Having played LEGO games co-op with my wife since before even the Switch came out, they’re sort of a yearly staple game for us. While not all properties have worked out so well over the years, in general we’ve enjoyed the consistent elements that typically make LEGO games unique. Whether it's the goofy humor, the host of secrets and power-ups to uncover, the chaotic action, or what are usually pretty large worlds just waiting to be explored, we’ve found they’ve been great to enjoy over the course of a few weekends generally. With that in mind I’ll admit that LEGO Horizon Adventures is a bit of a shock to the system. There’s no doubt that in terms of what appears to be its vision for a play experience it’s quite polished and works, just there’s also no question that if you’re looking for a traditional LEGO game you may not be very happy with the results.

Starting with the positives, though I haven’t played Horizon Zero Dawn it doesn’t take much effort to come to the conclusion that this plays out roughly like a lighter version of the game both in terms of its narrative beats and general focus in combat specifically. The story certainly feels more cohesive than you’ll find in most LEGO titles, which have tended to just jam loads of ideas together with some simple framing and hoping for the best. In this case there’s a full-fledged story that obviously mirrors elements of the original game. The combat has also changed and evolved a bit, mixing in tougher mechanical menaces that require more care and sometimes hard work than simply button mashing your way through like you can in most LEGO games. Spotting weak points, using tall grass, and being effective with the different power-ups you’re able to pick up are really required when you get into the thick of battle with multiple creatures at once. The fact that you’re also able to choose from a number of difficulty levels also makes this the most scalable combat of all LEGO titles, letting you make it more approachable for less experienced gamers then moving incrementally up to much tougher challenges, which is a nice touch.

As you may have noticed, if you’re a long-time LEGO gaming fan, many of the game’s strengths didn’t sound terribly familiar to the series, and the more you are itching for that classic LEGO-style gameplay the more likely you are to unfortunately be disappointed. The most notable difference, and the toughest to swallow, is the loss of the typical large areas you’re able to explore and discover secrets in. Instead you’ll be moved through far smaller areas that may periodically have a chest or something to build off the main beaten path, and that’s really hard to get used to and accept at first. You won’t find hidden puzzles, spots where you’ll need to go back once you have someone with a specific ability, or pretty well any elements in that vein. Instead you’ll have your few stock characters, special weapons they’re each able to equip, and that’s about it. Cosmetics are more about having some gold handy than working to truly discover them, and overall that’s a tough pill to swallow for a LEGO game. Worse, all of this really harms the quality of co-op play as well, since the screen won’t split for you to each tackle exploring different spots. Instead you’ll be constrained to being on the same screen, and this can present some issues if you don’t stick closer together. It absolutely feels like an experience built for single-player, with co-op play being more of an afterthought.

The challenge here is trying to find a balance between recognizing how successful the people making the game were in realizing their obvious vision, and in the sting of many expectations for a typical LEGO game not being met or even attempted in many cases. If you’re a fan of Horizon Zero Dawn and its world, and wouldn’t mind revisiting that experience in a modified and LEGO-ized form, this could be a home run. If you either don’t know that game, or are simply expecting that the title having the name LEGO on it will ensure a specific play experience, you’re much more likely to be disappointed. So in terms of a recommendation, I’d say the most important thing is to consider the fine print, making sure that you know precisely what you’re signing up for. It is by no means a flawed game, it actually looks great and plays quite well, it’s just an outlier to a well-known series so there are no guarantees on how you may feel about it.