Review – LEGO Horizon Adventures

Evolving from the set of pieces with Aloy and a Neck, Guerrilla Games decided to rethink and adapt its main intellectual property with building pieces. arrives in November with the difficult mission of adapting with lightness and fun, maintaining the essential theme of the original story. After all, the Lego franchise games have always been very well received, but has Studio Gobo managed to develop something capable of pleasing fans of both franchises?

With the same proposal as the wonderful LEGO sets, Aloy’s journey gained a very unique new approach for this version, in addition to being the first time we will see a Sony heroine on a Nintendo console. This makes it clear from the beginning that LEGO Horizon Adventures’ proposal is to be open and receptive to all audiences, doing this very well from the beginning. Including an excellent localization for Brazilian Portuguese and excellent dubbing.

Building the fusion of two worlds

The story is still the same, but told in a unique way that manages to differentiate itself enough to justify the investment of time and money in this Sony release. Starting from the Nora Tribe, in the Coração da Mãe village, our journey will still be to save the Earth from a mysterious and ancestral digital entity, which uses its Sun worshipers and dinosaur-shaped machines to carry out its plan of domination and extermination. However, this time we will not only play with Aloy, but also with Varl, Teersa and Erend, to complete this important mission.

Due to the proposal for solo or cooperative gameplay, LEGO Horizon Adventures lives up to the “Adventures” in its title, placing other heroes and their motivations as justifications for the game’s development. As a consequence of each of the characters, we have the unfolding of events that lead to the game’s narrative construction, different from what we have in the original game in which Aloy’s actions took us towards the other names involved in Horizon Zero Dawn. Aloy’s past, Varl’s mother’s approval, Teersa’s desire to experience something new and Erend’s curiosity are the reasons used by the narrative for this story. All of this ends up resulting in the involvement of Sylens, the Carja and HADES.

Ted Faro’s cruelty and the entire plot involving Elisabet Sobeck, GAIA and HADES end up taking on a lighter and more comical tone to suit the style of LEGO games. The great threats appear in a satirized way, for example, the Carja who worship the Sun in search of a tan or even the corruption of machines that take on a less aggressive appearance while managing to demonstrate the dichotomy between good and evil. . Even the interaction between Aloy and Elisabet ends up being more current, almost like a user and their AI, than the emotional appeal of the original.

All of this still comes packaged in incredible visuals, enhanced by the PS5 hardware, with beautiful scenery and an impressive level of detail. Every piece of LEGO is noticeable and the constructions are super well made, especially when we have water in the environments. The representation of cauldrons and machines are faithful to the original work while managing to innovate in the way in which each space or enemy appears during the phases, having its own characteristics and behaviors that combine with the gameplay proposal, without leaving its essence of side.

All of Aloy and company’s enemies, whether human or machine, have a unique behavior that, regardless of the player’s age, makes it easier to recognize the way you need to behave to face the challenges and threats of LEGO Horizon Adventures. Nothing too complex in terms of difficulty, much less with complex controls, but it is fun for its simplicity in how it translates the look and feel of Horizon Zero Dawn while also raising questions about weaknesses, elemental effects and interaction with the world.

Parts upon parts

Unfortunately, every simplification comes at a high price to ensure that Guerrilla Games’ work can be inserted into the LEGO world. With the Coração da Mãe village as the main hub, we will explore different phases that include the game’s various biomes, but without an open world like other titles and forcing the player to return to the same scenario, in which they rarely end up gaining new areas, to repeat the same location up to five times in search of missions brought by the story. That is, do you need to unlock villagers? So you’ll need to make four entries in the same scenario to get them all. The same goes for obtaining antennas, metallic flowers and other items related to the universe.

Few stages take on greater momentum when we need to climb a Pescoção, in a kind of chase with lateral progression (albeit in 3D and with depth), or even face the game’s bosses, maintaining greater adherence to the original game. However, this loop ends up quickly becoming boring for those who already know the story and unrewarding due to the few animated sequences, a bit contrary to what we know from other LEGO games. Still, with fun dialogues and hilarious scenes, but very little compared to the number of times we need to replay the same location or scenario, no matter how small variations it presents.

What makes up for this is that you have four characters with different gameplays to master and a kind of panel with skills to unlock. Aloy uses her bow, Varl uses a spear, Teersa throws bombs and Erend attacks with his hammer/axe, mixing ranged and melee attacks. Don’t expect to find a dodge button, but take advantage of the jump to increase the dynamism of combat.

Bringing it to LEGO Horizon Adventures, you will also have various gadgets to use, modifying weapons or adding accessories to characters, to cause elemental damage, jump over enemies while attacking, use a shield, destroy the pieces that make up opponents, among other various items that you find throughout the scenario and are consumables throughout the level. Over time and by leveling up, players can enable a random item to start each phase, among other various unique improvements for each character or general improvements for the group of heroes.

This simplicity also meant that the level design was far below that of other games in the LEGO franchise. You don’t even have an open world, much less stages with different path options or interactions with the world to transform your path, making LEGO Horizon Adventures very linear and little linked to building elements or even collecting pieces. Although many elements are allocated to be found, built and taken to your hub, this was the LEGO with less weight in the little pieces to interact with, but which makes up for it by building a magnificent world around you.

Increase the challenge a little, in addition to the difficulty options, by replaying the levels to complete tasks that are on the notice board in Coração da Mãe. Visit levels to fight the corrupted machines for more elaborate combats and enjoy playing online or local multiplayer , trying out the phases in pairs and speeding up the completion of tasks. As a reward in addition to the story, customize your figures and village with cosmetic items that bring together the main LEGO franchises in the Horizon universe, with Ninjago and City, as well as classic looks for those who follow the brand.

LEGO Horizon Adventures is fun, simple and easy to play. For those who know the work of Guerrilla Games, you will have fun with a new proposal, almost as if Horizon Zero Dawn got a children’s book, at the same time that it works very well for a younger or casual audience. Without losing its essence, bringing elements of the story with a lot of humor (even for the deaths in the game), this is certainly one of the best stories in the LEGO games, but it perhaps loses several points due to the potential it could explore in comparison to the incredible titles already previously released by the franchise.