Daddy Co-op Reviews: Lego Horizon Adventures
Daddy Co-op reviews is my take on video game reviews for couch Co-op games that I play with my kiddo(s). Taking a look at it as an experience with them and how that applies to an overall recommendation system for parents in similar situations.
Title: Lego Horizon Adventures (PS5)
Rating: ★★★★☆
Hours Spent playing: ~22
Difficulty for child: Easy
Pros
- Colorful, Cute, Easy to control, Humorous
- No real 'game over', Easy progression, Uncomplicated roles
Cons
- Distance characters can be from each other is short
- Talking head cut-scenes may bore.
Lego Horizon Adventures sets out to tell the story of Horizon: Zero Dawn inside a Lego universe; complete with fun humor, easy to jump-in to game-play and well paced progression. Unlike its source material, this is not an open world; instead you'll progress through a number of levels as part of the story and always end up back at a hub-town that needs fixing & customizing (unlock-ables as you progress). There are 4 distinct regions to visit from the hub-town and each of those has 3 levels to progress though (all of which can be replayed). There are sometimes multiple paths to take in each level, so there is a bit of variety to them in that regard. As someone who has played games for many years, I found the levels a little same-same, but for my kiddo, I believe it helped them to have a feeling of understanding the worlds and not being lost when confronted with new areas.
If you've ever played a Lego video game, you understand the general concept. You'll be running & jumping around collecting Lego pieces and bricks. Controls are simple enough with the left stick directing the character and the face buttons taking care of actions (attack, item, jump etc). My kiddo had very little trouble with it (just learning how to time jumps so as not to miss moving platforms as being their main difficulty point). The collectables act as currency for unlocking new buildings, customization options and costumes. Each character (there's 4) has their own weapon (Bow, Bombs, Spear, Axe) and leveling systems (going to 20) that grant them stronger attacks, more health and other such perks. Enemies range from other Lego people (cultists) working against you, to a multitude of machines (animal like robots) that the franchise is known for. The combat is button-mashy, but it works fine. You can pickup alternative weapon sets (frost, fire, electric variants), special weapons/abilities (fun explosives, jump boots & speed boosts) and other limited use items that try to keep combat fresh. My kiddo especially found the hot-dog cart that tosses bombs to be a fun add-on. The only issue I had game-play wise is with the distance the game allows you to go before it resets a character back to the other. Lots of co-op titles do this... but it seems excessively short in this game. It leads to the odd frustrating moment where one character determines when and where to go. This is always the first controller character, so I ended up giving the controller to my kiddo to avoid frustration.
Visually it looks like a cute plastic Lego world. It does well to make Lego fit in with the Horizon style with respect to the environments, characters and machine designs. Hit animations are simple sparks and such, there is no blood or extreme violence in this title. The music and sound design over all is serviceable, but nothing stood out. It does seem like either the original voice actors reprise the roles of their Horizon characters or some really decent sound-a-likes were hired. As someone who enjoyed the base games, that was a neat nod. However, while well voiced, the story bits that play out are mostly in a 'talking head' kind of style that sees two characters talking to each other and emoting. It works, but it felt lazy and my kiddo often wanted to skip them in favor of playing more.
In the end, we spend about 22 hours with it and that allowed us to complete everything; the story, all of the side missions, unlocking every thing there was to unlock. I do plan on using this as a platform to introduce other Lego games and I feel like it was a good starting point as it teaches some core mechanics without layering more complex ideas on top of that base before the end of the title. If I were to play this myself, I might give it a lower rating based on my own personal taste. But as an experience with my kiddo, as a game they were able to enjoy and learn some mechanics from, get more comfortable with the controller and enjoy a couch co-op title (and memories?) with their Dad? I give it a 4/5.