As you explore the caverns, tend to your business, and keep yourself busy mining, three energetic god-like beings emerge from below to fight the war against the invading Piglins. pull you out I didn’t sign up for this, but at least it’s what you do while your pork chops are cooking.The characteristic creativity that Minecraft players are known for is why they chose you. You have the imagination needed to lead this new world to victory. It’s a shame, then, that Minecraft Legends doesn’t let you do much with it.
Like Minecraft Dungeons, in Legends you play the role of a silent hero who ventures into a new world to save defenseless villagers. Only this time, he leads his army on horseback (or on tigers and parrots) to attack enemy forts and attempt to destroy his portals in the enemy Nether. Gather resources, build spawners to summon soldiers, create ramps to reach otherwise inaccessible locations, Minecraft core his gameplay Combine his looping with distinctive RTS elements . Rinse and repeat until all Nether portals are destroyed, all three Piglin Warlords are dead, and the world is saved. It’s easy?
One of the biggest problems with strategy games is that they can be overwhelming for newcomers. You’re usually bombarded with different unit types, important buildings, countless resources, and other stat-heavy, jargon-filled mechanics, reading walls of text to figure out, and playing for dozens of hours. need to do it. When I first played StarCraft 2, it was the biggest barrier I faced entering the genre, but Minecraft Legends threw it all out the window.
Legends is easy if you know Minecraft or any other survival game. Wood and stone are your starting materials, and you can get them by chopping down trees and mining rocks. whereverIt’s very easy to get started. This is something the genre has desperately needed over the years. We rely on them, and they are very easy to find, so we don’t get bogged down in looking for complicated materials in hard-to-reach places. One of the biggest problems strategy games have with onboarding new players is that he ends up with a confusing spreadsheet of intricate details: by the end of the entire campaign, the codex isn’t full, There is only one toolbar for him, Materials.
The downside is that after a six-hour campaign that masters everything, there’s nowhere else to go. All forts destroyed and nothing new to try in PvP. Monthly mode has everything you’ve used dozens of times already. Endgame is a peaceful, empty world, so no further progress in the game is possible. Ironically, many miss the reason why they stick to strategy and survival games. Defeating the ender dragon is the way to “win” in Minecraft, but there’s a lot more to do after that. In Legends, you may be able to wipe out the world of Netherrack and build more fortresses, but what’s the purpose? It’s become a shallow experience where the only solution is to be challenged and use the same limited set of tools over and over again.
Attacking Piglin Keeps is tedious and fast repetitive, even though after defeating the horde there are still battles left in the world to fight. He has only one way to approach them. Build ramps, send in troops, withdraw, gather more troops, return to ramps, and send in new troops. Repeat this over and over until you reach and close the nether portal. Villages come with a number of different defenses that can be built in different ways, synergizing with each other and working with your army to keep things fresh. Keep attacks are more limited as you can’t build unless you cure netherrack, but even then it’s usually not worth the hassle as it’s easier to send 10 creepers to self-destruct to break down walls. Like the game, I quickly sidestep the ethics of using them as soldiers.
The mundane nature of leading an attack is only exacerbated by how awkward the ramp placement is. Instead of being placed block by block, they stretch and distort to wrap around the environment, but this often causes the camera to fly in different directions when it hits something it doesn’t like. The camera did not have a ramp and was often knocked off the ledge while trying to install it. Still, the ramps are only made of wood that can withstand lava, and just as Minecraft itself works well, you’re missing out on opportunities to utilize other resources in different scenarios.
This is a broader symptom of how limited your Legends options are. On the one hand, we seek to emulate the creative freedom of Minecraft, but on the other hand, we want to appeal to strategy novices by making the genre more intuitive and accessible than ever before. While it succeeds in the second goal, it’s incredibly simplistic as there’s very little to unlock and play with. After a few hours you’ll learn the ins and outs of each tool until you’ve exhausted most of what the game has to offer and crack the meta that makes the rest of the little things redundant. I’m learning, but after spending 6 hours in Legends, I was already tired of using the same walls and towers inside and out.
Much like dungeons, longevity definitely comes from DLC, but it ultimately makes Minecraft Legends feel like an incomplete experience. Those unfamiliar with the genre won’t be overwhelmed, but those looking to enjoy a new strategy game are left with little else. And if you come here for Minecraft’s signature sandbox vibe, you’ll be disappointed because the well runs dry quickly.
3.5/5, reviewed on Xbox Series X. The review code was provided by the publisher.