In Minecraft Legends you have to explore a dynamic world and resist the invasion of piglins, to fight which you can use different types of weapons and unique devices. During this adventure, you will come across a variety of biomes and a large number of secrets. Also in the world there are many resources that will help you build defenses and defeat your enemies.
Minecraft Legends review - a look at the RTS genre with a focus on a young audience
Butcher79
Minecraft Legends is a game that combines elements of adventure and real-time strategy. Despite its potential, it limits the player's freedom and control, which may disappoint those who expected more from Minecraft.
The game was developed by Mojang Studios and Blackbird Interactive and published by Xbox Game Studios. The game is scheduled to release on April 18, 2023 and will be available on Windows, Xbox X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4 and Switch platforms. The game will be available on Steam and Xbox Game Pass for £35/$40/€40.
As I survey the Piglin outpost, a plan of action forms in front of me. I create an army of zombies and send them into battle against the pigs to buy time. At the same time, a detachment of friendly vines is sent to a flank attack to the outpost. But my plans are ruined when I realize that my minions are stupid and can't handle the task. Many zombies fall down the stairs and burn in the lava pit, and creepers cannot find their way to the spawner and are killed by pigs.
Minecraft Legends is a strange mixture of real-time strategy and open world adventure. It is equally impressive and disappointing. The game could be great, but its flaws spoil the experience and prevent players from enjoying its potential.
Minecraft Legends offers a unique character control concept in the real-time strategy world. Instead of controlling a group of units, the player controls one character - the Hero, who can move around the world, gather allies and lead them to battle. The hero helps the Masters create their own idyllic Minecraft world, which is under threat from the forces of Piglins who want to subjugate the Overworld.
The player controls a Hero who is in the middle of an open world and has access to resources and allies. The player can order his allies to collect certain resources, such as wood and stone, while the Hero continues his journey. The map is divided into 15 different biomes that contain friendly villages and pig outposts. Every night, the three pig clans will expand their territories by building new outposts or attacking nearby villages. The hero and his allies must balance between attacking outposts and defending villages.
Overall, Minecraft Legends offers an interesting approach to controlling RTS games and combines elements of Minecraft with real-time strategy elements. The player is given the opportunity not only to control the character, but also to create their own strategy to achieve victory in the game.
Every time you play Minecraft Legends, the map in both campaigns and PvP matches are procedurally generated, creating a different experience for the game. Unfortunately, there are no more biomes to discover. Unit management in Minecraft Legends will be familiar to those who have played Tooth And Tail. You can summon different types of mobs by placing spawners and interacting with them. If you collect all the nearby mobs under your banner, then they will follow you. You can order them to attack in a certain direction, up to several meters away, or hold the position. Enabling banner mode gives additional options, such as targeting a specific enemy unit or building. At the beginning of the game, you only have two types of mobs: cobblestone golems, which are strong against buildings, and plank golems, which are good against pigs. Later, you will gain access to more types of spawners to summon creepers, zombies and skeletons, as well as new types of golems used to heal or fight ranged units.
I think the idea of controlling an army through your character in Minecraft Legends is quite interesting and can be a great option for young players who want to try something new in the real time strategy genre. But, despite the ease of operation and the convenience of displaying commands on the controller, I feel limited in my tactical options and strategies.
Traditional RTS games have more options for managing units on a grand scale, and I feel like this is missing from Minecraft Legends. Unfortunately, I didn't get the creative freedom I expected from a game called Minecraft. For example, building walls and towers around friendly villages to protect them from Piglins starts to seem like a repetitive and boring task after a few play sessions.
One of the main problems in this process is the limitation on the height of the walls, which can only be of a fixed height. In addition, walls can intercept projectiles fired by you from towers, and you cannot replace wall sections with gates. This means that in order to put up a gate, you either have to set it up ahead of time or spend a lot of time removing a wall section one tile at a time. I hope that in the future, the developers will improve the control system and add more opportunities for creative building and a variety of tactics in Minecraft Legends.
In Minecraft Legends, most of the buildings available for construction are defensive oriented. From walls and gates to arrow towers and carpenters who heal buildings, there is everything you need to defend your territory. However, when you start building, you notice that all buildings look the same. Despite the possibility of improving buildings using various materials, this does not give them individuality. In my opinion, this is not enough for a Minecraft-style game. Instead of gradually creating buildings block by block, players place ready-made buildings, depriving themselves of the opportunity for creativity and individual approach. It doesn't fit with what makes Minecraft such a great game. What a pity that the developers missed such an amazing opportunity for free expression.
Neutral mobs
The Minecraft world has neutral mobs like pigs, wolves, cats, llamas and even new mobs like badgers. Although you can force them to join your army, they are not as strong as your regular units, so it is often better to use zombies or skeletons to avoid wasting precious unit slots on lesser mobs. I quickly destroyed the pigs so as not to spend a lot of time protecting the villages. However, over the course of my 20 hour campaign playthrough, I most often just picked up units of the same type and led them on the attack to destroy key buildings. This tactic worked against the piglins, because their army recklessly pursued me, but could not do any damage. The only time I got into trouble was because my minions didn't obey my commands or because of poor pathfinding they bumped into each other in awkward positions.
While there is a way to get more precise control of your army through the banner mode, in practice this has proven to be incredibly difficult to accomplish in real time. I'm leaning towards zooming out to a tactical overview map in order to give orders to my units more intelligently.
In Minecraft Legends, you can find giant immortal golem minions that can be reactivated and used in combat against piglins. However, I spent too much time exploring the world due to various frustrations in building and combat. As a result, I discovered three new mounts, 1 new tower type and 4 unique special units called Firsts. The former will always be with you, respawning whenever they die. Unfortunately, none of these things are tied to specific biomes and are scattered all over the world. In Minecraft Legends, biomes seem like surface skin stretched over the world. The only reason to go to a particular biome is to collect the base resource there, which is needed to create more units and build improvements in the Well of Doom. But all these resources are scattered in clusters across all biomes, which does not stimulate exploration.
I believe that the developers could take fuller advantage of the game's connection to the original Minecraft. Instead, the game leans more towards real-time strategy with a focus on building and exploration rather than combat. Regardless, it's worth noting that some parts of the game have received an impressive polish. The animations look alive, the world is bright and welcoming, the cutscenes look great, and the voice acting is very well done. However, I can't say that I end a gaming session thinking, "Well, that was fun," which is a real sadness.
Future content
In future Minecraft Legends content, in addition to the campaign and PvP mode, the Lost Legends limited-time mode will be available, containing small scenarios for passing. Mojang plans to release one new Lost Legend every month. In addition, skins and other items can be purchased from the market through microtransactions. Personally, I tried to avoid using such purchases.
Unfortunately, I didn't get to fully experience Minecraft Legends' PvP mode, which Mojang says is key to the game's longevity. I only played a practice match against the AI base to get a feel for how it all works, but I didn't stay there for long. Although the developers claim that PvP can only be played 1v1, I believe that this can lead to frustration because the piglins start attacking your base just a minute after the start of the match. As a result, you are forced to defend and collect resources at the same time faster than in the campaign.
I'm sure playing PvP with friends can be fun, but I personally don't like it, especially after spending over 15-20 hours playing through the campaign. The map in PvP is too small, making scouting pointless. Instead, players will have to focus on building defenses and bases, as well as attacking the enemy's Well of Doom. Unit management in PvP proved to be significantly more difficult than in the PvE campaign, and I can imagine how difficult it can be against more experienced players who can't be lured into an endless game of duck-duck-goose around their base.
I strongly recommend that you take at least one ally with you when you play PvP, otherwise the game will quickly turn into a run to the base every 30 seconds to defend against enemy attacks. I think Minecraft Legends could be a lot better. Some aspects of the game seem boring and unoriginal, which greatly affects my enjoyment of the game. After all, this is Minecraft RTS! But what if I want to play as piglins or dig under the enemy base? Will not work. What about towers that can throw potions or lava? It would be great. What if I want to build an army of spiders so they can climb walls? Will not work. What if I want to build a multi-story base instead of a flat area? Why not?
Perhaps all this can be fixed in future updates, but it seems to me that the developers have limited themselves to the basics of Minecraft Legends. Adding new content and increasing difficulty won't solve the problem of awkward controls and lack of precision, which is what any RTS game needs to be great. I understand that this game is primarily aimed at a younger audience, perhaps as an entry point into the RTS genre, and in this it can be successful. If you can overcome the inconvenience of controls and accept that the tactics you will have to use may be less complicated than pressing the buttons required to execute them, and your minions will often kill themselves, and not follow your commands, and your bases will look the same... then you are obviously more patient than me, and you will surely enjoy Minecraft Legends. But even so, I'm not sure the game has enough solidity to keep players' attention. When you see one biome, one vehicle, one piglin outpost, and one well-defended base, you'll see everything Minecraft has to offer.
In Minecraft Legends you have to explore a dynamic world and resist the invasion of piglins, to fight which you can use different types of weapons and unique devices. During this adventure, you will come across a variety of biomes and a large number of secrets. Also in the world there are many resources that will help you build defenses and defeat your enemies.
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