Well what can I say about this, at least a little something I’d hope considering this is a review of the game. I am a big fan of the series, the first game is phenomenal, the second is a step down due to my opinion on the story being guff in the end and the story overall isn’t as fun or seemingly complete. Plus I hated the melee combat in it but I could be the minority. The world is still fantastic and the machines, are just a chefs kiss, the archery combat is stellar as well. I also love Lego as anyone should, I’ve proudly got the Lego Tallneck on display in my living room. So this game was a no-brainer.
I did wait for this game to drop in price as I’ve seen that it isn’t the greatest game and that the length of the game is short. It took like five maybe six hours to complete everything with the lack of content in this title.
I was immediately impressed with the graphic quality of this game it looks top tier. The team who made this made it with love in that regard. Everything in this game as far as I can see is made of actual Lego pieces you could get and build yourself replicating anything you saw. Which is easier said then done when it would come to the machines. It gives the vibes of playing your own Lego adventure in your younger years if you took the time to build everything yourself. The quality is spot on to Lego itself as well. The fidelity and detail is truly the highlight of this game.
Combat sucks, I mean its a right fucking stinker. You press square to attack or hold it down for ranged attacks. That’s it. The sum total of you are capable of. This goes for all four playable characters of which only Aloy seems to be mildly fun to play as. You also have Varl, Erend and Teersa randomly. Rost acts the narrator and Sylens is in it minus the fantastic Lance Reddick lending his voice due to his far too soon passing. All of them have had a disservice done to their characters for some reasons unknown Erend is opposed with doughnuts. It’s literally all he talks about.
I will say you can pickup gadgets and special weapons during the missions themselves. They are ammo limited and mostly not great either. Oddly the best one is a random hot dog cart summon which throws explosive hot dogs. The only returning weapon from the mainline series is the tripcaster which is even weirder considering the main games have a variety of weapons that should’ve been included. You do have focus powers which reveal weak points but you can still damage those without activating it. The characters get buffs every level increase, extra hearts, more damage etc. As well as the option to buy upgrades which can grant longer status effects, higher spawn rate of better gadgets and increased ammo capacity. But I imagine you could probably coast through the entire game ignoring them mostly.
The game super short like I think it took me 5/6 hours to do everything short. The missions act as linear and oddly cannot be replayed once they are completed. You then get the option of 4 apex hunts which again are not replayable. This does unlock expeditions for each four areas once cleared which are similar to the missions you played with more and slightly stronger enemies. They all take like 10 mins tops. They are very cut and paste as well, the variation is minimal almost lacking in some regards. The three tallneck missions basically play out the same and the cauldrons are functionally cool but again basically just a rinse repeat situation.
The hub area of the game comes in the form of mothers heart where you use your gold bricks you unlock to build new buildings that mostly do nothing. It looks nice but outside of the costume shop and upgrade area they do nothing. The customisation available is good but with the colour change, different roofs and what you put in the yard of the buildings it just misses the mark for me. Its mostly used to promote other lego series like ninjago or city. There is a distinct lack of horizon specific costumes or building variations available which is such a strange choice to make it’s to reliant on other sources when there is a wealth the could’ve used from the two games.
Gold bricks only unlock customisation options, red bricks do return as well but not with the cheats or in game mods of any other Lego game before it. In fact I don’t think red bricks do anything. You get 1 per completing each apex hunt. There’s no collectibles to find in the game, no minkits. I get that this is a game for the younger generation but the last few Lego games especially the skywalker saga were huge and such good games. They really did justice to the films themselves whilst staying true to Legos whimsy and quirky charm. The try to do the same here but at the cost of the apocalyptic grit that made the original story so fun and downplaying the violence which again works against it a bit. The closest I could compare it to would be Lego Lord of the Rings (still the best one they’ve done) or the Hobbit where the use the comedy to tone it down and add good laughs in which miss the mark in this game.
There is overall a lack of incentive to replay the game due to the lack of main missions being replayable. The trophy list is easy to attain bar 2 trophies, reach max level which is 20 and max level for all characters. This grind fucking sucked. Honestly such a ballache trophy for very little reason. I’m not a platinum hunter but if it’s easy enough to do or I’ve just had endless fun with a game I like to try and go for it. It took me over double the time to play the game to reach max level with each character. It would’ve been faster if I did co-op and had two characters at once. Would this have made me hate the process any less. Fuck no. It really soured the game that little but more for me. I don’t get why you couldn’t just redo the main missions which would’ve made it easier and less tedious. I don’t get why exp once you hit level 16 seemed to disappear from many enemies for no reason. I’m aware I didn’t need to and could’ve stopped at any point. But I clearly hate myself, well a little.
Overall I rate this a meagre 5/10. Certified Barely Tasty.
I wanted much more from this then what we got. It lacks in almost every area and has some wired design choices with the gameplay. It does truly look amazing and with the main entry counterparts the machines remain the highlight and honestly look like the were made to be Lego from the get go. I would buy any machines in Lego form in a heartbeat. I think if you really want something easy, inoffensive to play in co-op to pass some time then I think this is perfect for that but wanting much past that then you are better looking elsewhere for that gaming itch.
Released 14th November 2024 on Sony Playstation 5.
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