Overall - 85%
85%
Official Score
While the tactical options are more limited when playing solo, Minecraft Legends is a blast to play. Pick it up if you are a Minecraft fan or if you just want to have fun playing a chill game with a friend.
After being announced less than a year ago, Mojang Studios and Blackbird Interactive’s Minecraft Legends arrives on Xbox and PC. Is the spinoff release worth a try, or should you stick with the OG?
Minecraft Legends Review
Minecraft Legends begins with an invasion by the Piglins. They quickly take over the land, leaving the villagers defenseless. However, the protectors of the land – Action, Knowledge, and Foresight – quickly set off to find you for aid. When you are located, you are mining away in a cavern as they explain why you are the perfect person to save the world. You then make your character, and the game gets underway.
After a brief tutorial, the game truly opens up. Piglins have set up various camps and portals to keep spawning and raiding, with players tasked with putting a stop to the portals while protecting villagers. To do this, you can build structures and summon golems to aid in combat, providing a surprisingly tactical slant.
One can only spawn 20 golems to start, but this can be upgraded later as one upgrades their base. This is then broken down between tank golems, ranged damage golems, golems that charge enemies, and healing golems. That’s not a bad conversion, but when you add Zombies, Skeletons, and Creepers, you will have to make some hard choices.
Each unit has its strengths and weaknesses, but there are other factors to consider. One can only command so many units at once solo; while great for pincer attacks or flanking, it would be nice to have our more than 40 units charge the portal. Solo, you have to run to the units and then command them to charge. In co-op, everyone can control their own contingent of golems. This review was mostly done in single-player, but things truly shine in co-op.
As for the building, there are many defenses, traps, towers, and weapons/ramps to help you get the edge on enemy camps. The villages are pre-built, but you can put down other buildings and walls to protect them. If you ignore a village, the enemy will take over and players will have to reclaim it. The reward for having a town comes in the form of free daily resources. Having enough archer towers and walls will keep most towns safe, but always check to be sure.
The Piglin portals that you need to destroy are all very well protected. You usually have a gate, multiple archer towers, massive walls, some sort of killzone or maze to die in numerous times, and plenty of Piglins. Sometimes the portals are protected by a shield, tasking players with destroying special buildings to weaken them. Other times there will be a boss, and defeating it automatically eliminates the portal. It can get a bit grindy, especially with bosses having so much HP.
Minecraft Legends also started making me build ramps to climb up to the portals – which wasn’t as fun. Your little golem units don’t path very well, meaning trying to cross bridges results in some falling off. To top it off, they always seem to have a large unit or something that can push your soldiers off the cliff. They know it’s a problem and use it to actively hinder you. Again, this might be a better thing in co-op, because one isn’t running around trying to gather all units.
I’m starting to see a new trend in crafting games, which I like. Sons of the Forest let you use Kelvin to gather resources for you, and Minecraft Legends lets you put down a box, which allows little fairies called Allays to gather everything for you. It is the smoothest, least intrusive gathering system I’ve used in a while, and I hope to see more of it in the industry.
There aren’t really many side quests outside of helping the Zombies, Skeletons, and Creepers. However, the overworld does have various towers and other points of interest that will reward you with rare resources. The main collectible for me was the “First” golems. These are unique giant golems that deal a ton of damage. Reviving them takes a lot of resources but prove to be well worth it.
I didn’t run into any tech problems, bugs, or frame drops while playing.
While the tactical options are more limited when playing solo, Minecraft Legends is a blast to play. Pick it up if you are a Minecraft fan or if you just want to have fun playing a chill game with a friend.
