Mojang Studios is doing some exciting stuff with its Minecraft franchise. Rather than simply work on improving and adding to its blocky sandbox title, the studio is constantly looking to experiment with the franchise in new genres. First it was dungeon crawlers with Minecraft Dungeons, and now it’s taking on the real-time strategy series with Minecraft Legends. While Dungeons had a surprising level of depth, though, my initial impressions of Minecraft Legends left me feeling like it was a little lacking in this regard, instead seeking to offer an accessible, surface-level approach to the real-time strategy experience.
In a hands-off presentation, I was given a look at the single-player campaign, as well as the multiplayer PvP mode, and that lack of depth spanned across both of these aspects.
First off was the campaign, which Mojang defines as a procedurally-driven, action strategy experience. It’s narratively-driven, with voice-acted ‘Hosts’ that have invited you into their realm currently under siege from the Piglin mob. It’s down to you to fight back against them and you’ll do that by scouring the world for resources, using these to recruit the help of Mobs to reclaim villages across the world, and upgrade your various units and structures as you take on increasingly well-defended Piglin outposts.
Upgrades are purchased with Prismarine, which you’ll acquire by saving villages and defeating Piglin outposts, with more rewarded for more challenging encounters. The more resources you have and the more Prismarine you have, the more upgrades you can unlock and the more complex structures you can build. As this was a look at the early hours of the game, we didn’t get a full idea of what these upgrades may entail, but we did see a Redstone Launcher in the PvP side of things that acts as an enormous trebuchet to really launch a siege on your opponents’ base.
As is standard fare in strategy titles, each unit type has its strengths and weaknesses. Plank Golems, for example, are good for destroying Piglin units, whereas Stone Golems are good for destroying structures. Using these two units, among others will enable you to free villagers from cages and defeat the set amount of Piglins loitering at each village in order to save it. Once you’ve cleared out the Piglin forces, you’ll then need to be defensive structures such as walls and towers to prevent the Piglins from reclaiming it in a siege, which can apparently happen at any time.
Mojang’s not shied away from really leaning into the Minecraft world here. Alongside the Piglins and Villagers, players will also encounter a number of beloved mobs as well as a new ones. Creepers, Zombies and Skeletons will be accompanied by Badgers, Llamas and Chickens, ensuring that it retains that familiar feeling fans would come to expect from the Minecraft world, while offering up some new creatures to put to use in your quest to stop the big bad Piglins. The Creepers, Zombies and Skeletons aren’t your enemies this time around, though. After the Piglins block out the sun across the realm, they’ll realize the world is in trouble and will band together with you to help fight back. You’ll be able to spawn them, and create spawners for them as well, though the specific strengths and weaknesses of each mob type wasn’t shared during the presentation.
As well as saving villages, you’ll also need to take the fight to Piglin Outposts. As with the general layout of the map, each Outpost’s ‘design’ will be procedurally-generated, so one we saw in the preview had a lava moat that required a bridge to be built over it in order to get your units into the outpost itself. Mojang states that each base will have a very different setup each time, linking to that classic Minecraft magic that made the sandbox game so beloved to begin with. It’s believed that this variation in Piglin Outpost design and map layout will offer enough to encourage players to replay the campaign, but when asked in a Q&A about other ‘mission types’ in the campaign, Executive Producer Dennis Ries noted that there will be bigger bases and some bosses to take on as the Piglins invade different areas, but the variety will come from how you win the game and how quickly you move to destroy these bases. The slower you are in responding to Piglins popping up, the more likely it is that more bases will pop up.
This is my chief concern with Minecraft Legends’ campaign. While Ries did say there was ample reason to explore the world, chiefly for gathering resources and taking on Piglin bases for purchasing upgrades, the lack of variety in objectives or mission type raises the question of whether or not things are going to feel distinctly one note and repetitive by the latter stages of the campaign. Putting the onus on players to get creative with their strategies to defeat Piglin forces and structures is a risk, given there’s a good chance players will find one OP method they can exploit in all scenarios, regardless of the outpost or map layouts. The puzzle-like element of figuring out how to navigate obstacles obstructing your path to these outposts may help alleviate that repetitive element, but there’s a concern that building a bridge over a lava moat may be a little too basic to really provide a challenge for older or more experienced players.
Given there’s such a focus on the procedurally-generated element of the world and the Piglin bases it seems surprising then that seeds — used in base Minecraft to share a specific world layout with other players — aren’t present in Minecraft Legends, nor is there a map editor tool to create your own maps for PvE or PvP. Creators have long been a major part of the Minecraft community, and while Ries did note that there are plans for creators to play a large part in Legends’ post-launch, he remained tight-lipped on specifics for the time being.
After you’ve exhausted the circa 20-hour campaign, or for those simply more multiplayer-inclined, Minecraft Legends also has a PvP experience, allowing up to four players to take on another team in a race to destroy the other team’s stronghold. To succeed, you’ll need to scour the world for crafting materials and treasure chests that can contain unique and rare resources, build up your defenses, and take the fight to the opponent. How you cover these different roles within your team is up to you, but it was suggested one person might hunt for resources at the beginning of a game, another may focus on building up your base and upgrading units and structures, while another player or two immediately try and take the fight to your opposition. Ultimately, though, the strategy you utilize and the roles that players assume is entirely up to you.
From our initial hands-off impressions, it does appear as though Minecraft Legends’ PvP experience will be fast-paced and frenetic, with a lot of back and forth involved between your base and your opponents’, as well as taking the fight to the Piglins lurking around the map. Defeating the Piglins will earn your Prismarine, which you’ll use to purchase your upgrades, just as in the campaign. You’ll be able to fast-travel back to your base to help defend it, and dying will send you back there, too, taking you out of the fight at the other teams’ base should you be on the attack.
Much like with the campaign, though, Minecraft Legends’ PvP experience very much feels a little surface-level in its depth. While Mojang promises there’s an extensive amount of tools, units and structures available to create a plethora of strategies, there’s no actual progression or leveling system tied to your performance. It’s believed this helps to keep the experience casual and accessible for all players, but without something to work towards, and without a ranking system, the question has to be asked as to how matchmaking will determine players’ skill levels to ensure balanced matches, and whether the PvP experience has the legs to keep people coming back for more further down the line.
Mojang says that in internal testing of the PvP mode, matches have lasted anywhere between 20-45 minutes, with the game upping the ante as time goes on in order to force a conclusion one way or another. If this turns out to be correct once the game is in players’ hands, I’m optimistic about that match length. It should be long enough to really get into the action, without things dragging on too long and the action petering out into a slog.
Ultimately, it’s difficult to get a clear idea of just how fun and in-depth Minecraft Legends will be as a strategy experience until we get our hands on it. But from what I did see, it looks like a great, accessible and casual strategy experience that draws on the magical Minecraft world to offer a unique experience. You may not be able to dig underground, which seems like a bit of a faux pas for a series where mining for resources is so integral — it’s literally in the name — but as Minecraft Dungeons proved back in 2020, if there’s a studio capable of translating the Minecraft experience into other genres, it’s Mojang.
Minecraft Legends will be available for Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC on April 18, 2023.
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