At first glance, it can be difficult to pinpoint just whatMinecraft Legendsis or what to expect from it. It has all the familiar elements that fans have come to expect fromMinecraft, including its resource-gathering and building gameplay core, blocky-but-beautiful landscapes, and procedurally generated underbelly that fuels the whole experience. But that is all simply the foundation of what Mojang considers to be an “action-strategy” game withMinecraft Legends.
“Action-strategy” is certainly a niche genre, with few titles to point to as pillars. As a flag-bearer of sorts for this smaller subset of games,Minecraft Legendswill have players wage war onThe Nether’s forcesand stand side-by-side with an army of classic mobs that they built up in a series of grand battles. Players will also spend plenty of time planning, building, and strategizing their war effort to save the Overworld from the invading Piglins, much in the same vein as popular RTS games likeCommand and Conquer.Minecraft Legendsattempts to do a lot with the influences that it’s taking from and manages to be a compelling action-strategy game in its own right, but it does feel like it could have done more with itsMinecraftfoundations.
RELATED:Minecraft Legends Interview: Dev Talks Campaign Details, PvP Matches, and More
LikeMinecraft Dungeonsbefore it,Minecraft Legendskeeps things light regarding the story. In short, the forces of The Nether have overrun the Overworld, and it’s up to the player character to unite the Overworld’s citizens in the fight against thePiglin invaders. The story’s cast is small and comprised of three main characters named Foresight, Action, and Knowledge, who aid the player with brief exposition and general warnings about what is coming next in the Piglin invasion. As always,Minecraftis about the story that players tell organically, andMinecraft Legendsdoes a great job of getting out of the player’s way, so they can focus on those emergent story-telling moments.
to stave off the Piglin, players will have to bring the fight right to the enemy’s bases by raising an army and creating an offensive front. There exists an almostMount and Blade: Warbandfeel toMinecraft Legends,as players travel the world and turn former enemies into friends in an attempt to recruit them to their ranks. Zombies, skeletons, and creepers are all available to the player once they help each faction defend their homesteads against the Piglin invaders. The whole process of uniting the Overworld against a common enemy is tons of fun and makes for an amusing twist on howMinecraftfansinteract with these once-dreaded mobs. It all comes together in a great way when the player puts this rag-tag army into action.
Moments like leading a huge charge against a Piglin base always feel like players are living out a scene from theLord of the Rings. Or in other instances, players will nervously hunker down at a village in preparation for an incoming attack, hoping that everything they built to fortify this village holds through the attempted Piglin raid. Moments like these are constant inMinecraft Legendsand regularly ground the player into the world without ever needing a narrator or NPC to tell players that the stakes are high.
RELATED:Minecraft Legends Dev Once Had a PVP Match Last Two Hours
As our time with the game progressed, we found ourselves genuinely caring about these now-familiar villages that we helped build, fortify, and defend day in and day out. All the while, we traveled between these towns and walked across old battlefields where the friends we made helped us take the fight to the Piglin bases. There aretimes inMinecraft Legendsthat felt truly epic in every sense of the word, and those instances are punctuated by moments that will make players feel proud and accomplished as they look back at the work they have put into saving the Overworld. It’s quite a gratifying game to play and especially so once the credits roll and players can reflect on their time with it.
In terms of strategy,Minecraft Legendsrelies on the franchise’s staple gameplay loop of resource gathering, crafting, and base-building to outwit the Piglin invaders. The Piglin are a crafty bunch, consisting of three different hordes featuring different enemy types and architecture styles that players must consider when planning an attack. Players won’t be approaching the Horde of the Spore’s towering spires the same way they would the Horde of the Bastion’s multi-walled citadels, forcing players to think creatively about how and where they build while also considering the strengths and weaknesses of their militias. Players win by building the right things at the right spots and sending the right mobs at the right enemies. Discovering what works and what doesn’t and getting into thestrategic groove ofMinecraft Legendsfelt as good as any other real-time strategy game would.
As in-game days go on and players fight back the Piglin hordes, The Nether’s invasion gradually begins to escalate. Bases get progressively more challenging to attack, and nighttime invasions grow longer with even more formidable enemies spawning at the tree lines.Minecraft Legends’gameplay loop, which consists of this constant back-and-forth of enemy escalation and player response, does a great job of keeping the game fresh and interesting throughout its first half. However, throughout the closing chapters, it felt likeMinecraft Legendshad exhausted everything it had to offer, and the game was coasting on what it had taught the player in its opening hours.
RELATED:Minecraft Legends Dev Reveals Portal Pile Game Mode, Post-Launch Plans
A lot of the core gameplay loop ofMinecraft Legendsboils down to building walls, making sure those walls don’t break, and then directing an army to destroy a base and kill a boss. While the core ofMinecraft’s traditional building and crafting mechanics are ingrained inLegends’DNA, it all felt very limited and like the development team could have dug deeper to make an even better strategy game. Once all the tools were unlocked and the full scale of the game became clear, there was a feeling thatLegendsmissed an opportunity to incorporate some ofMinecraft’s rich lineup of blocks, weapons, and Redstone mechanics to flesh out the game’s systems and create more things to build, see, do, and strategize over. All of this could have added layers of complexity and replayability in what feels like a very simple single-player experience.
Moreover,Minecraft Legendsalways felt like it was on the edge of growing its mechanics as players began to master them, but it never did. Players can’t actually build any structures that aren’t walls, gates, or ramps, andMinecraftstaples like its various Redstone contraptionsand terraforming are missing–effectively killing a lot of the imagination that the franchise is known for. Given what a traditionalMinecraftexperience is and how simply bringing up the nameMinecraftevokes thoughts of an endlessly playable platform where anything is possible, the limited scope ofLegendsfeels off.
RELATED:Minecraft’s Ever-Expanding World is Great News for Potential Legends DLC
However,Minecraft Legends' strategy mechanics do manage to flex their muscles in the game’sPvP offering. Multiplayer is where the game’s strategy elements shift from being a more leisurely affair into a frenzy of building and gathering where players engage in what is essentially a full-blown arms race between two teams. In our time with the multiplayer portion, we saw players strategize and develop metas as they quickly split up into roles. Some players were designated as resource gatherers, others designated as base-defenders, and others designated as general chaos-makers in a bid to stall the other team from making progress. Here, gears started to turn in ways that the single-player portion never inspired.
Suddenly, some of the more bland portions of the single-player, like the automated resource farming, became crucial to success as both teams worked like well-oiled machines in a race to build fortifications and destroy one another with everything they had. Learning how to divide and conquer as a team while planning strategies, both on the fly and long term, was a ton of fun–even if some balancing issues currently exist in PvP, like the dreaded Redstone Launcher.Minecraft Legends’ multiplayerwill undoubtedly evolve in the coming months, but it is in a good spot and a highlight of the whole package.
But in spite of its few shortcomings,Minecraft Legendsis still a bold and exciting new direction for a franchise that continues to stand the test of time. It’s a game that understands whyMinecraftis so compelling in the first place and then twists those elements into an action strategy experience that can be hard to put down. Its only missteps come from its limited scope and how it leaves players wanting more because its core gameplay loop is so good.Minecraft Legendsis approachable, captivating, and just a really good time.
Minecraft Legendsreleases on April 18 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. Game Rant was provided an Xbox code for the purposes of this review.
Minecraft Legends
Reviewed on Xbox Series X
InMinecraft Legends, you play as the hero! You might think that means you’ll be doing all the fighting, but actually: you’ll be doing all theleading.InLegendsyou’re not the only fighter, and in fact, your allies are better equipped to deal with the piglins than you are. Your task is to summon new friends and lead them in battle to defeat the rampaging piglins. You will have to defend villages, destroy piglin bases, and more to push back the piglins’ Nether corruption. Different allies have different strengths and weaknesses, which when used wisely can give you the edge in battle. In true Minecraft fashion, you must also verify that you don’t run out of resources, so that you can keep spawning allies and building defensive or offensive structures. Exploring the Overworld is also important: it’s how you meet new friends and discover new resources, and even treasure! Plus, you’ll get to experience a new Overworld each time you play through the campaign, because every playthrough generates a unique map.
