego Horizon Adventures is that it features both couch and online co-op, something you don’t see in most games nowadays! As with most Lego games, Horizon Adventures is the perfect game to play with kids or little ones during a family gathering or chill evening. Since the entire game is from an isometric point of view, you don’t need to deal with split screen as both of you will be playing under the same view. The only issue that can occur is if your characters stray too far away from each other, the game then forces a teleportation on one of you. It’s not a big deal but it is worth mentioning. However, the lack of cross-platform play is a missed opportunity.

Visually, the game looks great in all its Lego-fied glory. The attention to detail in creating an entire world out of Lego bricks is commendable, with environments that feel both familiar to Horizon fans and distinctly Lego. The audio design also deserves praise, as many of the original voice actors reprise their roles and deliver a lighthearted yet authentic performance.

The game only takes up a cozy 14.58 GB on your PlayStation 5, so don’t worry about storage issues. It comes standard with 3 save slots and 5 difficulty levels: Story, Scout, Adventurer, Machine Hunter, and Hero. There’s a good number of accessibility options too, including player invulnerability, subtitle options, color blindless correction, spending health to revive a friend, or getting full health when revived. DualSense features are utilized, but not to their full potential. Oh, and you can fully rebind controls too, which is always a plus!

Two modes are offered: Performance and Fidelity, but I’d recommend opting for the higher framerate option since it’s an animated Lego game, not a hyper photorealistic visual experience. Performance is solid throughout, with stable 60 frames per second in performance mode and no noticeable drops or stutters. Load times, on the other hand, leave much more to be desired. On a base PS5, it takes a whopping 10 seconds to load in from the main menu, and another 8 seconds to load into a level. Given the large number of loading screens, this can get quite annoying.

At the end of the day, this is more of a Lego game than a Horizon Zero Dawn/Forbidden West title. It doesn’t tackle many of the mature themes and gameplay elements that its inspiration heavily uses, and that’s okay too! Just understand that Lego Horizon Adventures is a much more family-friendly and approachable title for players of all ages and backgrounds. If you’re looking for an open-world experience with in-depth combat mechanics, you won’t find it here. A playthrough should take around 10 hours, which is quite short for a game that is a full 60 dollars.

Lego Horizon Adventures delivers a pleasant and not-so-serious rendition of Horizon Zero Dawn that is both adorable and fun to play. However, its overly simplified and lighthearted gameplay loop becomes too monotonous and one-dimensional after long periods of play.