LEGO Horizon Adventures ‘has a lot of echoes from the original’
The narrative director of LEGO Horizon Adventures has offered some further clues about what to expect from the upcoming game.
LEGO Horizon Adventures has been officially confirmed, along with some early looks at the gameplay that have given us an idea of what to expect from the game. Now, James Windeler, narrative director at Guerrilla Games, spoke to Games Industry at Summer Games Fest in June about the identity of the game and who it’s aimed at.
“We are very careful about the projects that we take on and we’re very guarded about the Horizon franchise and protective of it,” Windeler said. “But at the same time, we saw this as an opportunity to break our own rules. It’s a chance for us to have a lot of fun with elements of the franchise that we love, so we can poke fun and really shake things up.
“It is inspired by Horizon: Zero Dawn. You will notice iconic scenes from the first game, and Aloy’s search for her mother is the heart of story that evolves into an adventure with higher stakes. But it isn’t a one-to-one mapping of the first game. It draws from it. It’s not a re-telling. It’s not a parody. There are lots of nods and references to Horizon, but you don’t have to be a Horizon fan for the humour to hit. It’s meant to be much broader than that.”
Naturally, any LEGO-based game is going to be geared towards younger players but Guerrilla Games was keen to make sure that this audience wasn’t the only market for the game.
“We wanted it to appeal to a younger audience with silliness and slapstick and more visual comedy, with dressing up as bananas and that sort-of thing,” Windeler adds. “But then, there is also the more sophisticated self-referential humour that is characteristic of the LEGO movies where it makes fun of itself and the storytelling conventions in general.”
That’s a tough line to follow for an IP with such dark themes as the original Horizon Adventures. However, Windeler maintains that the team has found ways to keep the identity of Horizon Adventures and blend it with the lightness that LEGO brings.
“We have tried to keep as much of the story as possible,” Windeler said. “A lot of what happens in the world, like the destruction of the old world… that’s a pretty heavy theme for an eight-year-old. So we needed to find ways to keep that present in the story because it is essential to Horizon.
“But it is also not something we leaned on. You won’t find some of those devastating reveals from the first game, like those corporate masterminds dead around the table or anything like that. There are moments from the first game that packs a really heavy emotional punch, that we’ve found, I think, a very good way to represent faithfully, but undercut them with comedy that keeps things light-hearted.
“This stuff is present, but it’s certainly not surface. This is a much simpler version, but it has a lot of echoes from the original.”
LEGO Horizon Adventures arrives on PS5, PC and Nintendo Switch sometime in 2024, with an exact release date yet to be confirmed.
Support the work that Brick Fanatics does by buying your LEGO sets using our affiliate links. Thank you!
Author Profile
- I write about all the very best fandoms – and that means LEGO, of course. Spending so much time looking at and talking about LEGO sets is dangerous for my bank balance, but the LEGO shelves are thriving. You win some, you lose some.
Latest entries
Latest19/09/2024‘Just another cost-cutting measure’: Inside the reactions to LEGO’s building instructions survey
January 2025 sets19/09/2024Official listings finally appear for LEGO Animal Crossing 2025 sets
News19/09/2024Column: It’s a good time to be a woman in LEGO and Formula 1
News19/09/2024LEGO takes down short-lived building instructions survey
