I’ve been playing LEGO games since the original LEGO Star Wars launched in 2005. It and the many LEGO games that followed have stuck to a tried-and-true formula of taking an existing license, LEGO-fying it, and letting players run rampant with a friend in co-op, smashing everything in sight as they hunt down a dizzying number of collectibles and build a gigantic roster of playable characters. LEGO Horizon Adventures, while similar to other LEGO games in many ways, was not made by typical LEGO game developer Traveller’s Tales, and does not exactly try to replicate the studio’s formula for LEGO games. Unfortunately, the end result is that LEGO Horizon Adventures won’t appeal to fans of LEGO games or fans of PlayStation’s Horizon franchise.
As much as I have enjoyed the Traveller’s Tales LEGO games over the years, many of them are glitchy and not exactly known for being well-polished. Take the recently released LEGO Harry Potter Collection remaster for example, which still suffers from an annoying bug in LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 a staggering 15 years after it launched. In contrast, LEGO Horizon Adventures is a highly-polished game, with none of the technical problems I’m used to encountering in other LEGO games. It’s undeniably a well-made product from a technical standpoint.
But while LEGO Horizon Adventures is more polished than the Traveller’s Tales LEGO games, it’s also significantly less fun. Whereas Traveller’s Tales fills its levels full of breakable objects, LEGO Horizon Adventures has a minuscule number by comparison. Yes, there are objects players can break, but not nearly to the scale as similar games. This makes many of the game’s levels dull, as there isn’t much else to do when walking from one combat encounter to the next.
Instead of filling these spaces with exciting platforming or puzzles, LEGO Horizon Adventures essentially has players walk from point A to point B, collecting LEGO studs. Silver studs lead to “secret” areas off the beaten path that are easily reached and usually have a chest to open or special object to build, but otherwise the levels may as well be hallways. Even when climbing or ziplining are thrown in the mix, they don’t add anything meaningful to the experience. These sections practically play themselves, with Aloy and her friends pulled to ledges and ziplines like they’re magnetized if players walk too close.
LEGO Horizon Adventures Has a Level Design Problem
When players aren’t fighting machines or cultists, LEGO Horizon Adventures can be agonizingly boring. I don’t know if the aim was a wide appeal, but it goes way too far in that direction to the point where all the fun is sapped out of the experience. LEGO Horizon Adventures levels have nothing interesting to see and do not challenge the player in any meaningful way. The other LEGO games at least sometimes have tricky collectibles to find; there’s nothing like that in LEGO Horizon Adventures.
But while LEGO Horizon Adventures is boring between fights, the actual combat can be a lot of fun. LEGO Horizon Adventures has players fighting the iconic machines from the Horizon series. Like in the Horizon games, the key to combat is to hit robots’ weakpoints to deal critical damage. The game also attempts to adapt Horizon‘s stealth mechanics by giving players the option of hiding in tall grass, but this doesn’t serve any purpose, so players are free to openly attack every enemy they come across in the game.
LEGO Horizon Adventures keeps combat interesting by regularly introducing new gadgets for players to utilize in battle, along with new playable characters that have their own unique weapons. Something I liked about LEGO Horizon Adventures compared to the vast majority of other LEGO games is that instead of stuffing itself full of interchangeable unlockable characters that mean nothing, LEGO Horizon Adventures keeps things focused on four key characters. Besides Aloy, players are also able to play as other recognizable characters from the main Horizon games like Teersa, Erend, and Varl. Teersa uses bombs, Erend comes equipped with a hammer, and Varl uses a spear. Along with gadgets like the tripcaster and blast boots, there are also variants for everyone’s weapons, letting players hit enemies with fire damage, shock damage, ice damage, and more.
LEGO Horizon Adventures Retells Zero Dawn’s Story
In addition to its combat, LEGO Horizon Adventures also does a better job of telling its story, bringing back actors from the main games (though Sylens has been recast after Lance Reddick’s tragic passing) and letting them interpret the characters in a brand-new, bubbly way. The characters in the main Horizon games have to grapple with the grim reality of their post-apocalyptic world and the forces that are threatening it, but LEGO Horizon Adventures takes a much brighter, more optimistic approach to the whole thing. It almost functions as a parody of Horizon Zero Dawn‘s story. The way it infantilizes the story means certain plot beats don’t hit as hard and are not treated with the same respect, but the voice actors do a great job – there are plenty of amusing sight gags, and the dialogue is funny.
A downside to LEGO Horizon Adventures‘ handling of the Zero Dawn story is that it dumbs things down to a point where the plot beats become repetitive. Repetition is a problem in general in LEGO Horizon Adventures, with players often repeating the same tasks and exploring areas that look same-y. The game repeats the special builds that players find in the stages, and the dungeon-like Cauldrons don’t do enough to differentiate themselves from one another. LEGO Horizon Adventures combat, as much as I like it, would have likely suffered the same fate if it weren’t for the game’s community board.
LEGO Horizon Adventures uses the Mother’s Heart village as its hub world. A community board at its center challenges players to shake up the way they approach combat in exchange for gold bricks. Collecting gold bricks unlocks more community board challenges and also gives players the chance to customize the village to their liking. Players are also able to customize Aloy and friends with goofy outfits that can be purchased with studs collected in levels, like a hot dog suit and a chicken costume.
LEGO Horizon Adventures Has Co-Op, But There’s a Catch
Players can play with a friend in co-op as they work towards building everything in Mother’s Heart. Like other LEGO games, LEGO Horizon Adventures is playable in its entirety with drop-in/drop-out co-op, though some of the bad habits from the other LEGO titles have carried over to the new game. Like usual, co-op partners can’t unlock any of LEGO Horizon Adventures‘ trophies. The game also has a tendency of ripping agency away from the co-op partner if players get too far apart, teleporting the second player closer to player 1. This is most often a problem during LEGO Horizon Adventures‘ larger-scale battles.
While LEGO Horizon Adventures‘ co-op implementation could be better, fans will still appreciate its inclusion. They’ll also get a kick out of the visuals, which replicate the look and animation from The LEGO Movie, with a similar stop-motion style. While I found LEGO Horizon Adventures to be lackluster from a gameplay perspective, it is quite impressive from a graphics standpoint, with gorgeous lighting, clever use of LEGO bricks to build the game world, and a surprising amount of detail on the LEGO minifigs themselves.
It took me seven hours to complete LEGO Horizon Adventures’ main story missions. I also had 74% total completion at that point, so getting the Platinum doesn’t take long at all.
LEGO Horizon Adventures does some things better than the other LEGO games, and it does some things worse. It has better graphics, polish, and combat than any other LEGO game I’ve played, but it suffers a lot from uninspired level design and general dullness. It’s so mind-numbingly easy in what I assume is an attempt to appeal to children, but I imagine most kids will be bored by the game long before the credits roll. LEGO Horizon Adventures is technically a well-made game, but it is not a fun one to play.
Reviewed on PS5
- Released
- November 14, 2024
- Publisher(s)
- Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Best graphics in any LEGO game to date
- Combat has a lot of variety thanks to gadgets and weapon variants
- Repairing the Mother’s Heart hub world is rewarding
- Dull level design with nothing interesting to do between fights
- Repetitive objectives
- Doesn’t let co-op partners earn trophies
LEGO Horizon Adventures launches November 14 for PC, PS5, and Switch. Game Rant was provided with a PS5 code for this review.