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After Aloy withand whose sequel became one of Sony's figureheads, the likeable heroine is now treated to a light-hearted co-op adventure made from building blocks.will also be released not only for PS5, but also directly for release on November 14th for PC and Nintendo Switch.
No wonder, because the game has a younger target audience in mind and therefore does a lot of things differently than the original. The calculation definitely works out! That's about it10-hour action-adventure from an iso perspectiveoffers fun, linear action with great graphics and funny characters, but it could also disappoint fans who love to explore.
To get a feel for the look of the game, check out the trailer here:
Were there any problems? That's how it is with technology
We played LEGO Horizon Adventures on the PS5. Apart from one crash, we didn't have any technical problems. The performance mode keeps its target 60 fps largely stable. We only noticed occasional frame drops, but they didn't have any gameplay impact. Alternatively, you can switch to quality mode, which runs at 30 fps and offers a higher resolution.
Charming characters in a “story light”
In the distant future, the post-apocalyptic world is populated by humans and machine creatures. The young Aloy grows up as an orphan in the Nora tribe, which is attacked by mysterious cultists at an early age. So the heroine and herthree friends Erond, Teersa and Varlto find out more about the cult, the origin of the mechanical creatures and Aloy's past.
While the complex story plays an important role in the main parts of the Horizon series, in LEGO Horizon Adventures a simple plot, funny dialogues and the characters' likeable toy charm are clearly in the foreground. The game is roughly based on the original, but leaves out many details and essentially tells the plotmore humor.
You don't have to worry about the dark chapters of Zero Dawn playing a role here. With smaller children there shouldn't be any problems with the content and thanks to clumsy characters, slapstick and funny,Dialogues set to music entirely in Germanprovides lots of positive vibes. The many fights against machines and cultists that stand in your way don't change that.
Thelight-hearted flowThe game is also supported by the fairly short, linear levels. You can easily jump into a quick co-op round, complete a mission in around 10 minutes and don't have to get used to a complex, huge open world like you might be used to from Horizon Zero Dawn.
This is how co-op mode works
You can invite a second person online, who must also own the game, or you can activate another controller together on the couch at any time. The second character then immediately appears on the screen and is ready to go. Before each mission you can decide which two figures you would like to take with you. So co-op works quickly, easily and well.
Fun fights for young and old
The regular battles are a lot of fun and that's a good thing, because they take up a large part of the playing time and largely determine how long you need to complete a round. Depending on the level of difficulty, you race through the conflictsagainst cultists and machine dinosaursin seconds or get stuck in tough boss fights for longer.
The four figures differ in theirWeapons and special items, which you can find in the game world. You also level up each character and unlock passive bonuses that, for example, cause more damage or set enemies on fire for longer.
Aloy uses her bow and can, among other things, shoot fire arrows or uses a fan bow to cover several opponents with many arrows at the same time. Melee fighter Erond, on the other hand, fights with a hammer and can, among other things, trigger earthquakes, tribal elder Teersa throws various grenades and the clumsy Varl fights with his spear.
Like in Horizon Zero Dawn, they have different types of machinesWeak points, which you can make visible with a scan at the touch of a button and target for extra damage. For larger creatures, strategic components can even be separated. Without the laser arm of the crab-like armored walker, there is no longer any laser attack. At low levels, however, you can safely ignore this mechanic.
In addition to the special weapons, the battles are broken up by skills that you regularly find. These include, among others, a rocket jump for fire damage, an ice wave to freeze enemies or aHot dog stand that throws explosive hot dogs around. The latter is just one example of many elements from other colorful LEGO worlds that you will find again and again in the game.
TheExperimentThe various special weapons and power-ups are fun and, in combination with environmental interactions, always create cool situations. If we let a bull-like broadhead charge towards us and dodge it with a rocket jump so that it slams into a stone pillar, which then tips over and buries other opponents, it's definitely fun.
Accessibility
In addition to five difficulty levels, the game offers plenty of accessibility settings. For example, you can make yourself immortal and adjust the speed of moving obstacles. We have you heresummarized.
A beautiful world in which there is little to discover
You explore the game world starting from the village of Mutterherz. This is a hub that you return to after each mission. Here you can change your outfit, accept various challenges and decorate buildings with a variety of elements from, among others, LEGO Horizon, City and Ninjago in exchange for the clamping building blocks you have collected. This mainly adds to the atmosphere and has hardly any gameplay impact.
Starting from the hub, the missions are spread across a total of four visually varied areas and take us through a forest, a snowy landscape, the jungle and the desert. Once you have completed all missions in an area, you unlock expeditions. These are endgame missions that essentially put together the well-known set pieces from previous sections to create an infinite number of new levels.
The problem with all missions is that there is rarely anything gameplay-relevant to discover. Every now and then you will find obviously placed treasure chests along the way, which only contain money and the special items mentioned, which you can find on every corner anyway. As a result, opening a chest rarely feels rewarding. There are hardly any puzzles worth mentioning.
This means that almost every mission is the same. You follow a strictly linear path from fight to fight and open chests that cannot be overlooked. You don't need a spirit of discovery in LEGO Horizon Adventures. This is where the game really hasleave a lot of potential.
It would have been good if the boxes at least had cool rewards in them. For the characters you canUnlock fantastic costumes, hairstyles and accessories. They range from Horizon outfits such as cultist armor to police uniforms and absurd hot dog costumes. Only you buy all of this in a boring menu instead of finding them after an exciting puzzle or climbing through an enchanted cave while exploring the beautiful game world.
The expeditions may be interfering here. You can't repeat completed missions to search for possible hiding places again. Completely hand-built, deliberately placed secrets are difficult to implement with this concept, which relies on randomly generated endless content. Repeatable missions that are uniquely designed from start to finish would have been much more motivating.
Fantastic presentation with tons of LEGO charm
The good news is that the varied combat and presentation can make up for a lot. Everything in LEGO Horizon Adventures is made of building blocks. This starts with the detailed mini-figures and extends through every single object in the game. Even clouds and water are modeled from clamping blocks. Everything you see on the screen can theoretically be recreated in reality.
You can stop at any time and enjoy the beautiful plastic environments.
The characters move like real mini figures do. So Aloy doesn't suddenly have knee joints. This also applies to the beautifully animated and recreated machines, which appear just like the real toys in your imagination when playing in the children's room. There are also funny details, such as Aloy becoming a bundle of grass when she hides in a bush.
All the landscapes look beautiful and it's still fun after several hours just marveling at the surroundings. Especially since you can often see small visual highlights in the background, like a stranded pirate ship. When playing, you get the feeling of having real LEGO sets in front of your eyes, which is also due to the chic lighting effects that always give the appearance of real plastic.This is how LEGO video games should look and nothing else.
