Lego Horizon Adventures

Lego Horizon Adventures is a 2024 action-adventure game co-developed by Guerrilla Games and Studio Gobo in association with The Lego Group, and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. A spin-off in the Horizon franchise, the game reinterprets the events of Horizon Zero Dawn (2017) in a Lego-themed environment. Played from a fixed isometric perspective, the game allows the player to control one of four protagonists—Aloy, Varl, Erend, or Teersa—as they battle a rogue artificial intelligence known as HADES and a sun-worshipping cult led by Helis.

The gameplay features a mix of linear platforming and combat that incorporates the franchise's signature weak-point targeting system. Between missions, players can customise their central hub village, Mother's Heart, using studs and bricks to unlock decorations and outfits from various Lego properties. The game supports both local and online two-player co-operative multiplayer. Guerrilla and Studio Gobo designed the game to be a light-hearted, family-friendly adaptation of the original game's dark lore. Built using Unreal Engine 5, the developers constructed every in-game asset from individual digital Lego bricks and animated the characters in a stop motion style. Several original voice actors from the Horizon series reprised their roles, including Ashly Burch as Aloy, adjusting their performances to match the game's comedic and self-referential tone. The game was released globally for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Windows on 14 November 2024.

Lego Horizon Adventures received mixed reviews from critics. Reviewers praised its visual presentation, charming aesthetic, and the energetic vocal performances of the cast, but frequently criticised its repetitive level design, simplistic mission structure, and lack of open-world exploration. Following its release, the game received several industry accolades, including a nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction at the 28th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards and four nominations at the 21st British Academy Games Awards.

A gameplay screenshot demonstrating the game's visual style, where characters and environments are rendered as physical Lego bricks

Lego Horizon Adventures is an action-adventure game played from a fixed isometric perspective. The player takes control of one of four protagonists from the Horizon series: Aloy, who wields her signature bow; Varl, who uses a spear, Erend, who fights with a hammer, and Teersa, who throws explosive bombs. Mission structures are largely linear, consisting of exploration segments, platforming sections within explorable mechanical ruins, and designated combat arenas where the player fights machine creatures and human cultists. Combat heavily incorporates the weak-point targeting system from previous Horizon games. The player can highlight the components of machines, allowing them to deal critical damage by shooting specific parts. To recover health during combat, players can consume healing items gathered from berry bushes found throughout the arenas. The player can also use environmental hazards by picking up and throwing explosive barrels or shooting arrows through fire to deal elemental damage. As players defeat enemies, they earn experience points to level up the protagonists. The game features two types of skill trees for progression: a general tree that provides team-wide benefits, such as experience bonuses and extended effects, and character-specific trees that increase maximum health and unique weapon damage.

Between linear missions, players return to a central hub village. By defeating enemies and completing levels, players collect Lego studs and gold bricks, which serve as the primary currency for unlocking extensive customisation options. The village also features a community job board that provides optional objectives for the player to complete during missions in exchange for extra rewards. The player can personalise the village by constructing new buildings, altering roof designs, changing plot colours, and adding various decorations. These customisation elements are not strictly limited to the Horizon universe, as players can incorporate structures and outfits from other Lego properties, such as Ninjago. Furthermore, the protagonists can be dressed in a wide array of unlockable costumes.

The game offers scalable challenges for different skill levels, featuring multiple difficulty settings that range from a story-focused mode to highly demanding combat scenarios. Lego Horizon Adventures supports two-player co-operative multiplayer, which becomes available shortly after players complete the game's prologue. The co-operative mode works locally or online and uses a shared screen rather than split-screen, automatically teleporting players together if one falls too far behind.

The story follows Aloy, a young huntress raised by her mentor, Rost. Wanting to learn the true identity of her mother, Aloy embarks on a journey that pits her against a sun-worshipping cult led by the villainous Helis. The cult serves a rogue artificial intelligence known as HADES, which intends to corrupt the world's machines and destroy all life. Following Rost's sacrifice to save her, after which he continues to playfully narrate the game's story, Aloy travels across the land accompanied by a group of allies: Varl, Teersa, and Erend.

Guided by a hologram of Sylens, the group is tasked with recovering three ancient metal flowers needed to stop the cult's plans. After battling through various ruins and defeating Helis, the team confronts and destroys HADES. In the aftermath, Aloy discovers the truth of her origins: she is a genetic clone of a brilliant scientist from the distant past who helped save humanity. The game concludes with Aloy sharing a heartwarming interaction with a hologram of the scientist, finally finding the maternal connection she had been seeking, before celebrating her victory with her friends.

Lego Horizon Adventures was co-developed by the Horizon developer Guerrilla Games and the British team Studio Gobo, in association with The Lego Group. The project originated when The Lego Group approached Guerrilla to pitch a video game collaboration. The two companies had previously established a relationship after partnering to produce a physical Lego set in 2022. The Lego Group was drawn to the Horizon franchise for an adaptation due to its core concept of battling robotic dinosaurs and the family-friendly potential of Aloy. Guerrilla publicly announced their co-development partnership with Studio Gobo in January 2023, stating they would collaborate to expand the franchise.

Following their work on the franchise for nearly a decade, developers at Guerrilla wanted to create a more whimsical, light-hearted project where they could have fun with the intellectual property. Developers at Guerrilla had a long-standing affinity for Lego, having used physical Duplo blocks to prototype the original machine designs during the development of Horizon Zero Dawn (2017). Aiming to make the game feel like a "playable Lego movie", the team chose to animate the characters using a stop motion style. The project was a close collaboration between Guerrilla and Studio Gobo. Guerrilla sought out Studio Gobo specifically for their extensive experience in developing games tailored for children. To ensure the game appealed to a younger demographic, the development teams focused on adapting the complex mechanics of Zero Dawn into a more playful, co-operative experience, shifting the gameplay focus toward accessible problem-solving and light-hearted combat.

The game was built using Unreal Engine 5 and features visual enhancements, including high-quality reflections and virtual shadow maps. According to narrative director James Windeler, Guerrilla aimed to create a "playable Lego movie" in terms of graphical fidelity. To achieve this, the developers ensured that every asset and environment was constructed entirely from individual digital Lego bricks, meaning every structure in the game could theoretically be recreated with real physical Lego sets.

Ashly Burch (pictured in 2014) reprises her role as Aloy.

The writing team adapted Zero Dawn's story into an upbeat, family-friendly narrative. They significantly downplayed the dark, apocalyptic lore, shifting the thematic focus toward environmentalism and Aloy's relationships with her friends. To assist with the game's comedic tone, Guerrilla hired contractor Mark Llabres Hill, who had previously worked on Sackboy: A Big Adventure (2020) and the Fable franchise. The writers aimed to make the franchise approachable for newcomers by leaning heavily into the slapstick humour characteristic of Lego video games and the self-referential comedy popularised by the Lego films.

Guerrilla brought back several original voice actors from the Horizon series to reprise their roles for the spin-off, including Ashly Burch as Aloy, JB Blanc as Rost, John Macmillan as Varl, and John Hopkins as Erend. Because the game abandoned the serious tone of the mainline entries, the returning cast had to significantly adjust their vocal performances. Narrative director James Windeler lauded the actors for fully embracing the comedic shift, stating they brought a distinct "exuberance" to their roles. Following the death of original Sylens actor Lance Reddick in March 2023, the character was recast. Tim Russ, who had previously voiced the character Jetakka in Horizon Forbidden West (2022), took over the role of Sylens for the game.

Lego Horizon Adventures was announced for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Windows during the Summer Game Fest showcase in June 2024. The decision to release a first-party PlayStation franchise on a Nintendo console was a notable departure for Sony. Narrative director James Windeler explained that the port aligned with their goal of reaching a broader, family-friendly demographic, adding that the Switch's audience and simple control scheme made it a "natural fit" for the project. The game was released globally on 14 November 2024. While Sony handled the primary publishing duties, the Canadian distributor Solutions 2 GO partnered with the company to distribute the physical retail editions of the game for the Switch. Alongside the standard game, Sony offered a digital deluxe edition featuring additional cosmetic items. This included exclusive crossover outfits that allowed players to dress characters as Ratchet and Rivet from Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (2021) and Sackboy from the LittleBigPlanet series. Following the game's launch, The Lego Group released a physical tie-in set featuring characters and machines from the game.

Lego Horizon Adventures received "mixed or average" reception according to the review aggregator website Metacritic, while 54% of critics recommended the game according to OpenCritic. The visual presentation was praised as the game's strongest asset. Critics appreciated the meticulous environmental design, observing that the development team's commitment to constructing every on-screen asset from individual digital Lego bricks created a striking, authentic stop-motion aesthetic. Digital Trends' Giovanni Colantonio highlighted the graphical fidelity and lighting enhancements provided by Unreal Engine 5, stating these elements elevated the game above standard family-oriented titles. Additionally, the cast's vocal performances were well received. Reviewers felt that the light-hearted tone allowed the returning actors to experiment with their characters, with reviewers observing that Ashly Burch's energetic portrayal of Aloy provided a welcome contrast to her serious performances in the mainline series.

The adaptation of the original game's narrative garnered a divided response. Several reviewers appreciated the family-friendly approach, observing that the writers successfully distilled the dense, apocalyptic lore of Zero Dawn into a breezy and accessible adventure. The injection of slapstick comedy and self-referential humour was largely seen as a natural fit for the Lego branding. Conversely, other critics felt the comedic tone occasionally undermined the core themes of the source material. Sarah Thwaites of TechRadar criticised the game's over-reliance on cutscenes to deliver pivotal lore moments, resulting in an experience that struggled to strike a compelling balance between being a genuine Horizon adaptation and a traditional Lego parody.

Gameplay mechanics and level design were the primary sources of criticism. While the adaptation of the franchise's signature weak-point combat system was praised for remaining engaging and accessible for younger audiences, the overall mission structure was frequently described as overly linear and repetitive. Critics highlighted a distinct lack of the environmental puzzle-solving and extensive character rosters that typically define the Lego video game formula. The core loop of traversing straightforward platforming sections into closed combat arenas was widely considered monotonous, with Jordan Minor and Zackery Cuevas of PCMag arguing that the lack of open-world exploration felt like a significant missed opportunity for a franchise defined by its vast environments. Reviewers felt this repetitive structure, alongside a hub village that offered extensive cosmetic customisation but little substantial gameplay, ultimately hindered the game's long-term appeal.

Following its release, Lego Horizon Adventures received several industry award nominations. The game was nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction at the 28th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards. The game additionally received four nominations at the 21st British Academy Games Awards in the Animation, British Game, Family, and Multiplayer categories.

• Official website
• Lego Horizon Adventures at IMDb