LEGO Horizon Adventures on PS5
With LEGO blocks being a constant source of entertainment for both adults and kids, it comes as no surprise that the many years of LEGO games have been doing the same. The formula refined by Traveller’s Tales over the years has undoubtedly conditioned many of us to expect a certain level of polish and fun when jumping into those reimagined worlds, but in Guerrilla Games and Studio Gobo‘s LEGO Horizon Adventures, what we get is a mixed bag of bricks that leaves unfulfilled potential in the box.
Much of that has to do with the game’s positioning. It might star Aloy and her allies from the Horizon games and be a loose retelling of the first adventure, but it is also meant to be an adventure for newcomers foreign to the series and, to a greater extent, younger players. That means balancing the various elements of the action-adventure that make it enjoyable to play on a much smaller, accessible scale under a coat of LEGO paint.
In some areas, LEGO Horizon Adventures absolutely nails it. Presentation and performance are top-notch, with the game looking immaculate from characters to the world. The animation work also shines, and the story’s repackaging in a much more optimistic, humourous manner keeps things fresh and lighthearted, like a LEGO game should be. Bugs and performance issues have not reared their ugly heads either.
In addition, seeing the post-apocalyptic world through the lens of LEGO bricks, especially the machines that are the series’ calling cards being faithfully recreated, is a constant thrill. The distinct environments and biomes also made me yearn for more actual LEGO sets to be put into production, such is the quality of the work put in by the developers.
However, these areas are also a cause for concern because there isn’t much to do beyond sightseeing in them. A level is broken up into several distinct areas, and players make their way from start to finish linearly, occasionally veering off the main path to find treasures and objects to build. That’s not entirely different from the usual LEGO formula, but the lack of destructible objects or meaningful platforming and puzzling makes most of these sections a tiresome trek. This is exacerbated when various sections start to repeat themselves, even for the Cauldron dungeons, which are meant to be significant milestones.
The saving grace is the combat in LEGO Horizon Adventures, a pared-down experience that demonstrates that the foundational mechanics of hitting weak points and stripping parts make for exhilarating fun. With the assortment of machines and cultists that stand in your way, players can take the fight to them using one of the four characters—Aloy, Varl, Teersa, and Erend—and their unique weapons.
Aloy wields her bow, Varl uses his spear, Teersa throws bombs, and Erend goes hard with his hammer, the commonality being that they can hold their own in combat as you scan for weak points to exploit. While you can get away with just frenetically mashing buttons and attacking, the game rewards precise aiming as you tear down important components and whittle the foe down.
Furthermore, as players progress, useful gadgets and rare weapons get unlocked, giving you more options from encounter to encounter to deal with the dangers ahead. Fire, shock, and ice damage are just some of the elements you can leverage, and interesting gadgets such as Blast Boots that combine a double jump with explosive jets, a Tripcaster to set electrified traps, or even a Hot Dog Cart that drops incendiary weiners add to the chaos and amusement of fights in LEGO Horizon Adventures.
Combat can also be surprisingly challenging, especially if you are not paying attention to the environment and taking advantage of hazards. For example, hitting water with frost damage can freeze everything in contact with it, while spikes and vines can hinder movement and restrict the space you can manoeuvre around in. Mastering the different characters and their unique weapons and gadgets, and getting to grips with the dangers of each machine quickly makes combat something you should always look forward to in the game, even if the attempt at using tall grass for stealth is only helpful as an initial start point before things get loud.
Co-op is perhaps the best way to play LEGO Horizon Adventures, even if its implementation is imperfect. Having two characters running around and battling the machines, mainly on higher difficulties, brings a level of tension and satisfaction that is quite unexpected. You can also level up the second character at the same time, helping to unlock new upgrades for that character that will be helpful when playing solo and reducing the time to get everyone else up to speed.
Those playing with partners who tend to get lost will also appreciate how the game prioritises the main player by automatically teleporting co-op partners back to their side, but not so if you are hoping to explore on your own. The fact that the second player cannot unlock trophies during the playthrough is also a major bummer.
In between levels, you will head back to Mother’s Heart, the hub village. Here, you can use all of those Gold Bricks collected for completing missions and the many requests at the community board to build and customise buildings and decorations. There are also a ton of outfits to switch up the looks of Aloy and her allies.
It is a treat seeing all the different options, but it still feels strange that the world of Horizon overlaps that of LEGO properties like Ninjago and the City line; creativity definitely trumps any sense of continuity here. The array of overall upgrades that can be purchased using studs is also an incentive to keep playing and taking part in the optional Apex Machine Hunts, which in turn unlocks the infinitely replayable Expeditions that are just free runs through a selection of areas in each biome.
With a runtime of 8-12 hours, LEGO Horizon Adventures is an entertaining spinoff that should be seen as an evolution of the beloved LEGO formula but comes short when it comes to populating levels with meaningful things to do and see or alleviating the repetitiveness that becomes more apparent in a shorter adventure. There is value in this more approachable take on PlayStation’s first-party IPs, and is something I hope to see for other games like Ghost of Tsushima, God of War, and more, but only if the right balance can be found with these building blocks.
LEGO Horizon Adventures is available on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC on November 14.
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Summary
A solid but albeit flawed attempt at merging the two worlds, LEGO Horizon Adventures teases the potential at what can be achieved with more quality.
