Lego Horizon Adventures Review: A Joyful Family-Friendly Spin-Off
Lego Horizon Adventures delivers a fine adventure that's both an odd choice for a family-friendly spin-off and a blast in co-op.
Posted a month ago
Platform reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Pros
- Good fun in co-op
- Great sense of humor
- Vibrant diorama-style presentation
Cons
- Levels lack variety
- A family-friendly approach doesn't really fit Horizon
- Character progression is very basic
ESRB Age Rating: Everyone 10+
ESRB Content Descriptors: Fantasy Violence, Language
Review code provided by the publisher.
We've seen countless Lego games across the decades partnering with some of modern media's most iconic series. Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Batman – there's been a lot, but even with such a wide-ranging portfolio, a Horizon game wouldn't have been my next guess. Though I remain unconvinced that it's the right choice for a more casual spin-off, Lego Horizon Adventures still delivers an enjoyable action-adventure.
Lego Horizon Adventures creatively chooses to avoid directly following Horizon Zero Dawn's story. What's here is a loose retelling that's well-suited for younger audiences and captures the essence of the series, poking fun at the original game without overly mocking it. We find ourselves fighting Helis once again, a sun-praising fanatic whose crusade against "shade lovers" is troublingly hilarious.
The strong sense of humor is one of the game's biggest strengths across this nine-hour campaign, boosted by some strong performances from the voice cast. Tim Russ is a great recast for Sylens following Lance Reddick's death, Ashly Burch is clearly having fun with her comedic take on Aloy, while John Hopkins had me regularly laughing with his donut-obsessed Erend. Everyone has some fun new character traits.
Still, as someone who's played the previous Horizon games, Horizon is not a great fit for a kid-friendly spin-off. Darker themes like the Mad Sun-King's brutal tyranny or Aloy being outcast are unsurprisingly glossed over, and you lose a big part of each main character's development, which is a real shame. This incredibly silly adventure only has brief reprieves for more serious moments; it's not a natural fit like Lego Star Wars or Lego Marvel Super Heroes are.
©Guerrilla Games, Studio Gobo, Sony / Restart
Helis' attack on the Nora Tribe's main village sets the opening scenes well, and Mother's Heart becomes your gradually customizable in-game hub as you continue rebuilding it. Teb's shop offers some nice cosmetics options for each character, providing a great range of outfits based on different tribes and familiar friends, like Petra or Sun-King Avad. Sticking with the theme is nice, though using out-of-place picks from Lego City and Ninjago is rather funny.
Where Guerilla and Studio Gobo's spin-off shines is the stunning presentation, and I'd consider this the best-looking Lego game I've ever seen. The isometric stages feel like a diorama come to life thanks to a strong level of visual detail, backed up by some lovely effects as you watch Aloy splash through water or hide in tall grass. I can't speak for other platforms, but on PS5, the game looks fantastic in motion.
Mother's Heart is also where you can access Lego Horizon Adventures' four main areas, which are split into individual levels across a linear campaign. You can play nearly the entire game in co-op, tutorial aside, and defeating machine hordes with a partner is always fun. Completing stages awards golden bricks that let you create buildings with extra customization, adding some unusual flavor to buildings across Mother's Heart from obstacle courses to space shuttles.
©Guerrilla Games, Studio Gobo, SIE / Restart
Combat takes inspiration from Zero Dawn and Forbidden West without overcomplicating matters, and Aloy is joined by several friends - Varl, Erend, and Teersa, all of whom gradually level up through a very light progression system. It's disappointing that character-specific upgrades are mainly basic health and increased attack improvements, though some, like additional weak point damage when fighting machines, encourage strategic play. Party-wide upgrades cost studs and are considerably more interesting, thanks to helpful abilities like more XP for environmental kills or increasing the length of status effects like burn.
©Guerrilla Games, Studio Gobo, SIE / Restart
Swapping heroes every so often is recommended since they all wield different weapons like bombs and spears, and there's a great choice of power-ups to help your crew. Between shields, hefty brick separators, and even an explosive hot dog vendor, these ridiculous temporary abilities keep the otherwise simplified combat fun. A varied group of enemies from Thunderjaws to cultists leaves this feeling slightly more challenging than other Lego games when played on higher difficulties, too. Highlighting weak points with your digital assistant, the Focus, adds some necessary depth to combat.
That said, the main campaign stages would benefit from greater variety as this quickly falls into repetition across longer stints. You might end up following different paths despite each area's stages starting in the same location, but the usual mix of exploration sprinkled with two or three combat encounters gets predictable fast. Chasing Tallnecks is a fun, but all too rare type of mission, while exploring cauldrons just isn't that exciting.
©Guerrilla Games, Studio Gobo, SIE / Restart
To its credit, Lego Horizon Adventures tries to keep things interesting. The community board helpfully encourages variety through set challenges that award more golden bricks, like killing 15 machines with explosive barrels or completing a cauldron in the blue spaceman outfit. Exploration across stages is highly encouraged too, with silver studs signaling hidden paths that often lead to treasure chests, and optional special challenges becoming available after finishing an area.
While it's an unusual choice for a family-friendly spin-off, there's undeniable character to Lego Horizon Adventures that goes further than I expected. It's a relatively short journey, and I do wish these levels had greater variety, yet the simplified combat translates surprisingly well, and that's complemented by a stunning presentation. If you're after a new action-adventure game with great, lighthearted humor, you'll have a good time here.