Year: 2024
Platform: PlayStation 5
Genre: Action/adventure
Review Date: 6/27/26
Rating: ***

The first question regarding this game is "Why?" The ecological horror and apocalyptic setting of "Horizon Zero Dawn" hardly seems like something to get the Lego treatment. And nearly all other Lego games have been based on movie properties, not other video games. My only guess is that Sony was trying to plug their IP and persuade more players to check out the series. That said, the game is a family-friendly reinterpretation of the original material, and a reminder that I never got around to writing a review of that game. I remember taking a lot of notes and writing a first draft while I was riding a ferry to Victoria, but it got lost somewhere along the way and I never had a chance to revisit it. That said, I remember very little about the original story, and the Lego retelling was constantly confusing.

The game starts out the same, with a young girl named Aloy being found in the Nora village of Mother's Heart, and growing up as an outcast with a man named Rost. After sun-worshipping cultists attack Mother's Heart, Aloy sets out to defeat them and unravel the mystery of her past. She assembles a team of companions including Varl, Teersa, and Erend, who each have their own weapon specialties. You can swap characters at the beginning of each mission, but since it's Aloy's story, I felt no compelling reason to do so.

"Horizon Adventures" deviates significantly from the standard Lego game formula, and not for the better. The first thing you notice is the locked down isometric chase camera, which doesn't let you scan the environment and is a constant frustration. The next thing you notice is that there's no AI partner, which is a first for the series. The gameplay is almost entirely combat oriented, with no puzzles or collectibles. There's a slight RPG element that has the characters level up with experience, and you can purchase skill upgrades with studs that you collect. Mother's Heart serves as a hub which you can decorate and customize, but again, there's no compelling reason to do so. Building a roller coaster and Ninjago shrine in a Nora village makes no sense, but younger players might get a kick out of the random silliness. You can also unlock and purchase different costumes, so you can play the game dressed as Hot Dog Guy if you want to.

The Traveller's Tales Lego games are known for their clever writing and humor, but this isn't a TT game. That said, the writing is overly juvenile and painfully unfunny, especially the forced attempts to break the fourth wall. On the other hand, the voice acting is very good, and Ashly Burch reprises her role as Aloy with enthusiastically cartoonish glee. Her outrageously cheery performance is initially very off-putting, but I quickly warmed up to its infectious charm.

On the plus side, the game looks fantastic and has an excellent soundtrack. Unlike most Lego games, the environments are entirely made of Lego bricks, which creates a uniform look. The various biomes display a great amount of diversity and the ruins of civilization look wonderful. The various machine adversaries also look good, even though there are only about a dozen different species. The performance is solid, and there was only one time where I got stuck in the environment and had to jump to my doom in order to respawn. There was also one unusually difficult jump that took about ten tries to finally connect with the other side. The difficulty is reasonable and there's an option to play with infinite health. Even so, some of the boss fights can be brutal - especially the final showdown with HADES. Unfortunately, even though the story is linear, the mission structure has a lot of repetition, and you have to retread the same areas with each new objective.

Overall, "Lego Horizon Adventures" is an oddity. It's moderately enjoyable, but clearly aimed at a younger and less discerning audience. Perhaps the goal was to serve as a gateway to the "Horizon" series and RPG games in general. Fortunately, it's a short game and I finished it up in about eight hours. But with no open world activities or collectibles, there's no motivation to continue playing after completing the story.