Let’s find out together, in this dedicated review, what are the strengths and weaknesses of Minecraft Legends, the new iteration belonging to the most profitable franchise of recent years
The Minecraft Phenomenon has generated and still generates billions in turnover, but what is easy to understand is not only the ease of use of the Mojang title, how easily this is malleable towards very different genres and sub-genres. If, therefore, in recent times we have seen Minecraft Story Mode and Minecraft Dungeons arrive, two excellent alternatives for fans of Mojang cubes, here we want to tell you about Minecraft Legends which transcends the classic adventure and is placed in the realm of strategic.
Un RTS? Un RTS! | Review Minecraft Legends
Minecraft Legends is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X | If and, considering that Mojang is owned by Microsoft, It will not seem strange to read that the game is available for free for all Game Pass subscribers, both on Xbox and on PC. We have lost several dozen hours in the world invaded by the Piglins designed for this adventure and we are finally having our say with this review of Minecraft Legends!
If, in the magical world of Minecraft, the main danger to avoid are the infamous and explosive Creepers, in Legends our main opponent will be the Piglin population. The rosy and very cute inhabitants of the Nether, once neutral, have this time decided to invade the Overworld to conquer it with blows on the teeth (for our protagonist and the local population). To ask for our Hero’s help are three entities, Foresight, Knowledge and Action, creators of the Overworld and protectors of all populations.
Pure Simplicity | Minecraft Legends review
A rather obvious narrative device that lends itself to numerous banalities, but which for this very reason fully reflects the soul of everything that has always been Minecraft: simple, intuitive and damn easy to fully understand. All of this is obviously also reflected in the play sector. Minecraft Legends boasts a gameplay in which, finally, the tutorials are useful, functional and explain the varied game mechanics really well. The result? The game is enjoyable from the very first battles.
Basically, Minecraft Legends is an RTS with the protagonist controllable in the third person in a completely free way. Our hero has, from the very beginning, a horse with which to move quickly in the game world, vast and featuring all the biomes that Minecraft fans will already be very familiar with, with the classic aesthetic of the Mojang franchise (always captivating). His being a real-time strategy is therefore expertly mixed with some more action elements, through which the Hero interacts with the game world and draws his sword to help his pawns.
No chess | Minecraft Legends review
There are therefore no chessboards, but only a good idea of positioning both of the main character, that attention is not an immortal and invincible pawn, on the contrary, and of the pawns that we will create during the adventure. We will fully understand all this in the first few hours of tutorials, in-depth and varied, in which we will be explained how to create pawns, how to collect resources and how to build everything that can defend us from the attacks of the Piglins. After that, you will be on your own.
Time in Legends flows exactly as it did in the original Minecraft: at night the Piglins will attack our outposts through a series of hordes that we will have to be able to manage to the best of our ability. And to do this, we will need resources and pawns to use during the day to protect and organize ourselves. If the attack of a horde of Piglins is not foreseen the following night, we will instead be able to use the day to accumulate resources or destroy one of the enemy bases, thus moving on to the counterattack.
Dynamism and experimentation | Minecraft Legends review
A simple, intuitive, but very dynamic gameplay that pushes the player to experiment with what he has, in that exact moment, unlocked and available. To complicate things a bit, especially with parents who love the genre, but not Minecraft, a rather uncomfortable command scheme certainly intervenes when compared to other exponents of the genre. We’re not exactly talking about the mapping of the commands on the controller, which is certainly more intuitive than one might think (even if, we admit, we craved the mouse and keyboard initially), but the management of the pawns turns out to be very rigid, especially in the first hours.
Our Hero will only be able to command the pawns close to him and, of course, the AI of the same gets confused or, perhaps, is not so advanced as to group them once a task given by the player is finished. This means that we often found ourselves wandering among crowds of enemies trying to recall the units that were dispersed in the various camps, without them trying to rejoin us. Some details that however undermine the overall gaming experience, because we found ourselves having to repeat some sections that were also quite tedious.
All the units and buildings that we will unlock during the Campaign will then be usable in the PvP component which, although we have explored little, we have understood to be definitely the fulcrum of the production. Also interesting is the choice of the developers to insert the Piglins also in this context as an element of distraction and damage for all the players involved in the clashes. Too bad there is no in-game way to communicate in PvP battles: the integration of a chat would have been very useful.
Good fun!
We close this atypically short Minecraft Legends review by emphasizing once again that the game is available on Game Pass. This prompts us to tell you to try it first hand and see if it can capture you with its simple and effective gameplay, albeit not free from imperfections and defects, especially in its PvP component (playing with friends is definitely more fun than Adventure mode). If not… well, you tried anyway!
Minecraft Legends is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X | S. Let us know what you think of the title below in the comments, we will continue to keep you updated with all the gaming and tech themed news, guides and reviews! And if you are interested in game keys at advantageous prices, we suggest you take a look at the Kinguin catalogue!
Plus points
- An all in all simple and intuitive RTS
- The Minecraft aesthetic is always captivating
- The controller works better than we thought
Points against
- Trivial narrative
- AI of tokens often flawed
- Rigidity in the command scheme