Did you know the creators of mega hit mobile games Adventure of Alto And Alto’s Odyssey released their first 3D open-world game in May? It’s true, and it reigns. So why have you probably never heard of it? Unfortunately, Laya’s Horizon is the latest victim of the muddy mobile marketplace.
Netflix has published the game on iOS and Android, which means it can only be played if you log into the app with active Netflix credentials. However, that’s also the good news! If you already have a Netflix login, this brilliant game is essentially free.
Let me repeat that word “brilliant.” Laya’s Horizon applies the Alto aesthetic to a mountainous island. You whiz off the cliffs wearing a cape like a wingsuit. With two fingers on the touchscreen you can quickly steer the character through mine shafts and under bridges.
I was admittedly a bit skeptical while loading Laya’s Horizon. Most sprawling open-world designs don’t match me spending a few minutes here and there on my smartphone. And how can a mobile game from a relatively small team do something new to a genre that has been the bread and butter of big-budget console gaming for over a decade?
Developer Snowman cleverly solves this problem by working smarter, not harder, than its contemporaries. Laya’s Horizon is, in fact, a limitless series of flights along its huge mountain. The trick lies in where – and how – the game starts.
I think it helps to think of the card as a pizza. Imagine you are an ant, standing in the middle of a sliced pizza, and each slice of this pizza has different toppings: one has pepperoni, another has mushrooms, another pineapple, and so on. From your ant-sized POV, you look around and see half a dozen pizza slices. Rotating 360 degrees shows you every flavor option. But the farther you get from the center of the pie, the bigger each piece gets, spreading with the expanding circumference. Shoot the slice of pepperoni and you’ll soon be surrounded by greasy meat and the rest of the pizza slices will disappear into the horizon.
That is how Laya’s Horizon works: You stand on top of the mountain in the middle of the island and see hints of biomes, such as a swamp, snowy slopes and a busy village. Hover into any biome and it expands further and further as you travel, until suddenly you find yourself in a vast stretch of dense forest.
Image: Snowman/Netflix
What do you do in the game? Just sliding, in its different forms. The game always offers three new objectives (such as flying near 30 trees or boosting for 10 seconds) that improve your level once you complete it; this in turn unlocks new capes with different flight styles. Fly dangerously close to the ground, buildings or trees and you’ll earn sparks to spend on the aforementioned boosts. And those boosts, along with gusts of wind criss-crossing the map, will help you reach new landing points, from which you can start your next run – or just catch your breath on your way to ocean level.
Laya’s Horizon is primarily a chill-out game. All there really is to do is have a good time. And now that you know it exists, you can!