LEGO Horizon Adventures - Switch Review

Alex Harding -

I’ve been writing reviews for Nintendo Switch games on Switchaboo for over seven years now, so 2024 was the year I decided to branch out a little and play most of Sony and Microsoft’s first-party top-tier franchises. I played both Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West and loved my time with both games, so when a LEGO iteration in LEGO Horizon Adventures was announced, in addition to shared confusion with many fans, I was cautiously optimistic.

The Good

LEGO Horizon Adventures does a great job at introducing a younger audience to one of Sony’s flagship first-party IPs. It quite loosely tells the story of the first game: Aloy is discovering who she is, an evil cultist, robots running a muck, HADES threatening the world, yada yada yada—but in a much more family-friendly way.

The machine dinosaurs from the original series recreated in LEGO Horizon Adventures are, without a doubt, this game’s most powerful aspect. The combat pulls the weak points from each machine and adapts it really well into a top-down action game where Lego pieces can be attacked and ripped off of them. You’re even able to scan with your Focus to identify weak spots, which feels wonderfully satisfying and is the best way to know that you’re playing a game based on the Horizon series. And lastly, simply seeing these machine dinos recreated in Lego is just really cool.

TL;DR

  • A good introduction to the series for younger gamers
  • Weak spot mechanic

The Bad

For a game based on a series known for its sprawling open world, the monotony of the levels is baffling. In each chapter section, there are six or so levels based on a certain biome, and each one feels like a copy and paste of the last, that being incredibly linear. There are odd chests and objects to build, as is standard for a LEGO video game, but the juxtaposition from the mainline series feels insulting, to put it bluntly. And what’s worse is that they don’t all feel the same but look the same as well. Aside from a few new enemies, each level feels exactly the same

As you defeat enemies, find chests, build objects and do standard LEGO shenanigans, you collect Lego bolts that count as the game’s currency. This currency can be used to purchase upgrades for your characters in a very straightforward fashion; however, that same currency is used for purchasing cosmetics. This feels counterintuitive because I’m therefore discouraged from buying new pretty-looking costumes or upgrading the main hub's Mother’s Heart area because it’ll be like playing an RPG where the currency is experience points.

Humour is quite subjective, and I know that LEGO games and movies are targeted towards younger demographics, but having played the first two Horizon games recently, the depth of characterisation feels stripped back to the blandest of tropes. Varl, a strong fighter with an even stronger mother, having to live up to high expectations, is characterised as a clumsy wuss; Erend, a big brute of a fighter whose emotional depth grows and overcomes personal inner conflicts, is stripped back to be... sigh, a guy who really likes donuts. Like I mentioned, I understand that the game is simplified to appeal to younger audiences, but that’s just insulting for both the characters and the intellects of children.

TL;DR

  • Monotonous level design
  • Cosmetic currency uses that which is used for upgrades
  • Memorable characters dialled back to insultingly basic tropes

Final Score: 5/10

So what can I say about LEGO Horizon Adventures? Well, it’s all, sort of, meh. Perhaps my view is tainted somewhat by having played the originals first? Or maybe I was supposed to do that? I’m not sure. But while this could be a good entry point for younger audiences to familiarise themselves with when they’re old enough, it feels like many kids seeing their parents play the actual games would feel a tad insulted by this watered-down iteration. It’s hard to say who this game is for, but it’s certainly not for me.

Thank you for checking out our LEGO Horizon Adventures Switch review, thank you to PlayStation Publishing (via Five Star Games) for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support: