Since last Thursday, fans of Horizonone of the most recent licenses video game from Playstationcan rediscover this universe from a new angle, the kind that hurts when you walk on it barefoot. This is what Lego Horizon Adventures.
If you don’t know HorizonHere’s the deal: in the United States In the thirty-first century, humans live as tribesmen, threatened by machines that have become aggressive. Two games, Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden Westdeveloped by Guerilla Games, have offered Sony two successes for the Playstation 4 and 5. By mid-2023, they had sold 24 and 8 million copies respectively. Lego Horizon Adventuresavailable on Playstation 5, Nintendo Switch and PCoffers an offbeat revisit of the first episode.
The Lego tone with a “Horizon” skin
Lego first looked at this franchise for its universe, assures Frédéric Roland Andre, designer for the brand. “It corresponded exactly to our values: a super-strong heroine, a world where nature is very present, robots that looked as if they’d been made in Lego before being digitized.” After the success of a set to reproduce the diplodocus-like Long-Neck, one of the game’s iconic mechanical enemies, the idea of a game emerged. “It’s something we haven’t shared much until now, but indeed the first machines from Horizon Zero Dawn were made in Duplo before being modeled,” confides Stéphane Varrault. The collaboration continues, as another Lego set was announced this week to complement the game’s release. Lego Horizon Adventures is faithful to the brick game. “We approved all the constructions to make sure everything was feasible in real life,” insists Frédéric Roland André.
But it wasn’t all plain sailing when it came to transforming a serious open-world adventure game into a family game. Stéphane Varrault admits: “Obviously, the tone has to be just right. You have to find the same themes and characters in the game, but you also have to see them through a different prism. The film The Great Adventure Lego was a big influence from this point of view, with writing that can speak to both younger children and adults.”
For me, the Lego tone is simply humor,” says Frédéric Roland André. It’s fantastic to see Aloy [l’héroïne de Horizon] happy at last, having fun, getting into mischief. I think that’s what makes it accessible to a younger audience.” The game, open to co-op, available on Nintendo Switch, and with numerous difficulty modes, does indeed seem to be aimed at casual gamers, or parents with their children. The open world has been replaced by a linear level system, but confrontations retain the system of weak points to target on enemies that made the fighting of Horizon original.
A strategy of renewal
Lego’s latest foray into video games is the culmination of a thirty-year strategy. At the end of the 1990s, the company recorded its first financial losses. At the same time, for the first time in its history, Lego was putting its bricks into video games, initially with in-house creations (such as Adventures on Lego Islandin 1997), followed by Lego Star Wars in the 2000s.
And if the brand is so interested in video games, it’s because “it’s one of the places where today’s children are,” says Frédéric Roland André. In December 2023, the brand teamed up with one of the most-played video games to launch Lego Fortnitea survival game that can be launched from the same account as the famous battle royale. “The aim is to be able to reach a wider audience with the experience of creativity and fun that Lego offers,” explains Frédéric Roland André. On the other hand, brick sets are aimed at gamers and nostalgic fans, with kits set in the world of Zelda and Mario, Minecraft or Sonic.
But Lego isn’t done yet. Since the early 2010s, the company has stepped up its audiovisual productions: two original films, as well as a film Lego Batman, Piece by Piecea Lego biopic about Pharell Williams, Ninjagoa 15-season animated series, and a host of other more confidential works. The company also has a board game and is preparing a live-action film for the future. In its 2023 annual report, Lego announced a 2% increase in sales over the previous year, to DKK 65.9 billion, or around €8.8 billion. Between nostalgia and the desire to practise a manual activity, brick play is appealing to millennials, both for their children and for themselves. In short, the world has not seen the last of bricks.