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Why the new Lego Horizon Adventures game is perfect for the young (and old)
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For this adventure, follow the Lego brick roads.
Lego Horizon Adventures, available for PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch and PC, rebuilds 2017’s Horizon Zero Dawn in the Lego universe, transforming the somber and complex Horizon into something simpler, a bit sillier and more kid-friendly. The game, developed by Guerrilla Games and Studio Gobo and published by Sony Interactive, is the first collaboration between Lego and a PlayStation Studios title.
In the post-apocalyptic setting of the game, Aloy, a young bow-wielding hunter, journeys from her adopted father’s home hoping to learn more about her past while also defending her people from machines that have made the wilds dangerous.
“When we consider the Horizon universe and its rich storyline centered on Aloy, the question we asked ourselves was how can we best see that through a Lego lens that we know is going to talk to a really broad audience,” Lego branded games product leader Kate Bryant told USA TODAY.
From serious to hilarious
The Aloy in Lego Horizon Adventures is built a little different, even if she’s still voiced by Ashly Burch, who brought the character to life in the original game.
The game’s protagonist is as brave and strong as the original, yes, but much more chipper, with a quip, joke or pun for almost every interaction. Lego Horizon Adventures is a delight, blending slapstick and action in the platformer.
Bringing levity to the game was important to the developers.
“That was why we were really interested in making a Lego game,” said Guerrilla Games art director Roy Postma. “It’s the silliness of it, it’s the perfect game for a younger audience.”
The developers said they wanted to retain the heart of the original game in something that could resonate for younger players.
“If there’s something that parents can play with their kids, that’s really hitting a mark for us,” Bryant said. “That’s really special and a great new thing that we could bring to Lego Horizon.”
Lego Horizon Adventures has five difficulty modes: story, scout (presents a slight challenge), adventurer (balance of story and combat), machine hunter and hero.
The game’s introduction is a “handhold without you noticing,” said Kat Woolley, senior games producer at Studio Gobo. “It gives you little hints and tips through the characters talking to each other when you first start. Once you’re actually into the story, it’s almost like you don’t notice you’re done with the tutorial.”
Co-op play can be unlocked after completing the tutorial, and “that’s really fun because you get to go on the adventure together, and you get to choose your own outfits if you want to and customize it,” said Woolley, whose 8-year-old son played the game in a testing environment. “It’s a really lovely experience.”
Not only can players customize characters and the NPCs, Woolley said, “you can do the same thing with the houses and statues and things around so you can really make it your own.”
Building blocks
Lego Horizon Adventures, which is visually stunning, was crafted brick by brick.
“It was a very clear choice we made from the start,” Postma said. “We wanted to make everything from bricks, and we wanted to make it look as good as the Lego movies.”
The team had to be creative in how it used bricks in the game. “There was a limit of what variety of bricks we could use,” Woolley said. “We wanted it to be smooth and slick and look gorgeous. To do that, you have to be really careful with the file size.”
And even beyond monitoring memory usage, Postma said, “we only used the bricks that are available for real. So, if someone wants to build it, they can get those bricks.”
When the team was first building the machines, though, the piece count was high, and they didn’t really look as though they were made from Lego bricks, Bryant said. It was almost as if the Lego pieces had become pixels.
“It makes it feel more like a Lego game when that constraint is embraced,” Bryant said. “There’s so much utility that you have to squeeze out of what you’re doing when your palette is that much smaller and the pieces that you’ve got are just from what you could really build in real life.”
Even with constraints, the game’s biomes are “astonishing,” Woolley said.
“Sometimes you’ll be running along and you’re so focused on what you are trying to do, what you’re trying to achieve within the level. But if you actually just stop and look around at the landscapes, you’ll see the detail that’s gone into it,” she said. “That’s a direct reflection of the original game with these incredible landscapes and vistas.”
There are fun nods in the details, too, and random items are sometimes swapped in for traditional bricks, such as a croissant on the corner of a roof.
“Even the piece separator shows up in the game,” Bryant said.”If you’re coming in as a massive Horizon fan, you’re also going to see that attention to detail.”
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