Lego Horizon Adventures manages to be exactly what you think it is when you hear those three words in combination, but still buck an amount of that expectation. After playing through the game's opening levels, I'm surprised at how well Studio Gobo and Guerilla Games have been able to make the story and tone feel distinct by deftly altering its source material's more mature tone to be family friendly; and also with how the studio has been able to carve out its own game-feel that isn't overshadowed by Traveler's Tales' monolithic Lego game portfolio.
Even the idea of doing a Lego game adaptation of another game series is surprisingly fresh – it's usually a format used to gamify different media altogether. In Lego Horizon Adventures, though, you can immediately feel that closeness, one game feeding into another. It helps that it's co-developed by Horizon creator Guerilla Games, and retains talent from those originals. Ashly Burch returns as Aloy, the star of both mainline Horizon games, but is able to deliver an immediately more peppy and upbeat take that manages to feel like she's playing the lead in an animated children's movie while maintaining Aloy's personality.
