LEGO Horizon Adventures review: A silly demake

For example, when Elden Ring was taking the world by storm in 2022, some fans asked a question that may not have occurred to the average player: what if Elden Ring was a PS1 game? The result was a fun thought experiment and an entertaining video.

Within a couple of hours of booting up LEGO Horizon Adventures, I realised that it feels like one of those demakes. It basically asks the question, what if Horizon Zero Dawn was a LEGO game?

Following that train of thought, if Horizon Zero Dawn was a LEGO game, it wouldn’t have the wide open world that the original game had. It wouldn’t have such satisfyingly hard-to-master gameplay. It would have a more silly tone, with heaps of humour thrown into the mix.

All of those things are true of LEGO Horizon Adventures. Instead of a wide open world, you have a series of linear levels, each of which is broken up by multiple loading screens. Instead of exploring the wondrous wilds, you generally follow a straight line from left to right, with only the tiniest amount of deviation from the path allowed.

Instead of collecting a vast arsenal of different weapons that you can swap between at will, you’re only allowed a couple of different tricks up your sleeve at any given point.

Story-wise, LEGO Horizon Adventures retreads the broad beats of Horizon Zero Dawn, with Aloy seeking to find out the truth about her parentage.

Where you might have previously witnessed an emotional scene, however, here you’ll see slapstick humour and bizarre reimaginings of key characters (Varl is a buffoon, Sylens is an aspiring DJ, Erend loves doughnuts).

As the relatively brisk campaign progresses, you’ll guide Aloy and her pals through the story of the first Horizon game, with mysteries gradually being solved as you dispatch an army of increasingly large robot animals.

After a little while, you’ll also be able to change characters, with Varl’s spear, Teersa’s bombs and Erend’s axe mixing up your combat options nicely.

What’s surprising with this unexpected demake project is how well a lot of it hangs together. Leading the voice cast, returning Aloy actor Ashly Burch is clearly game for a laugh. Her enthusiasm is infectious and the writing is pretty strong. I was giggling away to myself quite often.

Hardcore fans of the originals may not love seeing their beloved characters and story beats poked fun at. But if it’s good enough for Star Wars, Marvel and Harry Potter, why shouldn’t Horizon get the LEGO lampooning treatment as well?

The graphics are surprisingly good, too, with the melding of worlds working really nicely. Your robotic enemies look great in LEGO form, and many of the environments are pleasing on the eye as well.

You can also have a lot of fun customising your outfit and your village with anachronistic LEGO items (for example, you can dress Aloy up as a penguin).

The music is also delightful, with catchy melodies and recurring hooks that will get stuck in your head long after you’ve switched off the console. There’s also a corker of an original song that plays over the end credits.

Like I say, a lot of it hangs together well, but you might notice that the review score on this article is not particularly high. What gives? Well, for me, I found the gameplay itself to be massively disappointing in LEGO Horizon Adventures.

The level design feels very constrained and unimaginative, with the short levels and lack of freedom sometimes making it feel like a mobile game. Of course, the game is aimed at young players, but even kids will probably find it a little boring and repetitive.

A lot of the levels follow a formula: you start by picking a character, then you walk from left to right a bit; then there will be a loading screen; then you’ll fight some enemies, before seeing another loading screen; then, between loading screens, you will pick up some different abilities; finally, you’ll face a larger group of enemies before picking up a golden brick.

There are moments here and there where you can turn left instead of right, if you prefer. You might find a few extra golden studs, and maybe a tiny little ornament to build, if you go the less obvious way. But then, more often than not, you’ll just be sent back to the main path.

For a LEGO game, there’s actually not that much building to be done in a lot of the levels. LEGO is all about creativity, and the game doesn’t allow for a huge amount of that from the player. This can become frustrating at times, which is the last thing you want from a fun family-friendly game!

You can tell that Traveller’s Tales (makers of the classic LEGO movie tie-in games) were not involved here, and that the team at Gobo Studio have different ideas. They’ve made a game that looks and sounds great, but I did find myself zoning out at times with the gameplay not doing much to grab me.

The combat is a lot better than the very light platforming stuff, I will admit, especially as you get further into the game and get more toys to play with (the late-in-the-day addition of Tripcaster makes a big difference). But still, a lot of the game is simply walking from left to right, which feels overly simple as a core experience.

As demakes go, this was an interesting experiment, but it’s a long way off being as gripping a game as Horizon Zero Dawn or Horizon Forbidden West. But if the goal was to dress Horizon up in a way that will appeal to younger players, maybe it will do the job and ultimately nudge new audiences towards the mainline games. Mission accomplished? Maybe.

LEGO Horizon Adventures launches Thursday 14th November for PS5, PC and Nintendo Switch.

We reviewed on PS5 and you can order your own copy from Amazon.

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