The basic elements of the Lego game have remained almost unchanged for more than 20 years: Smash everything into blocks and nails, collect characters by the dozens, then use those characters to jump back through levels and solve puzzles that were previously closed. Lego Horizon Adventures has a bit of that DNA, and switching back to a fixed camera like the pre-Skywalker Saga games makes it feel like a classic Lego game from years past, but after 30 minutes of playing in single player and co-op, I thought of it as the most cinematic Lego yet the game. Instead of an intense focus on smashing and picking things up, it focuses on a guerrilla story – and that story is filtered through a kid-friendly filter.
“We were determined to make a Lego game that was unlike any other Lego game,” James Windeler, Guerrilla’s narrative director, told me after my hands-on session. “Visually, we wanted to make a statement in the sense that we wanted to make 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, as you can see, it’s made from individual bricks, each asset could theoretically be made from physical material, Lego pieces.”
He’s right, of course. Traditionally, Lego games include bricks in the playable area and backgrounds made to look more like a traditional video game environment, and this difference, coupled with the gorgeous visuals, really makes Lego Horizon Adventures instantly stand out when you see it.
But the gameplay is also a bit different from the classic Lego games. Sure, you can smash some environments to collect studs, but not nearly as much as in other Lego games, and there didn’t seem to be any stud counter required to unlock a status like “True Adventurer”. That’s because it’s not really a collection like Lego Batman or Lego Star Wars. It’s, Winderler says, like playing The Lego Movie with Aloy, Rost and the other stars of Horizon Zero Dawn.
And I mean Zero Dawn specifically. Lego Horizon Adventures reimagines the 2017 game in key ways to make it more engaging and kid-friendly, without completely reinventing its story. “It’s not a faithful retelling and it’s not a parody,” explained Windeler, who said the game will take players about 7-8 hours to complete, although some replayability elements 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 a whole open world game and put it here. We told a story that we felt captured some of the spirit of the original, some of the themes […] It’s more of an inspiration.”
Given how these themes originally included things like climate change and corporations’ habit of dominating a dilemma to present solutions before they make things worse, I wonder how much of the game will specifically focus on those beats. “We’ve definitely pushed some of the more complex and really dark themes to the background. Those ideas are there, but they’re very subtle,” he said. “You know, the story takes place more in the present and is very much focused on a more emotional story of a girl looking for her mother, who is drawn into an adventure with existential stakes.”
As much as it translates the story and world into bricks and minifigures, one of the coolest parts of my demo was how it transforms the series’ weak spot targeting system into a simpler version that less experienced players can more easily grapple with, specifically on the Nintendo Switch’s Small Controllers. “A lot of thought went into it,” Windeler revealed.
“But we also wanted to make sure we kept a 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, e.g. [focusing] in a weak point, but also there is a kind of complexity; there’s a difficulty slider, and if you move it up, there’s a requirement to really engage on a tactical level.”
In practice, this means holding the aim button on parts of the machine that glow bright yellow, just like in the traditional Horizon games, and then releasing it to hit the robot animal in that spot. Players can also sneak around in tall grass and even start fires that spread across the brick-filled landscape, causing chaos and sometimes even 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 still feels more like an action-adventure game than a traditional, button-heavy Lego game. mass brawler. In one word, Winderler called Lego Horizon Adventures’ combat systems “insane.”
With Lego Horizon Adventures reimagining the story, whether as a visual gag or just to make it a better gaming experience for the whole family, I questioned whether Guerrilla would ever shy away from the task of taking on a character like Aloy, which the studio has always raved about. and turned her almost into a caricature of himself. But Windeler does not see a conflict there.
“We have single-player games, you know,” he said. “We’re still very protective of the characters in this canon, [but] everyone involved wanted to have fun with it. There are still some heart-wrenching moments in the story. And still, we don’t completely leave out the emotions of the original story. But it’s definitely supposed to bring joy to people.”
Lego Horizon Adventures is coming to PS5, PC and – yes – Nintendo Switch this holiday season.