LEGO Horizon Adventures PS5 Review
Summary: LEGO Horizon Adventures is an almost perfect translation of the Horizon setting and characters into the world of LEGO. Effort has been made to translate the mechanics and locales into brick form, with great effect.
4.4
Bricktastic!
I haven’t played a LEGO game other than briefly checking out LEGO: Fortnite since 2013’s LEGO Marvel Super Heroes. I always found the games enjoyable with some genuinely funny moments, but by that point, it had started to feel like they were beginning to repeat themselves a little. Sure, the setting, story, and characters would change from game to game, but on a gameplay level, they had started to stagnate.
Guerrilla’s IP and LEGO had already collaborated once with the release of the LEGO Tallneck build (a model that I’m still yet to get my hands on…), so a game in the universe felt like it was only a matter of time.
Being a big fan of Aloy and the Horizon series was enough to pique my interest when the game was first rumoured. Upon seeing the announcement trailer for LEGO Horizon Adventures, however, I felt that it might be time to dive back into the LEGO series and check out this new entry.
As someone who has been away from the games for a while, the most noticeable change from the earlier ones was the move to environments fully built from LEGO. Previous games had maps that more or less fell in line with what you’d expect from almost any other game: semi-realistic worlds populated with LEGO bricks and figures, but not built from LEGO themselves.
This change to the world being entirely constructed from bricks and studs has a huge impact on the visuals and aesthetics of the game. Simply put, it looks stunning. Guerrilla has done a wonderful job of translating the look and feel of each piece into digital form. Light hits blocks exactly how you would expect it to, it almost feels like it could be an incredibly elaborate stop motion made from actual LEGO.
Even the water is fully rendered in brick form, using semi-translucent pieces that shimmer and move to simulate flowing water. Describing it doesn’t do it justice, it’s something you have to see to get a proper idea of how it works.
Special effects like fire are also entirely in LEGO form, taking the shape of the iconic, bright orange, flame pieces that I remember from my childhood.
It’s an incredibly visually striking game that needs to be seen in motion, even if you’re not interested in the theme.
Ashly Burch reprises her role as Aloy, along with many of the cast members from the two mainline games including JB Blanc as Rost, who narrates much of the game. Dialogue is understandably lighter and more cheerful than the mainline games. Aloy’s character, while retaining the quirkiness obtained as a result of growing up as an outcast, now has far more joy and what can only be described as a bounce in her voice. Sylens’ character being voiced by someone other than Lance Reddick due to his untimely death in 2023, was a bit of a lurch, but Tim Russ takes to the role well and does the character justice.
Everything seems good, great in fact, on the presentation front, but has Guerrilla done anything to mix up the LEGO formula? The short answer is yes. To go into a little more detail though, effort has been made to incorporate some of the combat mechanics on the mainline games. Mainly the emphasis on stripping parts off of machines to do bigger damage to them.
Hitting the L1 button uses Aloy’s focus, manifesting itself in this case as a method to highlight weak points on enemies. Targeting these with attacks causes the parts to break and fall off, and in turn, defeats foes far quicker.
Aloy is armed with a bow as standard, and various flavours of special weapons and temporary abilities can be found throughout every level. These include elemental arrows, multi-shot bows, and various flavours of a melee attack, as well as some more… interesting… options, such as a (surprisingly effective) hotdog stand that dispenses a fountain of explosives.
Long grass makes a return and continues to offer a suitable hiding spot for Aloy to survey the area from, scouting the area for hazards and enemies before making a move.
Levels themselves are short, only taking around five to ten minutes each to complete, with each chapter of the story having five or more and taking place in a particular biome. Speaking of the story, it’s a very loose retreading of some of the plot points of the original Horizon Zero Dawn. There are some major differences, and it diverges quite a lot in places, but several of the key story beats are there.
Each level, as you might expect, is filled with LEGO studs. These are used as a currency to spend in the game’s economy. Weapon and character upgrades are the primary use, with cosmetic changes to the village buildings as a secondary, and with purchasing additional mini-figs and costumes to play the game with. There’s far less emphasis on stud collecting in LEGO Horizon Adventures than I remember from other games, which is a welcome change. Along with this, the combat rewards experience points which level up Aloy, granting access to more upgrades along the way.
It’s just enough of a change to the combat to make it feel like something new, even if realistically it’s just a variation of the old style, that quickly devolves into a melee once you’re no longer in hiding. The machines are all faithfully recreated in brick form and behave suitably. I hope LEGO and Guerrilla know that I’m going to need a set for each one of the machines now, not just the Tallneck.
Final Thoughts?
LEGO Horizon Adventures is an excellent entry into both the LEGO and Horizon franchises. It adds enough new mechanics to the formula to make it feel like it’s a part of both series, rather than one wearing the clothes of the other.
There’s plenty to do, with dozens of side quests to unlock and complete and countless mini figures to collect and customise, and the entire game can be played in co-op.
It’s stunning to look at, sounds great, and has a vein of comedy running through it that lands more often than not. Fans of both LEGO and Horizon are going to want to check this one out.
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