Minecraft Legends Review – Craft and Conquer

Minecraft has been on quite the creative spree as of late. On top of the core game being updated with new mechanics and features, Minecraft has also taken chances on different genres. From the narrative approach of Minecraft Story Mode, the hack-and-slash looter genre with Minecraft Legends, and the short-lived mobile title Minecraft Earth. This series is no stranger to taking chances and finding ways to blend its trademark looks and gameplay with different genres. Minecraft Legends attempts to bring its classic survival gameplay to the real-time strategy world but only partially succeeds. Here is our full Minecraft Legends review.

Story: A family fun adventure

Minecraft was never about following a set narrative but creating a story inside a world that players built from scratch. This approach has changed over the years, with various Minecraft spin-offs featuring a true story, but Minecraft Legends pushes the presentation forward as soon as the game begins.

The story starts with the Minecraft universe being set aflame by an invading force of piglins from the Nether. A legend foretells a warrior who brings peace to the Overworld and fights back against the corruption spread by the nefarious pig forces. Not since Duke Nukem has evil pigs been such a threat, but the story of Minecraft Legends lets players live out that legend during the campaign.

The story is straightforward, and most of the plot lies at the beginning and end. Most of the campaign is relatively light on narrative elements, with the story’s narrators, Foresight, Knowledge, and Action, making appearances via in-game tutorials. The story doesn’t push any boundaries, but it fits well and provides all the context needed to build our kingdom and lay waste to an army of evil pigs.

Gameplay: A shallow strategic experience

Our first campaign experience in Minecraft Legends took about a dozen hours to complete, and it wasn’t as fun as the premise seemed during the opening hours. In Minecraft Legends, players take control of a mounted hero responsible for traversing a large map, defending towns, and fighting against piglin bases in real time. The game is primarily played through an isometric perspective, and each campaign is randomly generated each time you play.

As the game moves beyond the first couple of hours, problems appear as the number of options expands, and our focus is required in many places at once. Minecraft Legends tries to keep the action simple, but in its simplicity, it sacrifices tools that are a staple of just about any average real-time strategy. The biggest offender is the complete lack of control groups.

Each unit type in the game has strengths and weaknesses, but without control groups, we were forced to control our armies like Pikmin. This makes it a clunky mess when certain situations call for specific units to be used in different places simultaneously. The lack of control is mitigated significantly in co-op, but the solo campaign experience was a frustrating experience, especially during massive late-game battles.

Graphics/Audio: Pretty blocks galore

The audio and visual presentation of Minecraft Legends fare much better in its attempt at strategy. The look and feel of Minecraft shine through in all aspects. The presentation does an excellent job of taking the iconic visuals and making a visual identity that keeps big battles easy to track at a glance.

The score has an epic feel and swells when an invasion is coming and does a good job of setting the tone for the action on the screen. Fans of Minecraft will love all of the audio nods, and references layered into each facet of gameplay. Mining resources, attacking enemies, and everything in between sounds like you’d expect it to.

Minecraft Legends also runs very well. During our Minecraft Legends review, we played it on Xbox Series X. We never encountered technical problems despite the campaign’s massive map and all the battles occurring at any given moment.

Conclusion: A strategic but superficial adventure

Our overall feeling during our Minecraft Legends review period is one of mild disappointment. We didn’t expect a layer of depth or tactics like the genre’s heavyweights, such as Age of Empires, but if Minecraft Legends had just a touch more depth, it could have been something exceptional. As it stands, Minecraft Legends is easy to recommend for a group of friends, but it isn’t deep enough to satisfy anybody looking for a bit more out of their Minecraft spin-off game adventures.

Minecraft Legends is available now on Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

*Reviewed on PC*