Anyone who followed the Bethesda Direct at the beginning of the year or is a big Minecraft fan may have noticed a small new multiplayer from the universe that enriches the successful voxel concept with real-time strategy. This is Minecraft Legends and it’s already on April 18th for PlayStation, Switch, Xbox and PC including Game Pass and Crossplay on the release plan. But what exactly is in store for you?
To find out, I went to the Microsoft Office in Berlin. As you can see in the video above, I was not only allowed to test the campaign and the PvP mode with other players on site, but also with them Anna Wendelin (User Experience Director) and Kevin Brace (Narrative Director) from Mojang Studios to talk about the game. They told me that Mojang is collaborating with Blackbird Interactive (Hardspace: Shipbreaker, Homeworld 3) for the strategy portion. They also gave me interesting insights into why you need Melodies and Allays to collect resources in Legends, and why they want to make strategy more accessible to a wider audience.
What particularly impressed me about Minecraft Legends was the controls, which work extremely well on the console. Furthermore, I really enjoyed the PvP, because here it’s really about skilfully dividing resources, building construction and exploration among each other and taking effective action against the enemy base. Of course, you can’t count on another StarCraft in this title because the individual elements have been simplified. Nevertheless, the symbiosis of Minecraft and real-time strategy works.
Precisely because the campaign prepares you so well for multiplayer, I can warmly recommend it to get started. It not only shows important basics, but also offers a foretaste of the different biomes, upcoming units and buildings. In the single player, the little ones take hold piglins Allied bases, which gives you a little time pressure that you might not otherwise be used to from Minecraft. After all, it’s not about implementing your ideas creatively, but about learning or developing strategies that you can then use effectively against your opponents in PvP.
The story in the campaign, on the other hand, was negligible. This is obviously aimed at a young target group and uses a frequently seen, broken down heroic story. Despite this devaluation and the fact that Legends is significantly more colorful than its predecessor, I didn’t feel deterred by the overall package. The approach of opening up strategy games to a larger player base is interesting and enjoyable. However, this combination also seems to focus on a young target group, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be fun for older people at the same time.
All in all, Minecraft Legends is a successful RTS, which can seem very simplified at first, but turns out to be an independent strategy game with a lot of Minecraft personality at the latest in PvP. Obviously, a lot of heart and soul went into the Legends franchise, which is not only noticeable in the look, but also in the small peculiarities of the game: be it the small piglins, the allied creepers, biomes or small melodies that the protagonist repeats over and over again trills. I’ve had a good time with the game and am now very excited for the campaign co-op that we haven’t had a chance to try yet.
