It’s funny to me that Lego has made construction sets for two of the big game series on rival consoles with the word Horizon on it. And it’s funnier that there is now a Lego Forza Horizon and a Lego Horizon game.
I don’t think anyone expected Lego Horizon Adventures to be a thing, developed partly by Guerilla themselves, and somehow carry over that specific brand of “Lego humour” as established by The Lego Movie. The day where TT Games were the sole purveyor of Lego games have come to pass. 2K has made a Lego game. Epic Games has made a Lego game. And now Guerilla and Studio Gobo have made a Lego game.
I’ve just played the first hour of Lego Horizon Adventures, and from what I’ve seen here, this feels like an old-school Lego Star Wars-era platformer. The simpler ones. But on top of that foundation is layers of Horizon theming and that Lego humour. This is a game for kids and dad joke enjoyers, and it seems pretty good at being just that from the looks of it.
Lego Horizon Adventures has you explore the cyber-tribal post-post apocalypse of Horizon, where folks are living in tribal societies and robot dinosaurs roam the earth surrounding the many artifacts of the past, our present world. It looks to follow the narrative beats of Horizon Zero Dawn, but with a few deviations to accommodate the younger audience playing this.
There’s a conversation about what the heck are cultists, which lead to an explain-like-I’m-five-years-old answer.
Makes sense, since everything was all awesome and then suddenly people are being carried off in cages and whole village is destroyed for some reason. A reason for Aloy to start collecting Golden Bricks and rebuild the Nora Tribe’s home.
Since the tone of Lego Horizon Adventures is more wholesome, and due to the Lego humour, the character behaviours have also loosen up. Aloy was always depicted as a reserved, sassy loner. But Lego Aloy has a bit of a gremlin energy in her. Ashly Burch has let in a tiny bit of Tiny Tina into Lego Aloy, a little bit over-excited and energetic. And you know what? It works. The voice lines where Lego Aloy is all serious when talking to herself is there still, despite it all it’s still Aloy, but being a little giddy makes her feel right at home with the the tone of this adventure.
Gameplay-wise, it’s simple to pick up and play, anyone can hop in as Player 2 via local co-op or online play. You can jump, you can fire arrows with the bow. Very simple controls that feels good, and it’s easy to explain where you need to go and do. The camera is fixed and played in the top-down view, giving you a good look of the surroundings all rendered in Lego bricks.
If you are a Lego fan, AFOL or otherwise, you’ll appreciate the commitment in making every part of the environment built by Lego bricks. The old rusting wreckage of what we know as cars are all six studs wide as they should in Lego City sets.
And the depiction of Lego Aloy, the Watcher and the Tallneck looks one-to-one with the actual Lego Horizon Zero Dawn set, with a few changes. Lego Aloy’s bow and arrow is fully brick-built instead of using one plastic white piece, so they can animate the arrows. And the Tallneck’s yellow-coloured climbable pieces is represented with gold Lego Ninjago swords, which the game replaces with more ornate brick-built depiction. It’s nice.
And I reckon we’ll see more Lego Horizon sets coming to a toy store near you, or at least have these new Lego assets be in Fortnite. Aloy’s already there, might as well put her Lego counterpart too.
Speaking of, there is a simple RPG progression, and the encounters allow for stealth options with strategically placed tall grasses. And you can use the magical AirPod that is the Focus to highlight weak spots to aim for when fighting robo-animals. All of these features are just like in Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West. It’s interesting to see the essence of Horizon boiled down and represented by Lego bricks, and it still feels distinctly like Horizon.
Now, about the Lego humour. For the uninitiated, I’m specifically referring to the self-aware, sometimes 4th-wall-breaking, pun-loaded, goofy comedy. And Lego humour is slightly different compared to Lego game humour, those TT Games Lego games pre-voice acting is silly in a different way. It works for kids and people who like dad jokes, but there certainly will be no fun-havers who will think it’s all cringe. As much as this game is supposed to be fun for the whole family, committing to the Lego humour may be a turn-off for some, because it keeps doing these gags over and over, even just in the first hour. But that’s good news, in hour 1 you’ll be able to tell if Lego Horizon Adventures is a game for you or not.
Closing Thoughts
As for me, I’m looking forward to see where this silly little spin-off goes. If Lego Horizon Adventures somehow manages to communicate the beauty of Horizon’s worldbuilding—that this is a world ruined by techbros, a future that somehow remains a possibility in our timeline—to a younger audience, I’ll be really happy. As for what I’ve played so far, this feels like a good old Lego game with Horizon flavouring, a combo I find to be quite fun. Maybe not Astro Bot levels of fun, but fun nonetheless.
Stay tuned for our full review of Lego Horizon Adventures.
Played on base PS5. Review code provided by the reviewer.