Lego Horizon Adventures review: "Brilliantly rebuilds this PlayStation icon"

Horizon Zero Dawn might not seem like the most likely candidate for the Lego treatment, especially considering Lego Horizon Adventures is also appearing on PC and Nintendo Switch (really!), but who cares so long as it works? Thankfully it really works. Frantic, gleeful combat scenes are intermixed with gentle, platforming-lite 3D exploration, all capped off with the usual daft Lego humor carefully observed from the Lego movies.

Somehow, it blends the familiar whimsy with the sense of awe and post-apocalyptic fascination that the Horizon Zero Dawn universe brought on its PS4 debut, with remnants of humanity still visible through nature's reclamation of the landscape. It made it an instant winner among the Sony first-party titles during a time when it really needed them. While it undoubtedly runs out of steam after some 9-10 hours, until that point it's pretty riveting and still remains exemplary family-friendly gaming.

Combat is an absolute joy and unquestionably the game's best aspect. Even quite early on the screen can be filled with detailed enemies, all beautifully animated and affected by elemental attacks and environmental hazards. In true Horizon fashion, enemies have weak points that can be targeted thanks to some superbly subtle auto-aim, even disabling some enemy attacks in the process.

The environmental opportunities for tactical play make for some gleeful encounters as you trick robotic beasts into crashing into exploding barrels, set them ablaze by shooting an arrow through a campfire, or set rock pillars tumbling like dominoes to crush some unsuspecting foe at the end. They even damage each other which never gets old. It all works really well and on the medium of the five difficulty levels it gets properly challenging without being too taxing.

Brick Vastly

Outside of battle, the environments in Lego Horizon Adventures are almost completely linear, allowing you to only venture a few meters from the path to discover hidden chests containing stud troves or even limited-use power-ups like multi-shot attacks, or rocket boots that give you a flaming double jump for use in exploration and battle.

Mix all that with Horizon's own combat mechanisms like the Focus button and long grass for cover and you've got a game that's easy to understand, but complex enough to be rewarding when you're able to put everything together to your advantage. It's worth noting the long grass doesn't really let you stealth the game completely, but it does allow you to shake off heat-seeking projectiles and at least pick the perfect moment to start each fight.

Being a child-friendly game, it makes light of some otherwise dark situations, with the "And that's how I got the job as narrator" line neatly sanitizing one character's premature demise. Funnily enough the game still uses the word "dead" when using threats, but not to actually describe a dead character. Very interesting. But every sinister or semi-serious scene is peppered with daft, wholesome jokes like a villain asking if they're on mute, or some wonderfully stupid donut-based motivation.

Block party

What really helps turn Horizon's harrowing world into one of charm here in Lego Horizon Adventures is the way the entire game world is entirely made out of Lego bricks. In other Lego games you expect some naturalistic elements like water, swamps, or sandy beaches, but here everything is made out of Lego. Even the animated water, which simply cycles through coloured bricks (though Aloy can't swim here, sadly). Lego's own "master builders" were hired to create the models and it really shows. The result is a game that looks almost like a real Lego diorama in motion, and you could totally build the whole thing in your real backyard if you had the budget. And time. And instructions.

On PS5, these bricks are also ray-traced in both Performance and Fidelity graphics modes, the former targeting 60fps while sacrificing some resolution, the latter hitting 30fps with little obvious change in image quality. Essentially, it means Performance wins out in this case. Friends don't let friends play at 30hz, and all that.

With that said, the ray-tracing can make for some strange ray-tracing artifacting on a standard PS5, especially noticeable with some of the shadows. Even though the game's rendered up to 4K fidelity, it's disappointing these areas don't deliver a sharper image – especially given Lego's notorious pointy bits.

Play nicely

With the two-player co-op mode available online or locally, it's definitely one to enjoy with someone else though highly enjoyable solo, too. Those familiar with Horizon will enjoy the gentle ribbing of its few plot holes, while younger gamers will enjoy basically being able to play a Lego film, because yes, it really does look that good.

The voice acting is great, with – brilliantly – the supremely talented Ashly Burch returning to voice Aloy, able to inject a quirkier, funnier children's movie-like energy into the character while still feeling like the Aloy you know. Even NPCs are fully voiced and you can hear enemies saying daft things before they're aware of your presence, which is really fun.

After the story has run its course, you're left to complete mission challenges like beating cultists while dressed as a policeman, feeding chickens, or destroying a certain number of robots with exploding barrels. You can do this while going off on "expeditions" which are basically just levels open for freeplay with a boss at the end. At this stage the game does lose its appeal as you run out of new weapons and characters to play as and you start to feel overly familiar with the layouts, but it's still enjoyable to play.

You can level up each of the four playable characters, each with unique abilities (like Teersa's exploding sharks), or spend your time making the hub village, Mother's Heart, look the way you want thanks to some decent if not completely open customization options. Some placeable elements have fun animations like a rocket ship blasting an unsuspecting villager into space for a brief time. There's plenty to see and play with, then, just like real Lego, but the game in general is way, way smaller than the likes of Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga and will likely last you far less time.

Even so, there's no reason not to pick up Lego Horizon Adventures and blast through it. It's easy to play, yet complex enough if you exploit the full possibilities of combat and it's easily as entertaining to watch as it is to play. A surefire hit with the family or just as a wholesome treat for yourself, the blocks fit together perfectly either way.

Want more block action? Take a look at the best Lego games! Or looking for something closer to the other Horizon games? Then our best open world games should guide you on the right path.