Minecraft Legends on PC
The Minecraft IP is so ubiquitous at this level that it nearly feels prefer it’s too huge to fail. Initially billed as a sandbox-style recreation with surprisingly in-depth mining and constructing mechanics, Minecraft has since expanded its scope to embody numerous different genres, deepening its maintain on its viewers and the gaming world at massive. Minecraft Legends is the IP’s newest foray into one more new style, an experiment to see the way it fares within the RTS area.
Whereas real-time technique video games have by no means precisely been in my wheelhouse, Minecraft Legends offered itself as a welcoming, accessible entry level into the style. Framed as a bedtime story about myths and folklore, Minecraft Legends is ready in a time earlier than the unique recreation, the place the Overworld is way more peaceable than you may bear in mind it. Villagers lived largely in peace, till these cute little piglet enemies –aptly named Piglins– began displaying up and inflicting all types of hassle.
Minecraft Legends includes a story marketing campaign that you would be able to take pleasure in solo or in co-op, in addition to a PvP mode the place you possibly can interact in 4v4 battles as you attempt to reinforce your defenses whereas taking down the enemy base. Most of my time was spent within the marketing campaign in the course of the evaluation interval, which did an excellent job of getting me acquainted with all of the core mechanics I wanted to be taught to succeed.
Your hero can swing a sword to manually assault enemies, however most of your time shall be spent spawning numerous forms of golems –wooden, stone, moss, simply to call a couple of–and directing them to do a lot of the heavy-lifting for you. Wooden golems are nice for partaking in direct fight with enemies, stone golems excel at destroying constructions, whereas the moss golems help your military by offering therapeutic to maintain everybody alive. You’ll unlock extra golem sorts as the sport progresses and also you achieve entry to much more assets, however for probably the most half, you’ll at all times be summoning golems and trying to direct them to take down enemies effectively.
Issues get a little bit extra advanced when you begin fortifying your personal base defenses as properly. Every time the Piglins assault, you’ll want to strengthen villages by constructing constructions like archery towers, partitions, ramps, and different fortifications to maintain the enemies out.
I ought to word that Minecraft Legends isn’t precisely a recreation that lends itself properly to solo play; throughout my time with the marketing campaign, I largely performed by it alone and shortly discovered myself getting overwhelmed by simply how a lot there was to micromanage. You solely have a restricted time to organize earlier than the Piglins arrive, and I at all times discovered myself struggling to get all of the partitions up, arrange towers, get my spawners able to summon my golem military, and get into place in order that I may begin choosing off the Piglins.
Not solely that, however issues begin to get fairly chaotic as soon as the combating really begins. You’re consistently juggling what your golems are doing and maintaining a tally of your defenses to ensure the Piglins don’t get by. Issues get further chaotic when the sport throws in an additional goal or two so that you can accomplish on prime of attempting to maintain your hero and golems alive. It additionally doesn’t assist that the controls aren’t all that easy even on PC; I’d discovered it to be a little bit of a problem having to micromanage my golems and slowly ship them into completely different instructions to cowl extra floor, whereas additionally guaranteeing that I had the suitable golem sorts for the varied targets I needed to perform.
All of that is to say, Minecraft Legends is infinitely higher with a good friend or two. I’d managed to hop right into a handful of multiplayer periods, and that is the place the sport actually shines. With the ability to cut up up the workload between a staff of 4 gamers makes all the things really feel a lot extra environment friendly, and also you by no means really feel such as you’re overwhelmed with too many issues to care for. The bottom fortification course of additionally turns into way more intense, as you’ve extra time to correctly plan and set your traps, creating much more fascinating challenges on your opponents to beat.
Minecraft Legends additionally shakes issues up with a day/night time cycle, the place Piglins change into even deadlier as soon as the solar goes down. They begin showing in droves, and stronger Piglin sorts additionally begin spawning, forcing you to rethink your technique should you’re planning on exploring the Overworld at night time. I used to be initially apprehensive concerning the Piglins being the one enemies you’d struggle within the recreation, however they’re so diversified in sort, and the variability in targets and completely different constructions you need to take down whereas attacking a base make it so that you just’re at all times encountering recent challenges.
I suppose I hoped that the marketing campaign can be higher suited to a solitary expertise, as I’ve usually gravitated in the direction of technique video games the place I used to be solely chargeable for how properly or how poorly I did, primarily based on the choices I used to be making as an alternative of how properly I navigated the sport controls.
General, Minecraft Legends is an easy, but efficient introduction to the RTS style for newcomers like myself. Whereas I don’t essentially see myself sinking a ton of time into the sport going ahead –primarily as a result of RTS video games nonetheless aren’t my factor– I do respect Mojang’s effort in increasing the Minecraft universe and experimenting with completely different genres to see how artistic they’ll get with the IP. Barely janky controls apart, Minecraft Legends is a strong journey to expertise with buddies, and it’ll preserve you occupied for hours on finish. Simply don’t go in anticipating a ton of single-player content material you possibly can take pleasure in by yourself time.
Reviewer: Zhiqing Wan | Copy offered by Writer.
Execs
- Enjoyable, accessible entry level into the RTS style.
- Multiplayer is actually enjoyable.
- The Piglins make for excellent foes, and the missions at all times really feel sufficiently recent.
Cons
- Controls could be a little wonky, particularly should you’re taking part in solo.
- Talking of “solo”, the sport solely actually shines when you’ve got three different buddies to play it with.
Launch Date
April 18, 2023
Developer
Mojang Studios, Blackbird Interactive
Writer
Xbox Recreation Studios
Consoles
PS4, PS5, Xbox, Swap, PC
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