LEGO Horizon Adventures Review

LEGO is one of the biggest entertainment franchises in the world, having created a line of toys that allows kids and adults to build all sorts of wonderous creations using a wide variety of plastic bricks and shapes. The dominance of the brand has allowed it to span into multiple areas of entertainment, including movies, TV, and of course video games. The LEGO-themed games have been coming out at a steady pace over the past decade, with at least one game released annually. Some entries offer original stories and experiences, while others adapt well-known franchises, from Harry Potter to Star Wars and Marvel. The latest entry, LEGO Horizon Adventures, does something new – possibly for the first time ever, it adapts another video game.

LEGO Horizon Adventures is a high level reworking of PlayStation's Horizon Zero Dawn game, with the LEGO theme. The new journey follows the same story from the PlayStation title, with the lead character Aloy who finds herself to be an outcast from the village of Mother's Heart. In this post-apocalyptic setting, she grows up with her adopted father Rost, who teachers her hunting and bow skills. This is a world where humans live alongside machines that look like animals of the past, and not all humans live in peace and harmony. After Aloy's village is attacked by cultists, she sets out to rescue her kidnapped people, while also discovering her own past. Along the way, she is joined by Teresa, Varl, and Erend, as the group also discovers that there is a greater threat to the world that lies beyond their village.

As with all other LEGO adaptations of existing stories, the narrative here is very light and provides a surface level overview of the plot beats from the Zero Dawn game. This is an entirely kid-centric adventure, which means it's a colorful and light story with plenty of simple dialogue and lots of silly jokes about donuts. The LEGO versions of the main characters are cheery and deal with problems on the fly. While you would expect a LEGO game to be targeted towards younger players, Horizon Adventures perhaps takes it down too many notches. As LEGO movies and other animated features demonstrate, there is always room for dialogue and jokes that will resonate with both kids and adults, and sometimes just adults while the kids are oblivious. But Horizon Adventures lacks something for older players to grab on to – all of the writing is very basic and the jokes are extremely light and lack any nuance or depth, so it can only appeal to the youngest of audiences.

The game will take players across a series of standalone linear missions, controlling either Aloy, Teresa, Varl, or Erend. This is a third person action adventure with a fixed isometric camera, as you traverse across LEGO-recreated settings from the PS4 game. From collapsed cities, jungles, and deserts, to the inside of the machine factories known as Cauldrons, your chosen hero will have to navigate their way across the biomes and fight some enemies. Between missions, you return to the village that acts as a hub where you can run around and perform some minor interactions, as well as apply visual customizations. The setup should be familiar to those who played previous level-based LEGO games, though notably this title is developed by Zero Dawn developers Guerilla themselves, and Studio Gobo, and not the usual TT Games group.

The levels feature a predictable and repeating structure. There are sections where you're just running along a narrow and linear path, with the occasional sidetrack that contains a treasure chest. These sections require little skill, as there are nary any jumps or obstacles to worry about. The movement is responsive enough, and because of the fixed camera, the game hides some of its optional chests and paths just slightly out of view with the usual tricks. As is tradition, there are LEGO studs scattered about that act as both a guide and hint to secondary paths. Venturing into the Cauldrons is when a little bit more platforming is introduced, as you have to deal with ledge climbing and moving platforms, as well as light puzzles that require you to get an electric barrel to trigger open some door switches. There are minor memorable moments such as trying to climb a machine called a Tallneck, and interesting boss battles, but these sequences are too few in number.

Most of the levels are quite brief and linear, lasting barely 10 minutes each. Outside of Cauldrons, the platforming is almost nonexistent, and any climbing is done automatically by just holding the stick in the desired direction. Despite the very small playable areas, the levels feature a number of sections – some as short as 1 minute – all separated by black transition screens and noticeable loading screens. Aloy also has the series staple Focus, a device that lets her scan the nearby area and highlight objects of interest and weak points on machines, but there is practically no gameplay need for it and you can get by without ever using it (or simply forgetting to).

As you venture through the small and narrow levels, eventually you arrive in larger arenas, which means battles are about to commence. Aloy and her crew will have to take on a variety of human enemies that can attack in melee, shoot arrows, or throw explosive barrels. But more commonly, you will be engaging with the machines, which are very well recreated from their Zero Dawn counterparts. From Chargers to Lancehorns, Sawtooths, Burrowers, and Shellwalkers, the machines are replicated with care, and also feature a variety of attacks both new and inspired by Zero Dawn. Some have ranged abilities while others close-in, and most have area attacks that create circles of damage on the ground. You are able to hide in tall grass, but this stealth component is entirely pointless, as the fixed camera angle and very limited grass areas prevent you from doing much strategizing before starting the fight.

The basics of combat are also recreated, as Aloy must aim and shoot her bow at the machines, and try to target their weak spots for more damage, with the chance to rip off that component and possibly eliminate their attack/ability, or cause them to get stunned temporarily. The isometric action means you run around these larger arenas trying to maintain distance and avoiding incoming attacks of all kinds. The controls feel responsive enough, as holding Square lines up your shot, to release when ready. Holding the button longer results in a longer shot, as well as a powerful shot after a few moments and an audible cue. Targeting specific machine components is easy, as you just have to have good positioning, and a bit of directional precision, with Aloy automatically aiming for the glowing weak spots.

Perhaps the most surprising thing is that there is no dodge ability, which makes you feel quite exposed most of the game. And melee is only possible when playing as Erend. Some late-game enemy attacks can shave off half your health bar with a single hit (despite having a fully upgraded Aloy), so things can get dicey on occasion and require a couple of attempts. The combat areas themselves often feature additional hazards, such as campfires, exposed electric floors, barbed vegetation or spiked floors, which further reduces your maneuverability options.

That's not to say these environmental dangers can't be used against the enemy. By shooting arrows through a campfire, they become enflamed and can set the enemy and other parts of the level, such as grass, on fire as well. However, in the chaos of the battle, such interactivity is hard to utilize and is more often used to solve quick puzzles in other places. Instead, in combat the environment is used more directly by knocking over occasional stone structures, or tossing explosive barrels.

But by far the most effective combat elements come from special weapons and gadgets. You'll pick up random drops of these special, limited-ammo weapons from defeated enemies and treasure chests. The weapons basically amplify your regular bow and arrow, by letting you shoot electric, flame, or frozen arrows, and apply corresponding effects to the enemies. Other variants include rapid shooting, or spread-shots. You can cycle through a few of these special ammo types if multiple are equipped, and it definitely helps turn the tide of battle.

Even more useful are the gadgets. These are also limited-use abilities, though only one can be carried at a time. Most of these come in the form of grenades or slam-down attacks, again including fire, ice, and electric varieties. More powerful ones include an ability to just smash the ground for big damage to all enemies around, or deploy a Hot Dog cart that starts throwing explosive grenades at enemies (as a LEGO-themed joke). Another ability is a drone that follows Aloy until she is near an enemy, and then applies a random effect on them. A further option is a deployable personal shield.

On regular difficulty, some battles can be decently tough, as the sheer number of enemies can be slightly overwhelming, and their endless incoming attacks are tough to avoid. Aloy must stand in place while lining up her shot, as well. The levels are sprinkled with limited use berry trees that provide a small health refill, and knowing their locations and when to use them is an important part of combat strategy, as new enemies can drop-in during a fight in progress, and boss battles usually feature endless fodder so you have to prioritize. Slightly annoyingly, perishing in combat means having to start the whole level section, including any chests you found along the way.

But the fight can keep going and you can be revived if playing together with a co-op partner. LEGO Horizon Adventures can be completed entirely solo, but also supports playing with a friend either locally or online, and fighting together can be even more chaotic, but possibly more entertaining. The second player can select another of the four characters, as can solo players at any time during the campaign. The other characters introduce new gameplay mechanics – Varl throws spears instead of shooting arrows, which can pass through multiple enemies. Teresa is a grenade-thrower, and Erend is the melee fighter with his big hammer. While the gadgets are shared, the special weapons are different – for example Varl's spear can become a boomerang. The feel of combat changes noticeably when playing with these other characters, and gives the game a bit more variety.

Each character has their own experience level, which overtime improves their health pool and effectiveness in battle. At the village, players can also purchase new upgrades that affect all characters, such as an increased likelihood of special weapon spawns, bigger XP gains, and improved environmental damage against foes. The upgrades are purchased using LEGO studs as the game's currency, which are found throughout the adventure. But the majority of the spending will be on aesthetics.

Over the course of the game, you'll be able to unlock a wide variety of customizations for the buildings within the village. A few buildings can be reconstructed after you've earned enough Gold bricks (just by completing levels), and they can be customized with new roofs, colors, and yards. All of this is purely visual, though some have minor animations, such as a table feast to eat at, a chicken coop with chickens to feed, or an arena to fight a challenger. There is also an outfit shop, with tons of new looks to purchase for the playable characters. The customization styles fall into a few categories, from Horizon to LEGO City, LEGO Ninjago, and some more generic village/amusement park items.

The village hub is decently spacious, and could have used a minimap, as you have to manually venture to the start of each area in order to begin a new story level. Beating the story takes only about seven hours, and the Apex fights can extend that runtime a bit more, as well as if you want to level the rest of the playable characters. After completing the levels in each biome, you can return to engage in Apex Machine Hunts, which let you face off against tough enemies in some boss battles that earns you Red bricks, again for more visual customization unlocks. After beating all Apex machines, you can venture out on Expeditions, which seem like randomized endless levels.

If there's one aspect that a LEGO game must nail, it is of course the visual style, and Horizon Adventures succeeds here. The world is made entirely of the classic bricks, and the visual style is exactly what you'd expect from an adaptation. The music includes some mild remixes of the original Zero Dawn tracks, but it never quite comes into its own. There is voice acting for all characters, and the cheery tone of the dialogue fits with the returning cast from the main Horizon game. There are both typical cutscenes, as well as static screen conversations between two character models. The game has performance and fidelity visual mode settings, and the former is strongly recommended. The limited scale and scope of the game looks good and runs at a smooth 60fps in performance mode, while the fidelity mode's visual upgrades are not worth the severely degraded framerate that was observed.

LEGO Horizon Adventures is a decent adaptation of a video game franchise. While the combat has some fun moments, the rest of the game – from the dialogue to the simplistic and small levels – just feels a bit too limiting, and only primarily enjoyable by younger players. It's also an interesting experiment, adopting a mature game for younger audiences – and is very reminiscent of Bayonetta Origins. It serves as a decent introduction to the world for younger players who may perhaps one day move on to play the main series, or perhaps as an avenue to sell more of the $100 LEGO Tallneck sets. Either way, while it should be good fun for youngsters, there's just not much engaging content or dialogue here for older players, so the $80 CAD / $60 USD price tag becomes a larger part of the equation.