The basic elements of a Lego game have remained largely unchanged for 20+ years: Break everything into bricks and studs, collect characters by the dozens, then use those characters to jump back through levels to solve puzzles that were previously removed.
Lego Horizon Adventures has a bit of that DNA, and the return to a fixed camera like the pre-Skywalker Saga games makes it feel like a classic Lego game of yesteryear, but after playing 30 minutes in single player and co-op, I came away with thought to be the most cinematic Lego game to date. Instead of focusing intensely on smashing and picking things up, he’s putting the focus on Guerrilla’s story—and putting that story through a kid-friendly filter.
“We were determined to make a Lego game unlike any other Lego game,” James Windeler, narrative director at Guerrilla, told me after my hands-on session. “From a visual perspective, we wanted to make a statement in the sense that we wanted to create a playable Lego Movie in terms of visual quality. But one of the things that’s really unique about it and very different from other games is that everything you see is made of individual bricks, theoretically, any asset can be made of physical material, Lego pieces.
He’s right, of course. Traditionally, Lego games include bricks in the playable area and backgrounds designed to look more like traditional video game environments, and this change here, coupled with the gorgeous visuals, really makes Lego Horizon Adventures stand out. immediately when you see it.
But playing it feels a little different than the classic Lego games. Sure, you can destroy some of the environment to collect studs, but not as much as in other Lego games, and there didn’t seem to be any counters that require you to unlock certain statuses like True Adventurer. That’s because this isn’t really a collection like Lego Batman or Lego Star Wars. It’s, as Winderler says, like playing a Lego movie with Aloy, Rost and other stars of Horizon Zero Dawn.
And I mean Zero Dawn specifically. Lego Horizon Adventures reshapes the 2017 game in major ways to be more engaging and kid-friendly, but without completely reimagining its story. “It’s not a faithful retelling nor a parody,” explained Windeler, who said the game will take players about 7-8 hours to complete, though there are replay elements that will be revealed later. “We wanted to make fun of the IP; we wanted to use all the self-referential humor that is characteristic of Lego properties.
“We also really wanted to make sure the game had a very broad appeal […] We didn’t make the whole open world game and put it here. We told a story that we felt captured a little bit of the spirit of the original, some of the themes […] It’s more of an inspiration.”
Given how those themes initially included things like climate change and corporations’ habit of commandeering a dilemma to come up with a solution before making things worse, I wondered how much of the game would go into those rhythms specifically. “We’ve definitely pushed some of the more complicated and really dark themes to the background. Those ideas are in play, but they’re very subtle,” he said. “You know, the story takes place more in the present and is very much centered around the more emotional story of a girl looking for her mother, who gets pulled into an adventure with existential stakes.”
Just as it translates the story and world into bricks and minifigures, one of the most interesting parts of my demo was how it transformed the series’ weak point targeting system into a simpler version that less experienced players could easier to deal with, especially on the small Nintendo Switch Controllers. “A lot of thought went into it,” Windeler revealed.
“But we also wanted to make sure we kept the kind of level of tactical thinking and combat that fans of the franchise might be used to. So even though the control schemes are pretty simple, you’ll recognize the mechanics, for example. [focusing] at the weak point, but also, there is like a complexity; there’s a difficulty slider, and if you slide it up, there’s a requirement to really engage on a tactical level.”
In practice, this involves holding down the target button on parts of a car while they glow a vivid yellow, just like in traditional Horizon games, and then releasing it to hit the robotic beast at that location. Players can also sneak into the tall grass and even start fires that spread across the brick-filled landscape, causing mayhem and even sometimes solving environmental puzzles.
And of course, in two-player co-op, all of these elements can be doubled, creating a kid-friendly combat system that’s still more of an action-adventure game than a traditional Lego game, which tends toward a button- mash brawler. In a word, Winderler called the combat systems of Lego Horizon Adventures “insane.”
With Lego Horizon Adventures reimagining the story, whether it’s for a visual or just to make it a better family gaming experience, I asked if Guerrilla ever shied away from the task of taking on a character like Aloy, who I was studying for has always spoken so well. , and turning him almost into a caricature of himself. But Windeler doesn’t see a conflict there.
“We have single-player games, you know,” he said. “We’re still very protective of the characters in that canon, [but] everyone involved wanted to have fun with it. There are still some poignant moments in history. And like, we’re not completely ignoring the thrill of the original story. But it’s definitely meant to bring joy to people.”
Lego Horizon Adventures is coming to PS5, PC and — yes — Nintendo Switch this holiday season.
