MeinMMO editor Maik Schneider was enchanted by the ideas behind Minecraft Legends (PC, Xbox, PlayStation, Switch). A few hours later, he was happy to put the strategy game with action combat aside.
With the scurry factor and minion control, you’ve got me hooked right away. I love development games and let myself be persuaded to play any strategy game. I especially like Rimworld. This mix of “they do their thing” and direct control of the colonists – a perfect gameplay balance.
Accordingly, I was interested in Minecraft Legends. I’ve been playing with the colorful blocks longer than I’d like to admit here and found the concept of beating wild Piglins with a crazy army of Minecraft figures very exciting.
I was allowed to play the strategy game and spent around six hours playing Minecraft Legends, mostly in the campaign. Unfortunately I have to say that I didn’t have fun. And I think it was because of the heavy focus on multiplayer.
Here you will find a small description of the course of the game and an assessment of why I wasn’t as enthusiastic as I had hoped.
If you want to check out some gameplay, here is a edited video of the PvP mode that we received from the developers:
Minecraft Legends: Gameplay – Versus mode
More videos
Slaughter piglins, get better, slaughter more piglins
How is the game going? The gameplay of Minecraft Legends has little to do with the classic Minecraft, which incidentally was created in just one weekend.
There are two major game modes: campaign and versus mode. The campaign can also be played in co-op.
In the campaign I play in a large, colorful open world. The Piglins swarm out of the Nether into the overworld, terrorizing the peaceful villagers.
My task is to destroy the bases of the nasty invaders and bring back peace. For this I can create “Golems” at the beginning, gather them around me with a command and rush them to the enemies.
But also animals and other figures in the world follow my command and I attack with a sword myself.
However, some Piglin bases are still too strong for me, so I’ll take care of my fighting power first.
For this I should build certain buildings with which I can mine new raw materials or get skills. Unlike the original Minecraft, I don’t have to unpack the pickaxe myself.
I select an area with a specific resource and let my little helpers do the work. At first only stone and wood, later iron, coal or even redstone are added.
In addition to the resource helpers, I also have construction troops who construct buildings for me.
I can use it to expand villages, fortify them or place my own bases anywhere in the world. But I always place important buildings, such as those for the new raw materials or skills, close to my main base.
Before attacking an enemy base, it can be worth setting up your own base nearby. This is quick and easy to do. Within seconds, walls and turrets are erected and the spawners for my minions.
Gradually I get better buildings for attack and defense and my army becomes more and more colorful with new units. I hack every enemy base, liberate the overworld, and in between, cinematics tell me a story about how legendary and heroic I am.
The versus mode takes place on a smaller map and there is a base for each team. The Piglins also play along and attack from time to time. The aim is to destroy the enemy’s base.
The progress that I spend hours working on in the campaign is made much faster in versus mode. However, little has changed in the gameplay.
Wasted potential so that the balance is right
Why would less multiplayer have been better? The whole game felt like this to me: they thought it would be a cool idea to have multiple people controlling different minions, which would then choose a winner in epic, bustling battles. Sounds great in principle, doesn’t it?
But in practice we keep running back and forth because you can only control a few minions yourself. In the campaign there were 25 at the start, in versus mode there are only 10 at the start of the match. A building in the campaign increases the capacity to 40.
Why can’t I just control everything in sight and unleash a massive squad of nervous creepers, unerring skeletons, and limping zombies at the inevitable piglins?
Apparently they wanted to balance the co-op and PvP gameplay and give the action combat a bigger role. But that’s exactly why I didn’t enjoy it. Battles against enemy bases were monotonous, even with later tools.
Gameplay expands as you progress through the game with new friendly units and tools to attack and defend. In addition, other Piglin factions come into play, bringing in new enemies with fresh attack patterns.
That brings variety, but it takes far too long for some thrills to come into play. And that doesn’t last long.
I’m fundamentally convinced that a multiplayer mode enhances every game. But Minecraft Legends makes me think critically about that attitude.
The constant running went against the grain. The low Minion capacity anyway.
If four people coordinate perfectly, you can definitely have a lot of fun. But alone or in pairs it wasn’t fun, especially at the beginning.
In a game with minions on every corner and a large open world with friendly and enemy bases, why can’t I use a tactics map to automatically direct my allies to a destination, to defend or to attack?
Instead of finding a way to allow Minecraft Legends balanced co-op and PvP modes, it would have been better to have focused more on the strengths of such a game: the bustle factor and minion control.
Incidentally, we spoke to the developers at Gamescom 2022 if you are looking for more background information on the game: Minecraft as a strategy game – how is that supposed to work? The bosses talk about gameplay and co-op
If you have any questions about the game or an opinion, then leave a comment on the topic.