It’s incredible to witness just how far the modern LEGO games have come. I still remember when LEGO Racers was the greatest title in the franchise. Now, almost every big-name blockbuster has been turned into a ‘LEGO-fied’ adaptation in the ever-growing list of Traveller’s Tales games. More recently, LEGO might be turning other games into LEGO video games, as we saw with LEGO Horizon Adventures. Easily one of the most unexpected adaptations ever released, this new title takes the epic open-world gameplay of Horizon and turns it into a family-friendly isometric adventure.
Surprisingly, this particular LEGO title wasn’t developed by Traveller’s Tale, the company behind essentially every mainline LEGO game since the original LEGO Star Wars. Instead, LEGO Horizon Adventures was co-developed by Guerrilla Games – yes, the same Guerrilla Games responsible for the original Horizon titles. Naturally, with a different developer, one would expect the game would offer a fresh change of pace from the LEGO games we’ve grown to know. At least, I’d love to say that is the case. The reality is that, even with a different developer, the modern LEGO video game DNA is much too strong. Once you’ve played one LEGO game, you’ve played them all.
The Strengths of LEGO Horizon Adventures
First, let’s give some credit to LEGO Horizon Adventures. The game is a somewhat faithful recreation of Horizon Zero Dawn – only with a more family-friendly tone. The story and characters are all here, and so are the incredible vistas fans of the series already know. For Horizon newcomers and younger players, this is a great way to enter the polarizing world of Horizon. However, if you’ve already played both of Aloy’s previous titles, you’d be hard-pressed to find anything new in this LEGO adventure. Here’s the thing with those impressive massive LEGO structures you see from time to time: once you get close enough, you start noticing the cracks and the weak spots. The same happened to me and my hopes for LEGO Horizon Adventure.
The Identity Crisis of LEGO Horizon Adventures
Not even the charming ‘Brickfilm’ animation style, which makes the game look similar to The LEGO Movie, was enough to make the world of Horizon more palatable for non-fans. Despite the potential, the game suffers from an identity crisis: it tries to be a Horizon game, but without foregoing its roots as a LEGO title.
Remember when I mentioned LEGO Racers earlier? That game comes from a time before LEGO Star Wars; it was before the franchise found its niche. At the time, LEGO experimented with all sorts of different genres and ideas. Much like their building kits, you could find all sorts of interactive experiences with LEGO games. However, as time went on, the series has become complacent. You already know what to expect when you boot a new LEGO game. While the charm and the fun of the franchise’s formula is still there, it loses some of its luster once you’ve played it on repeat for so many years.
The Limitations of LEGO’s Mainline Games
In practice, every LEGO game is the same title with a different skin. There are now two different niches for LEGO fans: those who like the games, and those who enjoy creating things with the building blocks. For those fans, games like LEGO Builder’s Journey, LEGO Bricktales, or even LEGO Fortnite are the way to go – those are games that prove that LEGO still has some of its trademark creativity intact. I don’t deny that there’s an audience for what LEGO has to offer with its mainline games – I just think that even the most die-hard audience can grow tired of playing the same thing in a loop. Especially if said thing costs $59.99. That’s just poison for any healthy player base, and the numbers for LEGO Horizon Adventure already tell a grim tale for Sony’s plans to LEGOfy their games.
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Tell us, do you think LEGO Horizon Adventures proves all LEGO games are the same?
