We got early access to Mojang Studios and Blackbird Interactive’s new game: Minecraft Legends. Spoiler alert: you cannot mine or craft anymore. Not manually anyway.
Unlike the 12-year-old Minecraft which has always been a first-person action-survival game, Minecraft Legends is a Third-Person real time action-strategy game. When you first launch the game, you’re greeted by the introductory cutscene that explains the game’s narrative. After this, you get to pick the appearance of the character.
Once that’s decided, you can see the following game modes: Campaign mode, Player versus Player or PvP, and Lost Legends and Myths that provide monthly adventures.
Here’s the premise of the game: While your character is minding their own business in the OG Minecraft world, another Overworld is being invaded by Piglins. You are then summoned by the three Hosts of the world: Foresight, Knowledge and Action.
They will give you gifts that you’ll use in the game. The first item is the Legendary Lute that commands blue Allays which are the ones who collect and keep your resources for you and yellow Allays build structures and upgrades of your choice.
Another is the case called the Flames of Creation that summons Golems to fight by your side. The last gift is the Banner of Courage that allows you to Gather Golems and other allies to follow your commands and Direct them to charge in a direction that you point. This allows them to either attack enemies or structures that they’ll see in that path.
I say other allies because you can use this banner to call for help to the non-hostile creatures around you. These can be animals, villagers who can fight, and mobs like Zombies, Skeletons, and Creepers. That’s right – the common enemies in the Minecraft we know are potential allies in Minecraft Legends. Wolves you call to your aid can scout ahead for resources that your Allays can gather.
Once you’ve gathered enough resources, summoned Golems and called your allies to follow you, you can charge into battle and defend villages from getting raided and destroy outposts and enemy portals made by the Piglins.
As you progress through the story, you get access to new resources to gather, new Golems to summon, and new structures to build. There will also be a way to send a one mob or a group of mobs to specific targets called Advanced Direct. For example, you can send that group of Creepers you Gathered at enemy buildings to blow up on them.
It took some time for me to get used to the mechanics of the game but as I continued exploring the world, collecting materials, defending villages and destroying Piglin outposts, I slowly got used to everything with no issue.
Minecraft Legends also features multiplayer so can also have a party of up to a total of 4 players to fight alongside you in your campaign. The Lost Legends and Myths gamemode’s monthly adventure right now is called The Lost Pile where you and your party have to defend a village as mobs of Piglins spawn.
Think you mastered the gameplay? You can challenge other players in Minecraft Legends’s PvP mode. This can be either a 2v2, 3v3 or 4v4. Your tactics will be tested as you fight against other players from around the world in head-to-head combat. Players build structures to defend your base as you and your team try to take down the other side’s base.
It seems that it will be possible to buy cosmetics or other items such as the appearance of your character, the mount your character rides once the game officially releases.
To conclude, Minecraft Legends is an interesting take to the RTS genre. Though it took a while for me to get used to the gameplay mechanics such as commanding Golems and other mobs, I had a blast playing. All in all, it’s a fun game to play either solo or as a party. Minecraft Legends is now available on PC via Steam, Xbox X | S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4 and 5.
Learn more about Minecraft Legends through this link, or through their official help center.
