Lego Horizon Adventures Captures the Joy of Brick-Based Antics

I wasn’t the biggest fan of either Guerilla Games’ Horizon: Zero Dawn or Horizon: Forbidden West. Perhaps I was tired of that style of open-world games stuffed with so much content that it felt more like busy work than an engrossing trek through verdant post-apocalyptic environs. Lego Horizon Adventures, which first debuted at Summer Games Fest, is an entirely different game. Better yet, it’s not even exclusive to the PlayStation. I had a rather contained 45-minute game demo in a still unfinished state. Some facial animations are being worked out, and the developers are still finalizing cutscenes before its planned release sometime during the holidays this year. It reminded me most of the old Lego Star Wars titles, which is to say, it felt like being transported back to a simpler time.

If you’re looking for a realistic portrayal of Horizon’s story, wait for the TV show. This rendition of Horizon’s post-apocalyptic America may have an animation style akin to the Lego Movie or Lego Batman, but not so much its substance. Those films were more of a satire than a parody. Lego Horizon Adventures instead fits more into the vein of the Lego Star Wars games with their simple controls and irreverent, brick-based antics. Enemies fly apart in a shower of pegs and pieces. All the destructible crates shatter with the sound of plastic clattering against the floor. Walking through the snow, your footprints appear as Lego studs planted into the ground. The lighting from fires and lanterns captures the plastic sheen of your typical unmarred Lego piece.

The game is animated like a stop-motion movie, and it did take a second to adjust to the stuttering movements of both the player characters and enemies. Otherwise, it’s a top-down action game that boils down the elements from Zero Dawn into a very simple package. You can stand in the tall grass to sneak around enemies before launching attacks. Firing at the robot enemies from different angles at their glowy bits causes more damage, forcing you to be mobile. 

The story runs through the same plot beats as Guerilla’s title from 2017, though with perhaps too much irreverence. In the big-budget title from seven years ago, Aloy is a capable young woman devastated by being made an outcast from the surrounding maternalistic societies. In the Lego version, she’s a happy-go-lucky young lady who’s all too thrilled to participate in the upcoming Proving. Her mentor, Rost, isn’t muttering caution about the dangers of civilization as much as he’s offering Aloy a big, plastic sandwich. Several of the original games’ voice actors return, such as Ashly Burch voicing Aloy, though she sounds much more chipper this time.

There’s two-player drop-in co-op as well. The second player controls Varl, and even though he uses a spear instead of a bow, the controls are practically identical. Aloy can’t pick up spear upgrades, and vice-versa for Varl and any bow weapons. Still, there are plenty of weapon drops to share between them. You can pick up a brick separator to do massive damage to enemies or drop down a hot dog cart to do AOE damage. It’s silly, quick, and fun. If you have any memories of playing the Lego Star Wars titles, you’ll immediately understand the gameplay and tone of this game. 

Based on the short demo, it seems like a good option if you have a young child or sibling to bond over with couch co-op. The game is coming to PC, PS5, and Nintendo Switch, but there’s no cross-play while online co-op. That’s pretty damn unfortunate, especially when Switch players expect a new console within a year that could be on par with a PS4. Still, with the simple controls, I imagine it’ll be easy to hand off your other JoyCon to your couch buddy to enjoy a few hours of Lego hijinks. If you’re too excited to wait, you could take a few weeks to build the official Lego Tallneck instead.