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The Horizon games have quickly become one of PlayStation’s most popular franchises, so it’s no surprise to see spin-off games starring Aloy and her tribal sci-fi friends. However, we weren’t expecting the kid-friendly (, and available on) Lego Horizon Adventures ($59.99), which turns Horizon’s world into a ridiculous Lego toy box. This strange mix doesn’t contain much of the Horizon formula, but it’s a good way for you and a friend to spend a few hours blasting robot dinosaurs.

What is Lego Horizon Adventures?

Full disclosure: We came to Lego Horizon Adventures with skepticism. We said earlier this year that turning the series into Lego blocks could only improve on Horizon’s technically impressive but artistically ugly one. It’s unlikely that Lego Horizon Adventures was made to convince the haters, but as gamers who aren’t precious about the property, we were open to potentially radical changes.

This spin-off is a remake/parody of the first game in the series. Similar to how the series has been reinterpreted for casual gamers, AAA swaps out the third-person perspective for a top-down, isometric view. Another PlayStation game that turns characters into toys.

The story covers the same beats as the original release, and newcomers will have no problem following the familiar heroic destiny tropes. With this new style of Lego comes a game that’s much more willing to make fun of itself. It’s a “post-apocalyptic dance party,” as he calls it. The voice actors reprise their roles, including Ashly Burch as the protagonist Aloy, making the game look official. We hope the adventure includes a sequel. If it can cover nine movies, it can cover two plays. More content with iconic moments could have pushed Lego Horizon Adventures beyond its six-hour runtime.

Brick Wars

Lego Horizon Adventures is, first and foremost, a game about fighting bad guys. At first, Aloy can only shoot human cultists with a simple bow. But the game gradually gets layered with simpler, fun additions, until combat becomes a playful pleasure.

You want to attack the enemy’s weak points, especially the towering mechanical monsters. Hitting these glowing pieces deals massive damage with a satisfying ping. You can also hide in tall grass and manipulate the elements, such as shooting a charged arrow into a fire to ignite a bush.

There are several ways to customize your playstyle. Eventually, you unlock four playable characters with unique attacks, like the spear-carrying Varl and Teersa. fighting exploding chickens. You will receive power-ups and gadgets during a mission. These items have limited ammo, but you can combine them with your basic attacks. For example, you can power up Aloy’s bow with ice damage, use Blast Boots to incinerate enemies as you leap over them, or deploy a tactical hot dog cart to distract enemies. You don’t keep the loot you use in battle, but when you level up you unlock permanent upgrades like increased health.

Lego Horizon Adventures’ best moments come from simple combat. We appreciate how it takes inspiration from the main games and turns it into something much more arcade-style. It’s the perfect choice for you and a friend to compete in co-op mode, locally or online. However, it lacks crossplay. Numerous accessibility options make the game as easy or difficult as you want.

Big Horizons, Small Scope

Unfortunately, the rest of the experience is disappointing and deceptively shallow. In this way, the game feels like it was made specifically for kids, rather than for players of all ages; Levels are linear; You go from room to room and clear the enemies. Sometimes you can jump over an obstacle or activate a switch, but there are no particularly challenging puzzles.

Each world has a different environment, like a desert or snowy mountain peaks, but individual levels are so blurred that the game almost feels like a random roguelike. After finishing a level, you can play it again to hunt stronger monsters, but that’s all.

The biggest problem is that Lego Horizon Adventures has almost no exploration; This feels like a major missed opportunity considering Horizon is an acclaimed open-world series. Not only does it make sense for this particular series to explore, but it’s also something other Lego games have adopted. Lego Star Wars has an open galaxy. Allows you to navigate in open areas. We know Lego Horizon Adventures will never have the same broad scope as its namesake, but it could use some of that energy.

Other than fighting, the other important thing you do is customize your village. There, you spend money to unlock new outfits and structures (we erected a statue in our village in honor of the hot dog man). While Horizon inspired some of these cosmetics, others come from Lego brands like Lego City and Ninjago. Your village also has tasks, such as completing certain levels with a specific character. Gold bricks earned from these missions unlock more customization options.

Lego Horizon: PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch

Lego Horizon Adventures looks and performs pretty well on the Nintendo Switch, and seeing a Sony game on Nintendo’s hybrid console is something new. This is a first-party PlayStation game, though, so it looks really good. Sony does not compromise on visuals.

Instead of using Guerilla’s in-house Decima engine (the same game development tool Developers (who helped create Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West) opted for Unreal Engine 5. Undoubtedly, this simplified the connection process to the Nintendo Switch and helped achieve the famous high-quality graphics.

Unlike the Nintendo Switch version, Lego Horizon on PlayStation 5 has two visual modes: Fidelity and Performance. As with most PlayStation games that offer these options, Performance mode targets high frame rates (60fps), while Fidelity mode lowers the frame rate for better visuals (30fps).

This makes sense when playing the larger-scale Horizon games, with their wide open areas, more complex animations, and larger set pieces. In Lego Horizon, a simple platformer, the choice is less obvious. It doesn’t need to move at 60 frames per second like Astro Bot, so it works well on Nintendo Switch. However, it’s hard to go back to Fidelity’s low frame rate when you play on Performance.

Fidelity mode looks great, taking advantage of improved lighting, but the two modes have little visual difference to warrant sacrificing frame rate. What’s more, the isometric camera doesn’t let you admire anything up close, so some of the added fidelity is lost. There’s no reason not to choose Performance because both modes looked almost identical on our gaming monitor. The PS5 version also supports several HDR brightness options that are not available in the Switch version.

All of this helps Lego Horizon Adventures deliver the most compelling and visually polished Lego game offering to date. The world is made up of colorful blocks, not just certain elements that unify the look. Horizon’s robotic animal enemies arguably look cooler when rendered in menacing plastic. Some animations are also reminiscent of stop-motion animation. We encountered none of the technical jolts that plagued previous Lego games, only charm.

Verdict: A New, Simplified Horizon

Lego Horizon Adventures are arcade-style, cooperative monster brawlers that are roughly enough fun to last a weekend. Transforming the series into arguably the most polished Lego release yet is also an experiment worth applauding. However, the game lacks the depth of the main series. This is a fun time for kids, not grizzled Horizon veterans. Editors’ Choice winner Astro Bot is a stronger option if you want to treat PlayStation mascots like toys.

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