After spending an hour with Lego Horizon Adventures, it seems like this game has interesting ideas but feels limited by the world it’s based on.
The game loosely retells Aloy’s first quest, where she uses her bow and other tools to battle robotic creatures. She’s on a mission to find out more about her mysterious beginnings after being cast out by her tribe.
“From the beginning when we started the conversations with [Guerrilla Games], they were very clear,” Studio Gobo animation director Luismi Herrera told me. “They wanted to bring the Horizon series to a broader audience, and they thought that the best way was to retell the story of the original game, the Horizon Zero Dawn game. But obviously we started to go as a fairy tale, a light-hearted version of it, because obviously there are a bit more mature things for that game. It was like, ‘Okay, how can we retell this story, keeping all the core values and everything, with this Lego universe?’ And that’s been the goal. That being said, the core story is the same, it’s [just a retelling] in a light-hearted way.”
The story of Horizon Zero Dawn is great, yet it doesn’t seem to fit perfectly into a Lego game’s format. Lego games thrive on iconic characters and unforgettable scenes, but Horizon Zero Dawn doesn’t quite have those memorable moments like some other famous franchises. People often talk about the magic of Lego games, but here, it feels a bit off.
The jokes in Lego Horizon don’t quite hit the mark like they do in other Lego games, and I didn’t find myself laughing out loud during the first hour. Horizon’s opening is not its strongest part, so maybe the game gets better later. Fans hope for some surprises and laughs as they progress. But the serious ending of Horizon Zero Dawn might be hard to translate into Lego’s humor.
“It’s been very challenging [to include those emotional moments] for sure,” Herrera said. “But I would say, without giving any spoilers, there are some cinema narrative points that you can ‘break’ a bit, right? I think it’s in a very light-hearted way–I think the core values [are still there] but it’s about this journey for Aloy and to discover what she is and I think that’s really relatable. It doesn’t matter if you’re six years old or 60 years old. So the whole story is there, but when things get very serious, we try to make it fun. It’s not heavy, but we are trying not to lose any of the core message.”
When it comes to looks, Lego Horizon shines. Unlike past games where only some parts are Lego, this game is entirely made of Lego bricks, giving a dazzling effect. This sets a high bar for future Lego games, something fans might love to see more of.
That [idea] actually came from when we met with Guerrilla,” Herrera said. “They had an idea of what they wanted to do–they had already had conversations with Lego and they had a pretty strong idea of what they wanted. And obviously you know Guerrilla; they aim for excellence in everything they do. So they–all of us, really–wanted to make the best Lego game ever. One of the ideas was to try to make the player feel that they were playing with a real Lego set.”
Herrera continued: “And to do that, we had to build the whole world out of Legos. And in fact, we have a team of Master Builders–they’re not working on the video games, they’re experts on Lego to help us to build every single thing in the game to the degree that anything that you see in the game can be built with real-life Lego. [They had a lot of] overview on things, like ‘Okay, now that’s an illegal brick, so [we] can’t use that anymore.’ We were just replacing things. We really spent lots and lots of time investment on making it as real as possible. Even the amount of colors [is realistic], as the palettes have to be the same colors that you can [find with real] Lego [bricks] and can build physically. So everything is being built from the beginning with that in mind, to try to make you feel like you’re playing a real Lego set.”
Without comparing it to other Lego games, Lego Horizon is okay on its own. The game tries to mix the sneaky moves of Horizon Zero Dawn with Lego’s action style. But fights feel repetitive, with Aloy and friends hiding in tall grass and picking off robot parts until they crumble. It feels like the game is made more for kids, and adults who loved Horizon Zero Dawn might find it too easy.
“There is a desire to broaden the Horizon franchise to a broader audience,” Guerrilla Games design director Stephane Varrault told me. “[Lego Horizon Adventures] is a perfect opportunity to make [Horizon Zero Dawn] available to all people, but that doesn’t mean that it’s only available to kids. We have done several things. There’s this layer to the narrative so that things are focused for a younger audience, but the humor can be more mature humor.”
It’s tricky to say who Lego Horizon is really for. The Horizon story is quite grown-up for a Lego game, so it might not be the best introduction for kids to the franchise. At the same time, the gameplay doesn’t seem to be what Horizon fans expect. Hopefully, the full game will tie everything together better than the initial hour suggests.
No matter what, players hope later levels offer more enemy types and variety in gameplay. The hub village and missions felt a bit repetitive, and if the game doesn’t change, it might get boring fast. Let’s see if the game has more tricks up its sleeve as you progress.
“There is a lot to discover,” Varrault clarified. “An essential part of the game is to rebuild the village, narratively, but also in terms of features that you will discover and you can go through really great lengths to customizing every decoration, every building, you can even change the color palette of each item. You can build individual [buildings], you can change the outfits of every NPC. You can also change the outfits of your main characters and those outfits, they stay during the cutscenes. You can have those funny moments where you have those outfits totally contrasting with the events. So there are a lot of tiny surprises in a lot of the buildings and much you can build. They also have specific animations. Again, we won’t spoil [anything] because the fun is in experimenting. I don’t want to spoil too much because I think [surprise] is also part of the joy of discovery, but the village and the rebuilding of the village will have opportunities for growth.”
Varrault continued: “And in terms of activities, a lot of the focus was also [on how] you’re going to go through different biomes. And the idea is that each biome, they have their own set of machines. So again, new things for you to discover. So I think our expectations are that, yes, players experiment, players try to discover as much as they can, because we really put a lot of attention to all the tiny details and the surprises.”
Unlike other Lego titles with many characters, Lego Horizon offers just a few playable figures, each with unique costumes and skills. Aloy, for example, can shoot arrows from afar, while Varl prefers close-range combat with his spear. Hopefully, these differences add some strategic depth as the game progresses.
“The intention, right from the beginning, was [thinking], ‘If we consider those characters in the Horizon universe, they are, of course, different narratively speaking so they also represent different ways to experience the world as [the player] progresses through it,'” Varrault said. “So we spent a lot of time interacting on this–each character has a different weapon and they also have a dedicated set of power-ups that can make their weapon more powerful or have a different effect. They all have their own progression track as well. Aloy, she can get, let’s say, additional life or boosters on the damage, for instance, or she’s able to prepare her shots faster. And the same goes for the other characters too. So the idea was if you stick with one character, there’s room for you to progress and room for you to expand. Of course, you are welcome to try different characters, but it’s also okay if you find a play style that suits you and you just want to develop that. The game is supporting both approaches. So it was really a clear intention right from the beginning that we offer this palette of possibilities.”
From chatting with Herrera and Varrault, it’s clear there’s a lot more to Lego Horizon Adventures beyond the start. I hope my first impression changes with the full game. As someone who loves both Lego games and the Horizon series, I want this game to succeed. Maybe a different, more playful franchise would have fit better, but if Lego Horizon pulls it off, it could help make serious PlayStation games more fun for kids.
Lego Horizon Adventures is set to release on PS5, PC, and Switch on November 14.
