Developer: Studio Gobo, Guerrilla Games
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Platform: PC, PS5, Switch
Tested on: PS5
LEGO Horizon Adventures – Review
It has only been a few days since we featured Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered on our site, and we find ourselves returning to the Horizon universe already. This time, however, Aloy and her friends have been LEGOfied for this standalone adventure. We had this title on our radar for a while now, as we’re huge fans of the LEGO games. We assumed that LEGO Horizon Adventures would follow the same formula as titles like LEGO Jurassic World, and so we had a pretty good idea of what to expect. That assumption proved to be wrong, as developer Guerrilla Games clearly wanted to keep the iconic Horizon gameplay intact. While they succeeded in respecting the source material for the most part, we’re not sure if it was the best choice for a LEGO adventure.
Story
While it’s nice if you have some prior knowledge about Aloy’s adventure in both Horizon games, this is absolutely not needed. LEGO Horizon Adventures is a standalone title where you’ll get to know Aloy and her friends, while she tries to find out who her mother is. Aloy was abandoned as a baby, and due to this, she was shunned from the local village and raised by an exiled hunter, Rost. Eventually, she is accepted by the inhabitants of Mother’s Heart, but a new danger is preventing her from pursuing her quest to find her mother. An ancient evil is controlling cultists who are stopping at nothing to destroy the world’s nature, making it so that the machines that roam the planet will gain even more power. Aloy and her allies are the only ones who can put a halt to this, and this is also where the biggest chunk of the adventure will revolve around.
All in all, the story is pleasant and it is presented in such a way that it feels more like a kids or teen program, rather than a video game. We loved the witty dialogue, and the story progression was fast enough to keep things interesting. Some aspects could have been fleshed out a bit more, as it would have been fun for newcomers to the Horizon universe to learn more about certain events.
Graphics
LEGO Horizon Adventures looks amazing. Everything in the game has been created with (digital) LEGO bricks and studs. We were amazed by the level of detail, and the character movement reminded us of the LEGO Movie. We loved exploring every nook and cranny of the different areas, and the backdrops were equally impressive. The game boasts an impressive number of fun outfits to choose from and Mother’s Heart can also be customized with decorations, new buildings, and even area styles. It’s a good-looking package. We were, however, disappointed by the limited levels and the fact that many of said levels share the same areas. We understand the amount of work that went into developing a pretty game such as this, but we would have loved a few more interesting level designs here and there.
Sound
The game’s sound design is superbly handled. Every interaction in the game is fully voiced, which adds a lot of charm to the mix. We loved the dialogues during the story segments, as they did have that typical LEGO humor embedded into them. Even so, the attempt at staying true to the more serious undertone of the Horizon series sometimes clashed with the LEGO humor. The supporting soundtrack is also pleasant, and there’s enough track variety to prevent things from growing stale. The SFX provide decent audio feedback, and the explosion sounds pack a proper punch. The iconic clicking sounds of LEGO bricks can often be heard during the experience.
Gameplay
LEGO Horizon Adventures is a fairly straightforward LEGO-themed adventure game based on Sony’s Horizon franchise. In the game, you’ll play as Aloy and a few of the companions she meets across her travels, to take down robots and stop a criminal mastermind from destroying the world’s natural environments. You’ll have to undertake very short missions to complete small objectives. The levels’ duration ranges from only a few minutes to about fifteen minutes. If you play on a low difficulty setting, some optional missions may take you less than a minute to take down a mini-boss.
The levels themselves often follow the same format as well, as you’ll just explore your surroundings a bit, kill enemies, and either wrap things up by being swarmed by enemies or by battling a mini-boss. There is hardly any variation in terms of what you have to do, as the game doesn’t really have any puzzles to solve, except for opening a few doors. This is also the biggest issue with the game, as everything feels extremely simple, and even the four selectable characters bring hardly any variation to the mix. Compared to other LEGO titles, the skillsets of the different characters are bland, and additional weapons are found at random in the levels themselves. You can carry one additional weapon and a gadget. It feels needlessly basic, especially if you have played other LEGO titles such as LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. In the latter, you had so many characters, all with different abilities that came in handy during combat, as well as solving puzzles and crossing environmental hazards. In many ways, LEGO Horizon Adventures’ gameplay feels very bland because of this. That being said, the game is easy to get into, and it’s quite entertaining to play together with a friend or a younger gamer.
Your characters will upgrade individually, granting them passive boosts, such as having more heart containers or dealing more damage with their weapons. It’s a simple leveling system, and if there were more characters, it would have been just fine. Outside the individual leveling system, there’s also an overarching skill tree where you can unlock passive upgrades for all characters. This includes upgrades such as status effects lasting longer on enemies and getting more experience when targeting weak points, for example.
As you progress and clear secondary objectives, you’ll unlock more options to customize Mother’s Heart. The game includes cosmetic items based on the Horizon series, but also from the LEGO City and Ninjago sets. It’s fun to customize the game’s hub this way, but there is simply no real point in doing this. You’ll unlock even more cosmetics by doing this, but there are no other rewards linked to this.
We managed to beat LEGO Horizon Adventures in roughly two evenings. This time might be even shorter if you’re playing on the lowest difficulty settings. On top of that, you can basically ignore side routes in levels, as these will only reward you with additional ‘money’ to buy even more cosmetics and skill upgrades. After the credits roll, you’ll still be able to do predator hunts, and when you’re done with those, the expeditions will unlock. The latter is basically a free-roam mode for the different areas, allowing you to complete side missions. These side missions are sadly only useful to unlock even more cosmetics. We felt as if the game had more padding than actual story content.
Conclusion
LEGO Horizon Adventures does a lot of things right, as it has a fairly engaging story to play through, the visuals look great, and the sound design is handled with a lot of care. Sadly, the simplistic gameplay elements, the limited stage variety, and the fact that the game has more padding than the main content felt a bit disappointing. This title feels like a big step back compared to many other LEGO titles. That being said, the developers’ choice to stick to the iconic Horizon style and gameplay elements did feel like an original twist to the tried-and-true LEGO formula, and it was a somewhat refreshing experience. While still entertaining, the overall experience was a bit too shallow and we would have loved to see certain elements fleshed out more.
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