LEGO Horizon Adventures is the LEGO version of Horizon Zero Dawn with much easier gameplay and many more jokes. I completed the main story on and achieved the Platinum Trophy on .
The story follows the major beats of the original game peppered with the traditional wit and bad puns of all the LEGO games. Playing initially as Aloy, I completed a series of expeditions to progress the narrative. Along the way I collected gold bricks and studs to upgrade the Mother’s Heart central hub and my abilities. As play progressed, I quickly gained the ability to play the Elend (warhammer), Therese (bombs) and Varl (spear) minifig characters to complement Aloy’s bow. Most of the time I played as Aloy. She complains a little later on as being left out as “only the main character” when playing the others to level them up.
The consistency of look and feel across the whole LEGO game franchise is amazing. It’s fair to say that if you’ve played one, you’ve played them all, but it’s also unfair. Each has its own feel. LEGO Star Wars - The Skywalker Saga, LEGO Harry Potter and LEGO Horizon Adventures all place me in the right environment. In this game all the favourite machines were there including corruptors and thunderjaws, and there might even be a cauldron or two.
Platinum was more of a grind than needed
It only took 14 hours of gameplay to get the Platinum Trophy. Anyone enjoying the game will have most of the required trophies by the time they finish the main storyline. I had a few Mother’s Heart community goals to finish out and most were pretty easy to accomplish with the help of a trophy guide to know what was required and once they were done I had only two more trophies to get. Super Hero needed one character at Level 20, and Super Team needed all four characters at Level 20.
The additional characters all start at an advanced level and from memory began the last push for the Platinum Trophy with Aloy at 19, and from memory Varl, Therese and Elend at 6, 8 and 11 respectively. Levelling up comes from XP which is granted by destroying machines and killing cultists in an expedition. An expedition involves walking from the Mother’s Tree in Mother’s Heart to the area starting point, a short traversal past the other characters (it’s a chance to swap), then through a series of about 9 areas, before a final return to a plinth where you can collect a brick though by this time all bricks had been collected so this was a completely pointless path. Each expedition follows the same order but there is a good system of swapping sections in and out so there is some variety. There are four battles of increasing intensity across the expedition, plus a chance to grab a random weapon or device before the last.
The grind should have been to level 15 and not level 20.
Character levels 1–14 took pretty much a single expedition each. After than (from memory) it was 3–4 expeditions per level. From 14 to 20 is 6 levels times 4 expeditions x 3 characters or some 72 expeditions. It wouldn’t be so bad except that:
- Each required walking through the whole village to the start
- By the end, I was invincible and didn’t even bother picking up anything from the random device or weapon chests. All three have to be opened before proceeding.
- The mini reception party at the end of each expedition just got in the way of the next one.
A design tweak would have made a lot of difference. Once the main story is complete, nobody is doing expeditions unless it’s to level up. The game can recognise that and give players a choice. Start a new expedition in the same area, start a new expedition in another area, or return to Mother’s Heart. It would have removed 20% of the grind time.