Who Is LEGO Horizon Adventures For?

ign.com:

After weeks of internet rumours, Sony’s unusual new game was finally made official at Summer Game Fest 2024: LEGO Horizon Adventures. Built brick-by-brick by main Horizon developer Guerilla in collaboration with Studio Gobo, it looks to be exactly what you’d expect from a LEGO tie-in: bright, charming, goofy, and full of things to smash and studs to collect. That’s been a recipe for success multiple times over for LEGO, but this time around I’m not so sure. Who exactly is LEGO Horizon Adventures for?

This isn’t LEGO’s first foray into the Horizon universe. The Danish toy company’s fantastic Tallneck kit, based on Horizon’s giraffe-like walking towers, is an almost 14-inch tall behemoth made of 1,222 pieces. If the brick count didn’t give it away, the recommended age for this model is 18+. In the physical world, LEGO Horizon has been aimed at adults because it’s adults who play the video game series. But one look at LEGO Horizon Adventures and it’s clear this isn’t anywhere close to the type of experience we’ve had with the two mainline Horizon games so far. For existing fans who are already chomping at the brick for a new game, this likely isn’t what they were hoping for.

While I didn’t expect LEGO Horizon Adventures to simply be a full-fat Horizon game with a LEGO aesthetic, I am surprised that the trailer shows very little of what I’d consider to be the series’ core DNA. Horizon is all about tactically tearing apart robot dinosaurs and animals. Thunderjaw wrecking your day? Blast off its missile launchers. Struggling with a Snapmaw? Snipe its freeze sac. Each machine is built of components that can be broken and shattered, an idea that would surely translate beautifully into snapping and scattering Lego pieces. And yet the trailer suggests that combat in LEGO Horizon Adventures will be similar to prior LEGO games of the Star Wars and Marvel varieties – give something a good, simple boop on the head and they’ll break apart. I’m not sure how satisfying this is going