Minecraft Legends Review – RTS-Lite

Minecraft Legends on PC

The Minecraft IP is so ubiquitous at this level that it nearly feels prefer it’s too massive 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 varied different genres, deepening its maintain on its viewers and the gaming world at giant. Minecraft Legends is the IP’s newest foray into one more new style, an experiment to see the way it fares within the RTS house.

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 far more peaceable than you would possibly keep in mind it. Villagers lived largely in peace, till these cute little piglet enemies –aptly named Piglins– began exhibiting up and inflicting all kinds of hassle.

Minecraft Legends encompasses a story marketing campaign that you would be able to get pleasure from 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 through the overview interval, which did an excellent job of getting me acquainted with all of the core mechanics I wanted to study to succeed.

Your hero can swing a sword to manually assault enemies, however most of your time will probably be spent spawning varied varieties 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 assist your military by offering therapeutic to maintain everybody alive. You’ll unlock extra golem varieties as the sport progresses and also you acquire 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 bit extra advanced when you begin fortifying your individual base defenses as properly. Each 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 will not be precisely a recreation that lends itself properly to solo play; throughout my time with the marketing campaign, I largely performed by means of it alone and shortly discovered myself getting overwhelmed by simply how a lot there was to micromanage. You solely have a restricted time to arrange 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 might begin selecting off the Piglins.

Not solely that, however issues begin to get fairly chaotic as soon as the combating really begins. You’re always juggling what your golems are doing and keeping track of your defenses to verify the Piglins don’t get by means of. Issues get additional chaotic when the sport throws in an additional goal or two so that you can accomplish on high of attempting to maintain your hero and golems alive. It additionally doesn’t assist that the controls aren’t all that clean 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 varieties for the assorted targets I needed to perform.

All of that is to say, Minecraft Legends is infinitely higher with a pal or two. I’d managed to hop right into a handful of multiplayer classes, and that is the place the sport actually shines. Having the ability to break up up the workload between a workforce of 4 gamers makes every thing 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 maintain. The bottom fortification course of additionally turns into far more intense, as you’ve gotten extra time to correctly plan and set your traps, creating much more attention-grabbing challenges to your opponents to beat.

Minecraft Legends additionally shakes issues up with a day/evening cycle, the place Piglins grow to be even deadlier as soon as the solar goes down. They begin showing in droves, and stronger Piglin varieties additionally begin spawning, forcing you to rethink your technique in case you’re planning on exploring the Overworld at evening. I used to be initially apprehensive in regards to the Piglins being the one enemies you’d battle within the recreation, however they’re so assorted in kind, and the range in targets and completely different constructions you must take down whereas attacking a base make it so that you simply’re at all times encountering contemporary challenges.

I suppose I hoped that the marketing campaign can be higher suited to a solitary expertise, as I’ve usually gravitated in direction of technique video games the place I used to be solely accountable for how properly or how poorly I did, based mostly on the choices I used to be making as an alternative of how properly I navigated the sport controls.

Total, 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 admire Mojang’s effort in increasing the Minecraft universe and experimenting with completely different genres to see how artistic they will get with the IP. Barely janky controls apart, Minecraft Legends is a strong journey to expertise with pals, and it’ll hold you occupied for hours on finish. Simply don’t go in anticipating a ton of single-player content material you possibly can get pleasure from by yourself time.

Reviewer: Zhiqing Wan | Copy offered by Writer.

Execs

• Enjoyable, accessible entry level into the RTS style.
• Multiplayer is absolutely enjoyable.
• The Piglins make for excellent foes, and the missions at all times really feel sufficiently contemporary.

Cons

• Controls could be a little wonky, particularly in case you’re taking part in solo.
• Talking of “solo”, the sport solely actually shines when you have three different pals to play it with.

Launch Date
April 18, 2023

Developer
Mojang Studios, Blackbird Interactive

Writer
Xbox Sport Studios

Consoles
PS4, PS5, Xbox, Swap, PC