LEGO Horizon Adventures review – All the right pieces but no instructions

LEGO Horizon Adventures is a deeply confusing game that has very little sense of structure and at times, could pass as a generic LEGO title with no connection to the PlayStation IP. It’s lacking in substance, heart, and originality, and outright isn’t worth the price of a full AAA game in the modern era.

One of the main criticisms thrown at the Horizon franchise over the years is that it’s soulless. Often talked down upon as a ‘by-the-numbers’, checklist-style open-world game, despite its impressive commercial success, many players struggle to resonate.

I personally have never agreed with that sentiment and firmly believe Horizon is one of Sony’s strongest first-party offerings, an all-around exceptional bit of science fiction. I truly loved the first two mainline entries and even had a great time with Call of the Mountain despite the fact my PSVR2 now gathers dust. I eagerly await the third installment.

With this in mind, it’s ironic that I now find myself mirroring the common criticisms. This LEGO spinoff has proven to be one of the most soulless games I can ever recall playing.

Void of just about any qualities that made earlier LEGO games shine, it’s a jumbled mess of assets that rarely form a cohesive, Horizon-esque experience. Ticking every box on the way to the Platinum, I can confidently say that more often than not, it comes across like a completely generic mix of LEGO sets as you repeatedly run through lifeless levels doing the same thing time and again.

Priced as a cheaper, indie-level release, it might be enough to overlook many of its shortcomings and head-scratching design choices. But coming in at the cost of a brand new AAA release, it’s almost impossible to justify the expense, no matter how big a Horizon fan you consider yourself to be.

LEGO Horizon Adventures screenshots & details

• Price (Standard Edition): $59.99 USD / £59.99 GBP / $109.95 AUD
• Developer: Guerilla Games & Studio Gobo
• Release date: November 14, 2024
• Platforms: PS5, PC, Nintendo Switch
• Reviewed on PS5

Building blocks

LEGO Horizon Adventures is confusing enough in name alone. It’s a LEGO game that avoids the hallmarks of great LEGO titles, and it’s a Horizon game that does little to reflect Horizon. Just calling it LEGO Adventures and mentioning Horizon as an optional cosmetic pack might have made more sense.

Loosely tracking the events of Zero Dawn, you’re plodding through four distinct zones, taking down machines and cultists aplenty in order to reach the next pre-rendered cutscene or dialogue sequence.
Almost positioned as a rogue-like of sorts, each level in a given zone has you retreading the same ground, the only variables being which enemies appear and what tools you have at your disposal.

Rare weapons and unique Gadgets drop at random along the way, some better than others, and some far more fitting. You can take a flaming arrow, much like Aloy would, or pick up a Hot Dog Stand, dropping explosives onto the map, because reasons.

After a few minutes in one of these straightforward levels, you begin to see how hollow it all is. Play through one section, and you’ll have seen everything the game has to offer. You’re not getting Zero Dawn’s greatest hits in LEGO form, nor are you getting well-crafted levels with reasons to return and explore.

Unlike say a LEGO Star Wars, with special bricks scattered around, studs to collect, characters to unlock, and objectives to pursue, there’s nothing to keep you hooked here. There’s one path forward with the occasional tangent, but rather than finding something nifty, it may lead to you building a tree or assembling a decoration that has nothing to do with Horizon.

The game’s top draws, special yellow and red bricks, are simply handed out at the end of these levels. You don’t have to play a certain way or revisit with a different character that has a unique tool to unlock a new pathway. Nothing of that sort. It’s just mindless plodding, one foot in front of the other. In fact, even when you reach the summit, collecting every brick in the game, you’re not rewarded in any meaningful way. There’s no rhyme or reason to any of it.

Obviously, it’s a game designed for all ages. Younger audiences are sure to have some amount of fun with the mindless escapades, and combat can be fun when all hell breaks loose, but it doesn’t justify the severe decline in quality.

Where has the creativity of earlier LEGO games gone? Where’s the charm that endeared millions across Star Wars, Marvel, Disney, and so many more blockbuster IPs? It genuinely comes across like a tech demo that was rushed out the door with a Horizon skin slapped on it. A true fall from grace for both LEGO and Horizon.

Was this always a Horizon game?

While Zero Dawn’s story is still a focus here, told exclusively through pre-rendered cutscenes and static dialogue sequences, as nothing of importance is ever conveyed in moment-to-moment gameplay, you get the feeling the story was tacked on later in the development pipeline.

As mentioned above, levels aren’t designed in such a way as to represent core moments in the first Horizon game. Beyond similar-looking environments and the occasional Cauldron visit, everything else could very much fit in a generic LEGO game.

Though the most perplexing choice of all is the inclusion of LEGO City and LEGO Ninjago material. As you progress, you can customize your home base with trees from the City set or characters from the Ninjago series. If you like, you can even dress Varl up as a theme park employee or an astronaut, because again, reasons.

Will some kids love seeing their favorite playsets in video game form? Certainly. But what does any of it have to do with Horizon? Why is Aloy being rewarded with the chance to build a Ferris Wheel next to All-Mother Mountain?

This also translates over to the characters. In a way, they too feel randomized and as though certain traits were in place before a Horizon figure’s skin was slapped over the top.

Erend really likes donuts. Sylens is an obsessive DJ. Aloy can’t seem to get enough hot dogs. It’s all just very peculiar.

Great visuals but at a great cost

Don’t get it twisted, LEGO Horizon Adventures, above all else, is a fantastic-looking game. Much like the two mainline entries, it’s a gorgeous affair with absolutely stunning lighting systems at work. In particular, the pre-rendered cutscenes are always spectacular. This actually makes it all the more painful that once you finish the game, your home base is locked to nighttime with none of the visual flair.

Unfortunately, the game’s dazzling looks come at a steep cost. It’s a 2024 game, four years after the PS5 hit store shelves, and despite being a LEGO title, it still can’t even run properly on the base console it’s designed for. We need to settle for performance mode – one that still has noticeable frame rate dips and texture pop in… In a LEGO game. What are we even doing?

Not to mention, your flow is interrupted every few seconds with loadings screens, even though areas are all really quite small. This is only exacerbated in co-op. Playing locally, you can barely move a few meters from your companion before the game teleports you back together. Playing solo is much smoother.

It’s clear concessions have been made to ensure the game runs on the inferior Nintendo Switch hardware, but these concessions deeply impact the PlayStation experience.

Another bizarre limitation is noticeable with how the story is conveyed. Outside of pre-rendered cutscenes, the game isn’t capable of holding conversations between groups of characters. Everything is one-on-one, Aloy on the left, and one other character on the right of the screen. If a third character needs to talk, they awkwardly swap out to replace whoever was on the right-hand side. Below is a quick example of how it looks.

While nitpicky to be sure, it exemplifies how limited the LEGO Horizon spinoff is from top to bottom.

A fumbled adventure

There were flashes of fun throughout my ten or so hours with LEGO Horizon Adventures, but most of the time was spent mindlessly repeating the same thing as I leveled up characters and unlocked everything on offer. I wanted to see and do it all in order to really make sure my criticisms were valid.

The verdict – 2/5

Pros	Cons
Great visuals	Bizarre inclusions
Combat can be fun	Mindless level design
	Not very Horizon-y
	Technical limitations

Now having attained the Platinum, I can say with certainty the game is in no way, shape or form worth the price of a new AAA release. From its technical issues to the confounding game-design choices, it’s a bizarre spinoff that won’t leave Horizon fans overjoyed and won’t do much to turn fresh heads to the mainline entries.