Review: Minecraft Legends [PC Games Pass]

It’s time to protect the Overworld, Hero. The long-awaited next chapter in the Minecraft franchise is finally out! Hop aboard a steed and race across rolling hills, dense forests, and arid deserts as you defend the land from invaders. How does Minecraft Legends stack up to its predecessor? Let’s find out.

Take back the Night

In a world much like our own but at the same time very different, the Overworld is peaceful, and all things live in harmony. Until one day, a magical portal appeared and the hordes of the Nether began to spew forth, bringing war and corruption to the land. The Guardians of the Overworld: Foresight, Action, and Knowledge, are in need of a Champion to protect their world. They turn their gaze to another realm, where they see us, the Hero. We jump through the portal and set off on a quest to Defend the Overworld, vanquish the Nether Armies, and become Legends!

The campaign of Minecraft Legends has you traversing the continent, taking down the Piglin forces and defending the villages of the realm in real time. Protect the villagers, the central fountain, and keep the Piglins at bay. Each campaign takes place on a randomly generated map, with differently placed villages and resource points. Up to four people can play the campaign at a single time, allowing for more focused strategy and coverage of the world. It should also be noted that the versus mode can go up to 8 players in teams of 4.

Make this Village a Home

There are a lot of moving parts in Minecraft Legends that make the world work as an RTS. Let us begin with your first action: Resource Gathering. Thanks to the Magical Lute given to us by Knowledge, we are able to play several melodies to command our blue and gold allay companions. You will select a song that goes to a corresponding element, and then select an area. If that resource is in that area, you can then send an allay to begin gathering. The sprites will continuously gather that one resource from the area until it is cleared, or your resource cap is reached, even if you are not in the area. It can be a good idea to have allays gathering while you are traveling, as you don’t want to run low on resources mid-battle.

Next up is Construction. Rotating over to the appropriate tab allows you to select a structure to build. Once you do, you can select a nearby location for it to be built, and the allays will get to work. Builder and Gatherer allays work independently of each other, so you can have them all working at a moment’s notice. As you progress through the game, you will unlock more structures to build. Things like masonries to turn wooden walls into stone, or carpenter huts to automatically repair nearby damaged locations.

I can swing my sword sword

What is a Legend without a battle to fight? And what’s a battle without an army? Minecraft Legends gives us a way to craft our own troops, using the Fires of Creation. You can craft summoning altars and then spend resources to craft a multitude of troops. From Plank Golems that can attack at range, to the legendary Fist of Stone. You can also find settlements of wandering mobs that you can recruit to your cause, allowing you to command armies larger than what is summoned. If you lose a unit, you can re-summon them. But remember doing so might cause you to leave the active battle.

The enemies of the Overworld are an army of Piglins, coming through portals and corrupting the land. When night falls, Piglins are active, attacking villages and tearing down protections. They all appear from various Piglin camps that spawn in the Overworld. Sometimes defeating a Piglin outpost involves destroying their spawning pits or Nether Spreaders. Other times you have to destroy the portal and Night Beacon to bring an end to the endless nights. Piglin outposts can belong to various horde types, each providing their own challenge in overcoming them.

To the Farlands, and beyond

A final touch that I think works out really well for the game is the introduction of monthly missions called Lost Legends. These free missions offer a challenging map and objective for you to play. Should you complete it, you can earn free cosmetics, and possibly more. As of now, it’s safe to assume that new missions will be dropped each month and provide more content down the road. There is also something called ‘Myths’, with the tag of Creator content for the Marketplace. For now, there is nothing there, but it is interesting to see what will come of this in the future.

Final Thoughts

Minecraft Legends is a break away from the mold. It gives you tools to play with, a world to explore, and a reason to keep going. The introduction of monthly quests for additional content is an interesting touch. And the versus mode is begging to be put into a ranked format like Age of Empires. Will this game replace Minecraft? No, I don’t think anything will. However, it is a unique experience that is more than a flash in the pan. I believe Minecraft Legends will be here to stay for a long time to come, inspiring new games and future content for the franchise.

Minecraft Legends is available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Games Pass, and PC on Steam.