LEGO Horizon Adventures (PS5) - Review
by Lee Mehr , posted on 17 December 2024 / 1,845 Views
After twenty-odd years, virtually every major child-oriented (PG-13 or lower) franchise or creative entity has been under the LEGO limelight: Harry Potter, Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Pixar, and so on and so forth. If there was a blockbuster franchise selling gangbusters at the box office, Traveler's Tales was primed to parody those stories while enabling players to blast or build various objects across iconic backdrops. But LEGO games taking aim at other games is a peculiar choice – perhaps even a daring one. So, the challenge for Guerrilla Games & Studio Gobo is in tapping into a less culturally-significant franchise like Horizon as a potential lure for newcomers and longtime fans; unfortunately, neither is likely to be satisfied with this confused offering.
To its credit, a lot of studs went into its presentation. Speaking only from my protracted LEGO game hiatus, Horizon Adventures' technical leap is immediately apparent. This isn't merely a bump in resolution; it's seen through the way light illuminates every plastic piece, the subtle ripple effects when walking through water, impressively-animated environmental effects, and so on. The level of technical complexity during both cutscenes and gameplay feels akin to a stop-motion LEGO vignette. At the forefront in showing off these new looks is its trimmed-down & kid-friendly reinterpretation of Horizon: Zero Dawn's narrative, with greater interest in hyperactively doling out jokes than re-doing The Hero's Journey. What if The LEGO Movie was mashed with the Horizon franchise?
Said combination also speaks to a major attitude shift found here: a de-emphasized outlook towards creative destruction. For anyone with even a passing familiarity to Traveler's Tales' older titles, the typical routine of breaking down LEGO-ized backdrops was part of the charm – albeit quite typical. Seeing the potentially inventive ways one could dismantle or occasionally rebuild some bigger pieces for a gag had its own reward; conversely, Horizon Adventures' playsets come with stricter permissions of what can or can't be touched. Anything outside of foes or the rare destructive item hiding spare studs is practically welded together. It's focused – almost aggressively so – on making sets to impress you and then smacking your hand away the moment you get any funny ideas.
This "look but don’t touch" ethos is combined with a more hurried & linear approach to game design. Past LEGO titles' easiest idea for replayability was locking off certain areas in the main campaign to special characters you could instantly swap between during Free Play mode, like shifting between droid and Sith in Star Wars-themed ones. Perhaps too artificial for its own good, but it was a great way to experiment with disparate personalities across iconic locations. In contrast, however, Horizon Adventures' character selection occurs at the beginning of each new level before you're locked to them for the remainder. And since you can't return to past stages that also means there aren't any unique surprises found off the beaten path.
Of course, it'd be unfair to solely fixate on what this LEGO iteration misses instead of also evaluating it on its own merits. Even as a kid-accessible isometric action-adventure, sharing some DNA with Minecraft Dungeons for example, there's still a lot to be desired. The template is rather expected but functional:
- Aloy: bow & arrow
- Varl: throwing spears
- Teersa: bombs
- Erend: hammer (melee)
Outside of the unique cadences of their disparate main weapons, virtually everything else about them is the same. Whether acquired by downed enemies, "hidden" treasure chests, or a suspiciously-helpful trader, each cast member can use the same secondary power-ups and the limited-use elemental charges for their weapons are either fire, frost, or electric. All of them share identical leveling upgrades between improved damage and more health, as well as universal bonuses that can be acquired at the main hub: Mother's Heart.
While serviceable in its own right, it's telling how one-note everything feels before the story's able to get the whole cast together. The reason why is its ho-hum level design. Guerrilla Games and Studio Gobo did something I thought wasn't possible: make four visually-distinct biomes blend seamlessly together. Mostly-linear pathway with a small diversion off the beaten path, gentle platforming segment, zip-line or cliff-drop down to yet another circular combat arena, loading screen to restart the cycle over again, mysterious trader towards the end, rinse and repeat. To avoid being too repetitive, every biome also has one level where the path branches between returning home and chasing down a Tallneck to get on top of it. Aside from those and the occasional break into robot-manufacturing cauldrons, almost every stage adheres to this Xeroxed structure. 
Religiously sticking to the same script would be outright disastrous without the combat. Really, it's the aspect best-translated from the original. Each mechanical monster looks well-realized, their unique attack patterns work well for this isometric perspective, and emphasizing highlighted weak points adds just enough tactical flair while remaining suitable for a younger audience. Though the pathways to reach each combat arena are shamelessly repeated, at least the environmental hazards and dripfeed of new combatants within said arenas avoid the same staleness. That said, its fundamentals aren't bulletproof either, especially on higher difficulties (five in total). For starters, I didn't anticipate the highest difficulty would translate to one-shot-kill attacks, even after doubling my initial health pool, or certain attacks leaving you open to being stun-locked to death. Turns out older LEGO's simpler structure of a baseline four hearts and temporary invincibility after taking damage were the greener pastures.
There's something fundamentally askew about its gameplay architecture overall. Measuring it as a barebones Diablo-like for all ages shouldn't allow one to disregard the lacking fundamentals. Besides the aforementioned issues, there's no (current) way to cancel strikes midway through the animation, enemies on higher difficulties are just ridiculously spongy, and relegating a better action vocabulary (double-jump, dash, etc.) to secondary power-ups feels arbitrary. The ability to make default combat more versatile is right there, man! What about as a casual building-block simulator? Granted, there's some fun in decorating cast members and Mother's Heart with various cosmetics across the Horizon and extended LEGO universes, but it's half-measured given how everything's constructed in a "bizarro-LEGO" fashion. How can this game emphasize creativity and teamwork when the crew's biggest LEGO constructions are either done with a single button press or – even worse – completed off-screen in cutscenes?
Likewise, it's the little things in Horizon Adventures' adapted narrative that make the whole building crumble. The broad strokes of Aloy and co. foiling the plans of a pyrolatrous cult and a rogue AI working behind the scenes are here and accounted for, but the details in between are filled with a "discount Phil Lord & Chris Miller" screenplay desperate for laughs. Granted, some of the meta-humor and background chatter earn genuine chortles from me; moreover, I like how Ashley Burch ekes out more personality in this seven-hour campaign (non-completionist/default difficulty) than she does in the mainline Zero Dawn altogether. It seems like the cast also had more fun. Still, the fusillade of quips and winks can't paper over a story that's essentially about collecting three metal flowers that'll create a super-weapon to stop The Big Bad.
While still littered with humor that lands as gracefully as a Brendan Schaub special, it'd be unfair to rest full blame on James Windeler's script. A key reason for these recycled punchlines – be it Teersa's age or Erend's doughnut obsession – stems back to there being no culturally-impactful phenomenon for the series to latch onto and point out in unison. And I don't think I'm being unfair here. I genuinely can't think of a specific nuance – character trait, line of dialogue, etc. – that marks these characters as something I'd yearn to see in their plastic form, especially compared to icons like Han Solo, Captain Jack Sparrow, or the better Marvel heroes. So, the question of "who's this even for?" can't help but be left unanswered.
The overarching issue with LEGO Horizon Adventures can be interrogated with its own title: what exciting adventures can be promised by fusing these two properties together? For the plethora of LEGO adaptations of blockbuster films that carry prominent cultural cache, the answer is immediately obvious: the fun in re-experiencing beloved franchises and moments as a playable parody. Their mechanics are simplistic, but their tacit goals are immediately clear and cohere with the young-ages fun of these toys. By lacking a sense of purpose or direction here, it feels like this developer duo couldn't be as creative with the license as they ought to have been; and, as a result, neither can you.
Contractor by trade and writer by hobby, Lee's obnoxious criticisms have found a way to be featured across several gaming sites: N4G, VGChartz, Gaming Nexus, DarkStation, and TechRaptor! He started gaming in the mid-90s and has had the privilege in playing many games across a plethora of platforms. Reader warning: each click given to his articles only helps to inflate his Texas-sized ego. Proceed with caution.
VGChartz Verdict
4
Poor
This review is based on a retail copy of LEGO Horizon Adventures for the PS5
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call it as you see it! always be fair
A pretty harsh review, but it makes sense given the content. Even if they're trying something new, it's shocking not to have a level select.
I'll admit: this feels like one of my meaner 4's too. Early on, my mindset was more geared towards to it being just another mid LEGO game. "Sure, the liberties it was taking don't click, but it's trying something else." But then its weaker action elements get more pronounced as it dumps more enemies and I start getting more and more annoyed.
That said, I can understand how some of my specific nitpicks wouldn't be shared by many others - even those who also don't care for it overall.
I can understand being meaner to it though.
A big thing for this game will be ‘why play this and not HZD?’, which is especially pertinent given HZD was rereleased for the PS5 only 2 months ago.
The Switch version can maybe make a case as HZD isn’t available on that platform, but for PS players I can’t see a reason why you’d play this instead of HZD.
Because it's for kids? A lighter introduction into the world. That was literally part of the reason and premise they created it. According to the wiki article which references this article https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/video-games/2024/10/21/lego-horizon-adventures-is-all-ages-crossover-sonys-dreams/
"It was The Lego Group that pitched the game to Guerilla as "We were all fans of Horizon" according to Kate Bryant, a project lead on Lego-branded games."
and
"They were also drawn to Aloy as a character as she can "speak to that wide audience because she has that strength of character that can resonate with a younger audience"
This is why and why it's on the Switch.
Scoring down because of the original designers intension is harsh. Is it a good game? Is it a bad game because it's not designed for you?
-"Because it's for kids? A lighter introduction into the world. That was literally part of the reason and premise they created it."
While I get that impulse, we're also talking about Horizon here. I guess the proper question is "what counts as the appropriate kid audience for this versus the aforementioned Zero Dawn Remastered." Because, for me, a T-rated game like it would've been totally acceptable when I was age 10. So, the supposed kid audience pool is already quite finite for what's quite tame already. Like, even the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy has rougher content, but there's still a tacit admission of it being a kid-oriented franchise.
How much of the story replicates the story of Horizon? A lot I presume, that's the idea and I presume the game puts a more light hearted tone over the entire affair right?
Meanwhile, Horizon is set in a world of blood, death, kidnapping and a story revolving around the history of the world literally everyone dying. Fun for all the family. It's rated Teen for a reason. Lego games while this appears to be 10+ can be played by all even if you don't comprehend it because of their fun nature.
When we were 10, controls were not complex (assuming your age :P), there wasn't a controller with haptic feedback, slow down mechanics to change to one of 16 weapon variations taking down 4 tank like machines at the same time, that's feedback overload. Most were move right and X to jump, if you it is complicated Square to fire.
I do get your argument, why when you have the remaster? Because it's not for a 10 year old, it's rated T for teen for a reason and a 10 year old isn't a teen.
79€/$ It should have been 30E$.. It seems to have done awfull it has more people in the credits than people who played it on steam didn't expected it to go that low...
Retail is €70/$60.
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