After I smashed through the first hour of Lego Horizon Adventures for a hands-on preview, my expectations were built up. Maybe not higher than a 10,001-piece Icons Eiffel Tower—or even Lord of the Rings: Barad-dûr Tower levels of elevated keenness—but I was invested. Whatever the exact height and brickage my raised hopes were, they dropped after a mere 7-hour playthrough.
Now, before I whip out the Brick Separator and break this all down, piece by piece, let’s highlight the good stuff. Outwardly, purely in terms of AAA presentation, developers Guerrilla Games and Studio Gobo have totally snapped together something worthy of TT Games. As somebody who cut his teeth on the original Lego Star Wars game from 2005, I regularly caught myself marvelling at being able to play some sort of interactive, Horizon-themed The Lego Movie.
On the macro, the lushly detailed landscapes here make all previous Lego games look fuglier than Duplo. When Lego Horizon zooms in to the minifig micro, the snotty kid fingerprints and incidental scratch details are off the OCD-level charts.
Likewise, I just think Guerilla’s universe interlocks perfectly with Lego. Dinobot machines, plus an overarching aesthetic, one might market as “Lego City Gone to Hell,” just clicks, effortlessly. I was also pleasantly surprised by the quality of the writing and comedic VO, which amplifies the wry humour of non-Lego Aloy, regularly breaks the 4th wall, and rejigs the antagonist as a sunbathing-obsessed weirdo.
Honestly, the only downside I could level at this part of the production is that one load-bearing deuteragonist, Sylens, is voiced by a stand-in who doesn’t quite fit. But, to be fair, few actors would have the deep bass needed to play the late Lance Reddick. Ironically, Lego man Sylens just isn’t as studly as he could’ve been.
Lego man Sylens just isn’t as studly as he could’ve been.
Alternatively, I can’t really fault the decisions that have been made in the combat department. The fantastic plastic-on-plastic violence of Lego Horizon feels sufficiently evolved beyond any TT Game. The corner brick of this design is you eventually gaining access to four very uniquely abled warriors (Aloy, Varl, Erend, and Teersa), who each have their own finite ammo sub-weaponry, passive perks, and the expected element-based/robot parts picking-off tactics of the mainline Horizons.
Aloy is basically your long-ranger whose sniper skills are tempered by a need to plant her legpiece to the spot as you hold-draw for better damage and distance. Varl, on the other handclaw, specialises in thrown spears that penetrate through targets. Lastly, Erend is an up-in-your-grill melee exponent, and Teersa is another stick-to-the-spotter who lobs arcing explosives. Note: If you’re in an elevated position, she’s actually pretty good for cheesing the AI by being basically untouchable as you unleash death-from-above tactics.
I roped in a co-op buddy to play 5 of the 6 chapters available and we had great fenemy fun (while it lasted). We also took on Hero difficulty (the hardest of five possible) and were pleased with the level of challenge offered. Some of the arena-based boss fights demanded coordinated stealth-strikes and shrewd crossfire strategies.
Likewise, we had to rely heavily on our respective character-specific subweapons. As a staunch Aloy main, I can only speak to loving the use of Hot Dog Carts (random explosive death lobbed from), Tripcasters (line-like mines), and the simple, timeless pleasure of deleting fools with an oversized Brick Separator.
boss fights demanded coordinated stealth-strikes and shrewd crossfire strategies.
Interesting new wrinkles aside, I still found myself missing ye olde staple mechanics from TT Games past. It’s weird that double jumps can only be earned in 15-use increments via a Blast Boots pick up. Every character not having a basic punch for smacking minifigs or scenery is also odd. And, just on that last point, though every square 1×1 piece of these worlds is built with Lego, there’s a serious dearth of incidental destructibility.
Basically, you can only smash open a small handful of heavily repeated object “containers” that are few and far between, as opposed to, you know, 60-70% of any world in a TT game.
Lastly, for every great new idea mixed into the formula, it feels like there’s something else added that’s a head-scratcher inclusion. For example, being able to grab foes and Thanos them off a cliff: good. Falling off a medium-to-low cliff yourself to cop a face plant animation (but no damage): kinda pointless and disruptive.
Also, four unique heroes with their own perks/costumes/skills: good. Not allowing easy, in-level hot swapping to “the right minifig” for the job/boss: poor design decision. This problem gets exacerbated by the sheer randomness of sub weapon drops, which can thwart you if you’re trying to formulate a plan to take out an especially tough end-of-chapter boss.
being able to grab foes and Thanos them off a cliff: good.
But the biggest glaring omission for me has got to be the way nobody thought to harness the coolest part of Horizon: Zero Dawn—saddling up overridden machines. There’s a decent rogues gallery of robobeasts that require clever strategies to kill, but throwing a Lego leg over any of these machines hasn’t been implemented. Not for a quick minigame. Not for a quick-time event. Nothing. That’s nuts to me.
I suppose the ointment being offered to soothe the sting of that loss is added cosmetics. By smashing out bulletin board tasks, you can earn 100 gold and red bricks plus enough scratch to cobble together and refit buildings in Mother’s Heart village. There are also tons of genuinely cool non-MTX skins to chase.
throwing a Lego leg over any of these machines hasn’t been implemented […] That’s nuts.
That said, some of the best ones are level 40 propositions, and even if you’re a kleptomaniac playing on the hardest difficulty, you’ll only be level 20 by the time those end credits roll. So, frankly, who cares? Even if my inner child is screeching at me to go earn the 1980s-era knights/Robin Hood chic… that’s a tough slog. The extra four or five hours I spent mopping things up to 100% felt kind of meaningless.
Its figurative shortcomings like that, coupled with the literal shortcoming of a runtime half of what you’d expect, which inches Lego Horizon Adventures into bargain bin purchase territory. It breaks my heart container to say that, too. Despite some odd design choices, this starts out strong, fun, and gorgeous before running out of road and fresh ideas far too soon.
This review was made possible by an advanced digital code provided by the publisher.
