Over the years I have played almost every Lego game that was made by TT Games from Lego Star Wars: The Video Game to their most recent Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. I have enjoyed both those games and all the ones in between, but their formula was getting a bit stale and now we are seeing Lego branch out with other developers, with puzzles and racing games. But never in my wildest dreams could I have guessed that Lego would team up with PlayStation for a brick-filled take on Horizon Zero Dawn, but now I have played it, I can honestly say that I want more.

What is good about it?

PlayStation were kind enough to give me around an hour with the game, which let me get through the games prologue and the first five levels after that. In that time I got to take down a few robotic foes and a number of cultists, plus there were plenty of little nook and crannies to discover. But honestly what I loved about the game from my time with it, was just how Lego it was, which might sound weird but let me explain. In all the other Lego platforming games, actually almost all Lego games, the only Lego in the game are the characters and things you can interact with, but this is one of those rare games where everything is made of Lego. If you pause on any scene in the video below, you could build that entire shot for real, because everything is made of Lego. In fact this is more like a playable Lego Movie, the characters move like Lego, the world is made of Lego, it just feels right.

Ok, so its all Lego, but that can’t be all right?

You would be correct, just because things are made from Lego doesn’t mean that all the problems of past Lego games are solved. Thankfully the gameplay here is solid in addition to looking right, so why is it solid. The game plays like most other Lego platformers, you can run, jump, climb and attack, with you being able to do it solo or with a partner. As you make your way through the levels, you may encounter a salesmen of sorts, who offers up a number of chests to open up and contained within one of them is a power up. In the section of game I played, myself and my co-op partner discovered rocket boots, multi-shot bow and arrows and hotdogs.

The names alone should give you an idea of what each do, but just in case, the rocket boots let you jump high and further. The multi-shot bow fires 5 arrows at once and the hotdog, summons in a hotdog seller and his cart, who then begins to lob explosive hotdogs all around him, ok so that last one was a curve ball. What makes these power ups interesting is that they all have limited use, you might only get 10 uses of the rocket boots and when all used up, they are gone. My co-op partner, as I did play the game with a player 2 on the screen, used up their boots by mistake, as they kept triggering them when they didn’t need to. Once the items were unlocked though, they did occasionally drop from defeated foes, which means you should always keep an eye out.

Explosive boots, that is different. Does that mean its less serious than Zero Dawn?

Way less serious. In the original game, in the prologue Aloy is played off as a very serious, though excited young lady and when everything goes to heck, she just becomes more serious. Here, the first lines out of her mouth basically ask why there is no healing chocolate and it never stops. There was a cutscene that had Aloy and Rost talking, with Rost explaining that Aloy had a Destiny, but he said it in a low voice. When questioned about why he was saying it that way, Rost simply explained that it was important, her Destiny that is. Later on when Varl was running around with Aloy, I am almost certain I heard him yell something about ketchup, the exact wording eludes me, but ketchup was for sure mentioned.

Even the abduction of the villagers from Mother’s Heart is funny, it is still serious of course and not everyone is busting a gut laughing, but there are moment of levity in the scene. The first time that Aloy and Helis speak, via the focus, it acts more like a Zoom call where someone is not sure if they are muted or not and the chaos that goes around that. Those moments and countless others made me laugh, a few made me snort, but what it all boils down to is that I had a great time playing it, because the humour is just well done.

I like funny, but I also like dressing up. That is here right?

Totally, the game plays like every other Lego game, in that you have creative freedom to dress how you want. Once you rescue Teb the Tailor, he will open up his store in Mother’s Heart and you can then change outfits. Some of the earliest ones available just look like slightly different Aloy outfits from the source game, but there are some PlayStation icons that get their own outfits to wear. But it isn’t just those, you can also dress as a construction work, like Emmett from The Lego Movie or a cowboy, or a kitty cat.

Dressing up is not just limited to yourself, you can also tweak the look of Mother’s Heart so your hearts content as well. That means giving the roof of a building a new look, changing up the colour scheme as well and even redesigning the surroundings of it, all based on what you want it to look like. Of course, as my time with the game was limited, I didn’t get the chance to strap a rollercoaster to the roof of a hut, but that is something I can look forward to.

What are your final thoughts?

Honestly, I can’t wait for the full release. When I saw the game being announced, I was just excited to play, the Lego platformers are a bit of a guilty pleasure and now having put some time into the game, I can tell you it is a true Lego game. The Horizon Zero Dawn story might seem a bit familiar to some, but it’s been many years since I played it, that I remember the general gist of the story, but not all the beats. Having Ashly Burch voice Aloy again is incredibly fun, because the way the character behaves now, feels like it’s a different character, but it isn’t. Hearing her say lines like ‘yeah, enthusiastic chewing’ in a sarcastic way made me laugh and I am sure they will make you laugh as well.

I can honestly say that if you enjoy the Lego games, you will like this and if you like Horizon, then you will like this. Will the full game keep the fun alive, I hope so, but they are off to a great start right now and with less than a month to go, the wait shouldn’t be to bad.

Lego Horizon Adventures is set to release on November 14th for PlayStation 5, PC and Nintendo Switch. This preview was made possible with the support of PlayStation.