Have Studio Gobo and Guerilla Games master-built an incredible Action Adventure game? Find out in our LEGO Horizon Adventures review!

Horizon: Zero Dawn is one of the most beautiful games that has ever existed, hands down. Some people (myself included) would say that it suffered due to its high fidelity, amongst other things. With an outspoken dislike of the Horizon franchise, I was intrigued by LEGO Horizon Adventures and the prospect of the experiencing this world in a new, blocky form. So does this re-build of the original Horizon: Zero Dawn story come with all pieces or are some lost to the the juvenile antics of a LEGO game? Find out in our LEGO Horizon Adventures review

LEGO Horizon Adventures Review – Story

LEGO Horizon Adventures gives us the ambitious narrative surrounding Aloy and Co. in a more jokey, self-aware style commonly found in licensed LEGO games. Everyone is a little silly and is armed with constant set ups and punchlines for each other.

I feel you Teersa!

Throughout the story you’ll meet a small cast of lively characters that are here to help you along your journey. Varl is the young warrior, intent on proving himself a hero. You also have Teersa and Erend, the stereotypical old sage and hammer-wielding himbo.

The LEGO recreation of Horizon’s animals is stellar!

I’ve always found LEGO games to be funny and well written — full of self-aware writing, and Horizon Adventures is no different. Being a more family-friendly game, Studio Gobo and Guerilla Games have done a fantastic job of condensing Zero Dawn’s narrative into a more digestible and faster paced version of the original story. Playing alongside my kids, it was great to see them being able to follow along with everything that was happening.

LEGO Horizon Adventures Review – Gameplay

One of the few things I like about the Horizon games is combat being built around weak points, being able to lop off key components with precision and continuous damage. This combat is translated well into the world of LEGO Horizon Adventures, pieces are easy to target and the game auto-locks onto key points without too much effort on the player.

My humble abode.

There are 4 playable protagonists, each with their own weapon and playstyle. Aloy wields her bow and young Varl has a spear that can pierce enemies. You also have Teersa and her bombs, along with Erend weilding his large Hammer. Each character levels up the more you play them, increasing their damage with weapons and the number of hearts they have. I was endlessly fond of Varl’s ability to pierce through multiple foes at once, proving most useful when using special weapons on groups of enemies.

“I’ve been waiting here forever!”

To help you in combat, there are some variable weapon types you gain access to. Most variants are your boilerplate elemental effects; Fire deals damage over time, Ice will freeze enemies into place and Shock makes them more vulnerable. There are a select handful of special kinetic weapons that transform your weapon too, like Varl’s returning Boomerang Spear or Aloy’s Storm Bow, allowing you to charge up a barrage of arrows to release in one go.

Can’t beat a good shield!

Accompanying your arsenal are single-use secondary items that can be used to turn the tide of battle. Equipment like blast boots which not only give you a double jump, but also light anything on fire that is unlucky to be underneath you when you use it. If you’re looking to further upgrade your characters, you can buy upgrades for studs accumulated over your playthrough. These purchases do anything from increasing damage output or experience gain when using special weapons and gadgets to increase the healing you receive from the berry bushes spread throughout the world.

I wonder what I’ll get!

Accumulating studs is as easy as opening chests, defeating enemies, or running around the hub world collecting them off your buildings like some little LEGO landlord. The difficulty comes when deciding on what to spend them on, as the economy in LEGO Horizon has been hit with inflation big time. Expect a few hours of grinding if you want to go for completion in this game.

“I fell into a burning ring of fire I went down, down, down And the flames went higher And it burns, burns, burns…”

Even with the extra challenge of the highest difficulty, with 2 hits at most enough to take you down, the combat started to feel a little too familiar as the game went on. This was not without attempts at keeping things fresh, mind you. Regularly, new robotic creatures were introduced including corrupted variants later in the game, shaking up the landscape of encounters for a time.

Hammer time!

Unfortunately, once you had learned the pattern of each animal the challenge was mostly drained from the game. I found most fights to essentially be a game of keep away — avoid the damage circles until you can spam projectiles and repeat. Outside of LEGO Horizon Adventure’s mixed combat lays a lackluster offering in the form of exploration. Aside from smidges of admittedly beautiful environmental design, you’re lucky to receive a handful of studs and a gadget or two as a reward for wandering anywhere but in a straight line to the next combat encounter. Many levels present you with healing berry bushes before you can even start taking damage, and there is a severe lack of puzzles present throughout the world.

Is this fun for anyone?

While visually interesting, the world is gummed up by menial, uninspired platforming such as slowly climbing yellow brick-laden walls — one of my biggest gripes with the Zero Dawn. This is exemplified the most in Cauldron stages, with many featuring long conveyors of floating platforms to hang on to. There’s simply no life to the level design that is prevalent in many other LEGO games.

Mimosas are a mandatory beverage in the new world.

While a serviceable melding of the two franchises, I couldn’t help but miss the parts that make LEGO games the most enjoyable. As mentioned before, the game is sorely lacking in puzzles, and master-building is mostly relegated to constructing random items that always felt out of place. Instead of crafting forgotten artefacts from the old world, I found myself crafting a park bench attached to some balloons or a random UFO.

Happy birthday!

After each mission you return to Mother’s Heart, a hub world filled with spaces to build various decorations and structures. You can visit the community board for extra tasks or switch up your appearance at the tailors. Most structures around the hub are solely for aesthetics, being able to build sets from LEGO Ninjago, Amusement, City, and more. A handful have some fun once-off interactions, like the toilet where your character can sit and contemplate life on the throne, or a garbage truck that you can throw people into.

The screen can get very noisy sometimes.

Handy options such as player invulnerability, easier aiming and obstacle speeds can help players who are having a hard time with the game’s mechanics. Dialogue can be set to pause after each line is delivered, giving you control of the pace of conversation. Subtitles can also be toggled for everything from ambient, cinematic, and conversational dialogue.

LEGO Horizon Adventures Review – Visuals

Following in the Horizon franchise’s footsteps, LEGO Horizon Adventure is a stunningly beautiful game. Whether deep in the jungle, out in the barren desert or in the bowels of a cauldron, incredible environmental design is prevalent. Impressively recreated from LEGO bricks, each landscape is something to behold.

An example of the lighting being out of this world!

LEGO Horizon boasts some stellar lighting and a consistently smooth framerate to boot. The wide overhead camera angle only compliments the visuals with more of the world being in the shot at once. Certain missions even allow you to follow and hop aboard a Tallneck. These vignettes place a tight focus on the world around you, lowering the stakes so you can soak in the scenery as you take things at your own pace.

The atmosphere while chasing a Tallneck is serene.

As is for most LEGO properties, the recreation of Horizon’s robotic fauna is instantly recognizable. The animations for characters both bi and quad-pedal are snappy and full of life! This animation style lends itself to combat, projecting enemy attacks clearly and allowing for plenty of time to dodge or move out of the way.

“Uber for… Erend?”

LEGO Horizon Adventures Review – Audio

Accompanying the stellar visuals is another highlight of the game. The wonderful sound design, including an energetic soundtrack filled with electronic jams and a fully voiced cast (minus the late, great Lance Reddick, may he Rest in Peace) brings life to Mother’s Heart and its surrounding lands. ​The most unusual soundtrack was already released a few months prior aiming. “Post-apocalyptic dance party” by mxmtoon is a pretty catchy tune, presumably in order to further lighten the mood in order get the attention of younger audiences.

LEGO Horizon Adventures Review – What Else?

If you’re looking for a little more of a challenge or you’re a completionist wanting to slay every beast and unlock every outfit, then Apex Predator hunts are for you. After each chapter, LEGO Horizon Adventures gives you access to one off mini-boss fights that reward you with a special Red Brick. Accumulating these Red Bricks unlocks items in the tailor as well as extra decorations and building customization.

Yay for finishing the game!

Unfortunately, like story missions, these extra battles are unable to be replayed. Instead, Expeditions are unlocked in that area once all missions and hunts have been finished. Offering limited replayability, Expeditions string together all the level layouts into one continuous stream.

LEGO Horizon Adventures Review – Conclusion

LEGO Horizon Adventures is undoubtedly more Horizon than LEGO. The beautiful visuals mixed with solid combat mechanics and clever writing hook you in for a time, only to be marred by uninteresting platforming, repetitive levels, battles, and little replayability. The absence of puzzles and interesting building, along with the prevalence of tie-ins from other LEGO sets, leaves me wanting for the LEGO games of old.

Why should you play LEGO Horizon Adventures?

• Beautiful visuals and environment design
• Well written, self-aware writing throughout
• Combat mechanics translated expertly from the Horizon games

But why shouldn’t you play LEGO Horizon Adventures?

• Little to no replayability
• The game starts to feel repetitive after a time
• Uninspired platforming and lack of puzzles

A review code was kindly provided by Sony and Guerrilla Games for the purpose of our LEGO Horizon Adventures Review.  You can check out our other reviews here and if you haven’t already, be sure to join the Qualbert Discord to find out about the latest game and review updates!