LEGO Horizon Adventures turns Horizon Zero Dawn into a family comedy, and mostly gets away with it. Guerrilla Games and Studio Gobo built the 2024 action-adventure spin-off in association with The Lego Group, and Sony Interactive Entertainment published it on 14 November 2024 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Windows.
It is a retelling, not a remake. Aloy’s hunt for her mother still ends at a genetic truth, but the dark lore gets sanded down. When Rost dies saving Aloy, the game treats it lightly and brings him back to narrate the rest.
Trailer, via PlayStation.
Four Heroes, One Isometric Camera
The fixed isometric perspective puts you behind Aloy, Varl, Erend, or Teersa. Each plays differently enough to matter.
- Aloy — bow, the most flexible fighter
- Varl — spear, built for close work
- Erend — hammer, slow and heavy
- Teersa — thrown explosive bombs
Combat keeps the franchise’s weak-point targeting. Highlight a machine’s components, shoot the right part, deal more damage. Healing comes from berry bushes, elemental damage from arrows fired through flames or thrown explosive barrels. Experience feeds two skill trees: a general one for team-wide perks, character-specific ones for health and weapon damage.
Mother’s Heart Is the Best Idea Here
Between missions you return to the hub village, Mother’s Heart, and spend studs and gold bricks on buildings, decorations, and outfits pulled from other Lego properties. A job board hands out optional objectives for extra rewards.
That loop is the smartest thing in LEGO Horizon Adventures. It gives the retelling somewhere to live.
| Element | Horizon Zero Dawn (2017) | LEGO Horizon Adventures (2024) |
|---|---|---|
| Tone | Dark, serious | Family-friendly comedy |
| Camera | Free, third-person | Fixed isometric |
| Aloy’s voice | Ashly Burch | Ashly Burch |
| Co-op | No | Local and online, two players |
The Story Still Lands
The plot tracks the original: Helis leads a sun-worshipping cult in service of HADES, a rogue AI that wants to wake ancient war machines and wipe out life. Aloy recruits Varl, Teersa, and Erend, takes orders from a hologram of Sylens, recovers three ancient metal flowers, defeats Helis, and destroys HADES. Underground, she learns she is a genetic clone of Elisabet Sobeck, the scientist who died restarting life on Earth. She watches Sobeck’s hologram and gets her closure.
Every asset was built from individual digital Lego bricks, animated in a stop-motion style, on Unreal Engine 5. Burch returned as Aloy. That craft shows.
The weak point is the linear mission structure. Exploration, platforming in mechanical ruins, then a combat arena, repeated. The hub is where the game breathes.
LEGO Horizon Adventures is a good adaptation that stops short of a great game. It respects the source, casts it well, and finds one genuinely new idea in Mother’s Heart. What it does not do is surprise you twice.
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