The foundational elements of a Lego game have remained largely unchanged for 20+ years: Smash everything into bricks and studs, collect characters by the dozens, then use those characters to jump back into levels to solve puzzles that were previously gated off. Lego Horizon Adventures has a little bit of that DNA, and moving back to a fixed camera like the pre-Skywalker Saga games makes it look like a classic Lego game of yesteryear, but after playing 30 minutes in single-player and co-op, I came away thinking of it as the most cinematic Lego game to date. Rather than intensely focus on smashing and collecting things, it’s putting the focus on Guerrilla’s story–and putting that story through a kid-friendly filter.
“We were determined to make a Lego game unlike any other Lego game,” James Windeler, narrative director at Guerrilla, told me after my hands-on session. “From a visual perspective, we wanted to make a statement in the sense that we wanted to create a playable Lego movie in terms of the visual quality. But one of the things that’s really unique about it and very different from other games is that everything you see is made from individual bricks. Every asset could, in theory, be made from physical material, Lego pieces.”
Lego Horizon Adventures stands out from other Lego games in several ways, with the visuals being an immediately obvious example.
He’s right, of course. Traditionally, Lego games involve bricks in the playable area and backgrounds made to look more like traditional video game environments, and that difference here, paired with the gorgeous visuals, really makes Lego Horizon Adventures stand out instantly when you see it.
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