Lego Horizon Adventures Review: Missing Pieces
Lego Horizon Adventures brings a playful twist to Horizon Zero Dawn with fun combat, customization, and beautiful levels, but predictable design.
Lego Horizon Adventures is a fun, simplified version of 2017’s Horizon Zero Dawn, set in a typical Lego co-op action game style. It doesn’t go too deep into the story or Aloy’s background, but it still offers a familiar experience for fans while being accessible to newcomers.
12-hour campaign took me through familiar areas like the lush Sacred Lands, snowy Snowchant Mountains, and hot Sunfall Desert. Each mission is packed with machines and enemies to fight, Lego money (Studs) to collect, objects to build or break, and fun character moments that kept me entertained. While these moments are short, many of them made me laugh throughout the journey.
Throughout Aloy’s journey, she’s joined by a mix of allies: Rost, her mentor; Varl, a young hunter; Teersa, the witty village elder; and Erend, a tough guy with a big hammer. It’s great that the original voice actors—Ashly Burch, John Hopkins, John Macmillan, and others—are back, bringing a fun, lighthearted tone that lets them play with their familiar characters in new, amusing ways.
Lego Horizon Adventures World Looks Amazing in Lego Form
The one downside is Sylens. While he’s back, with a new voice actor after Lance Reddick’s passing, his sharp wit doesn’t shine as much. Tim Russ’ performance often feels flat compared to the playful energy of other characters. Still, turning Sylens into a DJ is a fun and quirky choice that fits well with the rest of the cast’s unique traits, like Varl’s love for comics or Erend’s donut obsession.
Master Builder: Lego version of Horizon looks amazing. Each level is full of fun details, with structures like ruined buildings and Lego items mixed in. While some of these additions may slightly change the Horizon feel, the environments still capture the essence of the world.
The soundtrack is another highlight. It mixes music from Horizon Zero Dawn with some fun EDM and pop tracks, including one catchy tune called “Post-Apocalyptic Dance Party,” which feels like something from The Lego Movie.
However, the level design becomes predictable quickly. Most levels involve exploring linear paths, fighting machines and cultists, and sometimes platforming with simple jumps. Special Cauldron levels add some extra challenges, but the formula gets repetitive after a few hours.
There’s also a lack of other activities, like puzzles or hidden secrets that are common in other Lego games. The red bricks, usually used for unlocking cheats or bonuses, are now only for costumes and customizations, which feels like a missed opportunity for extra fun.
Piece of Resistance: Customization is a fun aspect of Lego Horizon Adventures. You can collect over 100 bricks to unlock new outfits and changes to the town. Tasks on the community board in the hub area, Mother’s Heart, encourage you to regularly change outfits and complete challenges like dressing as Ninjago characters or building things in town. You can even redesign the town by adding things like hot dog carts or dragons.
The game also offers two skill trees—one for general upgrades and one for character-specific bonuses. These help you improve your team’s abilities and make combat more exciting, especially when fighting tougher bosses and enemies. Combat itself is enjoyable, with opportunities to target weak spots on machines and alter how battles unfold.
When you die in Lego Horizon Adventures, you return to the last checkpoint, which can be annoying because you’ll need to replay sections and rebuild things. However, progress on the community board is saved, so it’s not a major setback.
If the difficulty is too easy, there are five difficulty levels. The hardest difficulty can make enemies very tough, but the lack of dodging mechanics makes it a bit challenging. The unpredictability of item drops adds another challenge, but it also adds an interesting layer to gameplay.
In Horizon Zero Dawn, using the right elemental weapon can make battles easier. Lego Horizon Adventures uses a similar idea, with rare weapons and gadgets that can be found in chests or dropped by enemies. However, what you get is mostly random. Some great options, like homing weapons or gravity bombs, are available, but it’s up to luck whether you get them. While it’s fun to use whatever you find during a fight, it would have been better to choose specific weapons, especially for challenges that require certain types.
You can always get items by breaking off the back of a Shell-Walker, but what’s inside is random. Luckily, there are a few ways to guarantee special items, like a merchant that appears halfway through each stage or skill tree upgrades that increase the chance of specific drops. There’s also a skill that gives you a random rare weapon at the start of each level. While these options help, they’re not perfect. However, the rare weapons are fun and powerful, and using them effectively can make battles easier, especially when facing multiple enemies.
Conclusion
Lego Horizon Adventures gives a fun Lego twist to Horizon Zero Dawn. The combat is fun with different difficulty levels, but the random gadgets and weapons can be frustrating. Customizing characters and the hub town is enjoyable. The levels look great and the music is excellent, but the predictable design and lack of extra content left me wanting more, even though I had fun.
