Lego has become a staple of the video game world over the years, taking over popular worlds and adding a more casual and silly charm to Lego. Last year, the Lego universe expanded a bit more unconventionally to include trolley racing Lego 2K drive and survival in the open world Minecraft-like LEGO Fortnite. But the next chapter in the Lego universe, Adventures with Lego Horizonis a bit outside the normal Lego formula.
While previous Lego action-adventure games took place in the worlds of legendary film franchises (Star Wars, Marvel, Jurassic World, The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, etc.) Adventures with Lego Horizon is unique in that it serves as an abbreviated reinterpretation of the original Horizon Zero Dawn.
My biggest concern is the entrance Adventures with Lego Horizon was that I wasn’t sure how good the world was Horizon would translate into a Lego game. Great game Horizon Zero Dawn This is mainly due to its amazing story, huge, attractive open world, and quick and challenging gameplay. These are all things that Lego games usually remove when converting to the Lego universe.
Adventures with Lego Horizon it starts like this Zero dawn. For those who don’t know HorizonThe world will be a post-apocalyptic United States in 1,000 years. Humanity has been scattered and forced to form primitive tribes that attempt to integrate “Old World” technology into their daily lives. As for the story, I can’t emphasize enough how much of this story there is Horizon Zero Dawn is overlooked, trivialized, or simply not explained Adventures with Lego Horizon. I know this is common with Lego games, but I just want to point out that if you haven’t played the original and want to at some point, I recommend doing so before jumping into the world of Lego Horizon.
Instead of wandering around and exploring a mysterious world, you’ll play through mostly linear levels divided into different areas. Between each level, you’ll return to your tribal village, where you’ll be able to interact with the NPCs in the village – although there’s little reason to do so – and rebuild the village however you want. Then head to the entrance of the area of the level you want to start in and repeat the process. Each of the levels within a specific zone is similar in design and layout, but is not completely identical. There are a few side paths you can go down to open a chest full of coins, but for the most part the levels are completely linear and very quick, taking only a few minutes to complete each one.
When I first discovered the village building feature, I hoped it would be meaningful and unlock novel interactions or even more systems to discover. Instead, it’s mostly cosmetic fluff that lets you choose from a variety of pre-made structures with different coats of paint – mostly themes from other Lego series like Lego City and Lego Ninjago – that you can scatter around your village after completing a certain number of missions. It’s basically a money sink – err, studs – for spending the currency you earn while beating levels, but for the most part it’s all just decoration.

Embarking on a mission will take you on a linear journey through the area, progressing through some of the story, progressing through the level, doing some lightweight platforming, collecting coins, and fighting various enemies that appear throughout the level, including humanoid cultists and basic animal-like machines Horizon is known. The machines have unique tender points, similar to those of their counterparts in Horizon Zero Dawn. When you are selected, you will deal massive damage to the machines, allowing you to destroy them much faster.
The gameplay itself is about what I expected from the Lego version Horizon. You hold square to retract the arrow, then fire it in any direction by aiming with your thumb. As you kill enemies, they can drop various power-ups, such as a version of the bow that sets the enemy on fire on hit. There are three types of elements: fire, ice and lightning. Some enemies are tender to certain elemental types, but even if they aren’t, they can often be knocked down with a few hits from the bow. Hitting them with an element they are tender to often limits it to one or two hits.
There are also consumable items you can acquire to expand your arsenal even further. There is a wide range of items – often silly – that allow you to fight in different ways. One of these items acted as a powerful hammer that allowed you to strike enemies. Another had you quickly build a scorching dog stand where the vendor threw explosive scorching dogs at nearby enemies. Yes, scorching dog bombs.
I would describe the fight in Adventures with Lego Horizon better than most Lego games, but still a bit lacking overall. My biggest issue with the combat is that there is no dodge or dodge mechanic, which I think would have really enriched the combat here. Many enemies perform telegraph attacks, which appear as a vast area of effect circle or line that you must move out of the way before the enemy charges at you. But without any dodging, you have to stop attacking and then just run away. This slows down the fight, and many times I still found myself pressing the button to try and dodge just because I really felt like I should.

I think my biggest problem is Adventures with Lego Horizon is that I don’t really know who it was made for. Although this is an abbreviated reinterpretation Zero dawn story, far too much has been omitted, watered down, or even just left out or not explained for the story to be even remotely coherent and meaningful. If you haven’t played Horizon Zero Dawnit’s certainly not just an alternative replacement for the experience. Too much is missing and everything that makes it Horizon Zero Dawn the great game it is is simply not available in the Lego version.
On the other hand, if you played the original game and liked it, what reason is there to experience the watered down Lego version? For most Lego games, entire game storylines (once again, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Jurassic World, etc.) simply do not have replayable media in which to explore their worlds. Joining the world of Lego games allows you to play in these worlds for the first time, otherwise you can only explore them through their videos. This is not the case here; If you want to play in the Horizon universe, you can play Horizon Zero Dawn or even Horizon Forbidden West.
To be clear, there is definitely an audience Adventures with Lego Horizon. If you are a gigantic fan of the Lego game formula and either love Horizon Zero Dawn or you don’t feel like playing it at all, the game is a lot of fun, especially if you have someone to cooperate with. But for me, I quickly found the entire experience to be very repetitive and not true to what it feels like Horizon special. Look, I’m a Lego fan. But this time I feel like it doesn’t really do the source material justice.