LEGO Horizon Adventures Review – ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL?

If you love the Horizon series and LEGO games, LEGO Horizon Adventures should be a no brainer right? Well… in reality it isn’t. This title should have been filled with quirky combat, big levels to explore, and lots of humour filled dialogue. However, only the third of these was present in this adventure.

Alright, before we get started, full transparency: Sony sent me a code for the game for review. I’m going to do my best to be objective, but it’s always good to keep that in mind. Now onto the review. 

The Story’s the Strongest Part of LEGO Horizon Adventures!

The narrative is by far the best part of LEGO Horizon Adventures. Not only is there constant wise cracks, with some of the jokes getting me to literally laugh out loud, but the fresh take on Aloy’s origins is pretty entertaining to listen to. And I do mean listen! Most of the story is told by characters simply talking to one another with minimal movement. There were so many missed opportunities here! 

Whilst I did say that there was a lot of humour to be found in the dialogue, it was literally the spoken word itself! The accompanying visuals were often quite stagnant. You can clearly see where the developers cut corners here… As most of the characters loop their actions as they communicate with each other. It honestly can look a little jarring after a while. There is the occasional visual goof to be found here. Honestly though, not nearly as much as you would expect from this style of game. 

LEGO Horizon Adventures’ Attempt at Familiarity

The fixed camera design is reminiscent of the much older LEGO titles, which was pretty cool, and I did enjoy seeing it make a resurgence here. But there just isn’t much of an environment to interact with! It’s just a tedious linear stroll from one enemy encounter to the next! It is so rinse and repeat that you can tell each time that you are about to drop into a fight, because you well, literally drop in. Whether its from a zip line or just walking off a ledge, you drop into some grass and the battle begins. Also, what is the actual point of this long grass… Literally as soon as you fire off at one enemy, whether they die instantly or not, everyone is suddenly alerted to exactly where you are and then you have to run around the combat area and defeat two to three waves of enemies before moving on through another repeated linear section. 

The Gameplay is Mediocre at Best!

The gameplay mechanics are very one dimensional. As Aloy, you can only use your bow… no melee… only a bow. Each of the characters that you can play as only has one move that they can do, with some slight elemental variations, but that is it. I mean, yes, they do share some powers between them that can be activated once picked up, but those abilities only have a few charges and then are gone again. It would have been nice to see more effort put into these combat mechanics! Aloy has gone from an absolute badass machine hunter, to a little LEGO figure that bricks it every time an enemy gets near. 

I must admit, picking up an enemy and tossing ‘em off the edge of a cliff has probably become my favourite pastime in this adventure. It just makes me chuckle every time I do it. Some of the other power ups caused me to crack a smile every now and then, especially when whacking a machine with a brick separator. These powers did come in useful in a pinch. However, they just further proved that a lot more needed to be done with the combat! It felt like it was on a very basic repetitive loop.

Something’s Missing…

By the way, unlocking all the playable characters isn’t hard at all… Seeing as there are only four to get in the entire game! Admittedly each character does feel different enough, and Erend’s waddle is downright… well just see for yourself… But seriously, this is a massive shortcoming for the fact that it used the LEGO branding as a selling point. A LEGO game means multiple characters to play as, bigger levels with some decent puzzles and player swapping involved, and many… and I do mean many, items to smash for studs. It was honestly really frustrating to see the series adopt the LEGO name without most of its quirks. 

Now I must admit, the game does look quite nice! Unlike most other LEGO titles, LEGO Horizon Adventures uses a fully LEGO environment. Everything shown in the game itself is made out of those Danish bricks. But this is also the reason why it is all the more confusing as to why there are so few things that can actually be destroyed in the game. Literally just a few barrels and carts and that is about it! 

Finally, Something LEGO About This LEGO Game

I did enjoy the amount of customisation that was available! From changing set outfits of characters, to mixing and matching them to your heart’s content, there are so many options for outfitting Aloy and friends. Also, being able to change the visual style of Mothers Heart was also pretty awesome. Not only could you rebuild buildings, but you could change the colour and style to suit one of several different types of LEGO playsets. Just don’t go expecting too many crossovers, because most of them are more of the generic themed sets. 

I am aware that this review has been overly harsh, and I do recognise that the team over at Guerilla Games haven’t really attempted to do something like this in the past, but it just further begs the question, Sony, why this? If you wanted a good LEGO Horizon game, why not just reach out to Travelers Tales? It would have made sense to entrust this project into the hands of the devs that have done it again and again, rather than just throwing stuff together and hoping for the best… which seriously is what it seems like they did here for the most part! 

Decision

Honestly, no matter how hard I tried, or how much time I gave it, I just didn’t enjoy my time in LEGO Horizon Adventures! Even though the dialogue was decently funny, with the witty banter being a particular highlight, the rest of the game left me missing what could have been. The overly repetitive level design, and combat mechanics that are very basic and unimaginative, made this title feel more like a stale rinse and repeat experience. I really wanted to enjoy this game, but unless SONY is willing to give it the proper LEGO treatment, it’s probably best to keep the Horizon series, and any of their other IPs on that point, away from the LEGO franchise.

By Samuel Incze – Reviewed on PlayStation 5

Playable

LEGO Horizon Adventures disappoints despite its humorous narrative. Repetitive levels, limited combat, and a lack of character variety make it a far cry from what a LEGO game should be. While the visuals are nice, the gameplay is stale and unimaginative. It’s a missed opportunity for both the Horizon and LEGO franchises.

This game was reviewed using a download code provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The Beta Network uses affiliate partnerships, however, this does not influence reviews or any other content published. The Beta Network may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links that are on the website.

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