LEGO Horizon Adventures Review

As a huge fan of the Horizon series, I was very excited to hear they did an action adventure LEGO game. I only watched one trailer, so I didn't know what to expect with a LEGO adaptation. I thought it would just be like any other game: collect gold bricks and studs while hitting things, which are the normal in the franchise.

When I first loaded up LEGO Horizon Adventures, I was greeted by a cutscene of Aloy and how she became a part of Mother's Heart. The story does follow the original vaguely but simplified it so it’s more accessible and kid-friendly. After all, it is LEGO. By being kid-friendly it changed a few things, for instance instead of Erend being an alcoholic, he was obsessed with donuts.

There are four characters to play as: Aloy, Varl, Teersa, and Erend. I did stick with Aloy for most of the game but switched now and again when I had to do a challenge while building Mother’s Heart Village. You get a challenge board in each challenge you get to complete, and it gives you gold bricks (used to rebuild each part of Mother’s Heart). You pick a character to play as at the start of each level, rather than freely swapping as in past LEGO titles, and each one has a different type of weapon.

Within each level, you will pick up weapons and gadgets for the characters you or your co-op partner are playing as. Gadgets are things such as a Spread Shot Bow, or the ultra-powerful Brick Separator. They have limited ammo, but they’re very useful indeed.

Of course, the adaptation wouldn't be right without the Focus that Aloy always had on her. This is one way to highlight the weak points of the machines so that you can aim to do more damage. One machine I loved the most, though, was the Tallneck. How it moved along, and I just wanted to chase it, ignoring everything through the levels that it appeared in. I mean, it's cute, right… RIGHT?! After all, I was excited to see it as I own the actual LEGO version and really enjoyed building it up. The Horizon Adventures versions, however, are in their own separate parts of certain levels, so you can choose to ignore them. But don’t.

I think what surprised me most was the fact that all of the cast returned to their familiar roles, and with a more upbeat, chirpy tone. Ashly Burch as Aloy, Blaire Chandler as Teersa, and everyone else did a great job. One notable change was Lance Reddick, who voiced Sylens in the Horizon games, passed away (R.I.P.), and was replaced by Tim Russ who suited the part well.

In other LEGO games, you get to see the LEGO built by the character, but in Horizon Adventures, it is built automatically with one button press, and you get to see it magically built. At first, I was a little unsure about how I felt about this, but it did help move things along, and I did not stand around waiting for LEGO to be built.

To me, it didn't feel like a PlayStation title, because it doesn’t utilise the adaptive triggers or the speaker in the controller. Since the other Horizon games are console exclusive to PlayStation, it’s weird that they wouldn’t use them in a first-party title. However, that didn't stop me from enjoying the experience of the game itself as it is bright and vibrant, has a funny storyline, and is fun to play alone or with a friend/family member. I had no issues with crashes, glitches or bugs, and it ran smoothly on my PlayStation 5.