Minecraft Legends review – A cute and simple Minecraft strategy game

By Cassie Peterson

Posted on April 16, 2023

Minecraft really is the game that keeps on giving. It’s a game with truly limitless potential for storytelling and creativity. Well, the teams at Mojang Studios and Blackbird Interactive have presented us with yet another opportunity to dive back into this world with Minecraft Legends. In Legends, the Overworld is being threatened by the piglin hordes emerging from Nether portals that have sprung up all over the world. The game offers a unique blend of action and strategy, all in a cute little Minecraft package.

You are guided in your journey by the caretakers of the Overworld (the Hosts, as they are called) who will also update you on the invasion. Action is the most outspoken of the Hosts, a gentle giant who often speaks of loving and caring for the residents of the Overworld. Foresight is the wisest of the Hosts, preaching about caution and making smart decisions. Knowledge is the smallest Host but is also an excellent craftsman, having created the tools you’ll have at your disposal — the Legendary Lute, the Banner of Courage, and the Flames of Creation.

As soon as I got past the tutorial, I set out exploring the world, gathering resources with the help of my Allays, colorful mobs who communicate only using music. These resources will have a number of uses, including building up defenses to protect the different villages. The building part of Minecraft Legends is vastly different from classic Minecraft; it’s all about strategy and less about creativity. You place walls using a simple click, drag, and drop system, placing arrow towers at regular intervals to shoot at incoming hordes and gates to get in and out. Within the walls, you need to place masonry and carpentry buildings which upgrade your existing defenses, as well as repair those that get damaged and, other defenses to help once the piglins have breached the walls. The piglins will strategize during the day before they set out to attack at night, so you’ll need to plan accordingly.

Gathering resources is fairly simple as they’re all at the surface — no actual mining here. You can send your Allays to collect select resources if you’re short on something in particular, or you can have them collect any resources found within a certain square radius. Deploying more Allays makes the collecting much faster if you’re in a pinch. You also gain resources from chests found at the fountains in villages you’ve protected, which also serve as fast-travel locations to help you get around the map quickly.

Your main goal in Minecraft Legends is to fight back the three different hordes of piglins and destroy the Nether portals at each of the three bases for each faction. Legends is an action strategy game where you control your troops, telling them where to attack and which piglin defenses and structures to destroy, but you also control your own character in the battle with simple hack-and-slash attacks. Trying to get used to the controls in combat took a bit of work. It’s not overly complex, but just remembering which buttons to press and how to actually direct units properly proved a little challenging at times.

It definitely feels like I’m trying to contain a band of toddlers, both in attacking piglin bases and outposts, as well as trying to defend villages. The minions you command are little golems of various kinds, some of which are particularly good at tearing down piglin structures while others may provide some sort of support. Aside from the golems, you can also recruit creepers, zombies, and skeletons to fight alongside you — it’s also their home that is at stake after all. All of these mobs can be summoned at the spawners you can build, though there is a limit as to how many can join you.

For those looking for a challenging strategy game, Minecraft Legends isn’t that. This game is more geared towards a younger audience, being a decent entry to strategy games for those just starting out, and fans of Minecraft, of course. Much of the strategy boils down to persistence and simple resource management, especially with the larger bases. Strategy games aren’t really my cup of tea, however I did start to feel myself getting more drawn into Legends after my initial skepticisms started to wane, but the game didn’t hold my attention for too long as it became more and more repetitive.

This game is downright adorable, and while I do wish there was more depth to it, there’s still plenty here to enjoy. Each world is randomly generated, so there’s tons of replayability, and you can play on different difficulties. I had a lot of fun running around and exploring, finding the map’s secrets and hanging with the locals. You’re able to team up with friends on any platform to help fight the piglins, or you can go head-to-head in PVP to test out each other’s defenses.

Minecraft Legends review – A cute and simple Minecraft strategy game

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