REVIEW | Minecraft: Legends

Minecraft: Legends review |

I think that for a lot (if not most) of us gamers out there, there’s one game in particular that in some way or form has been etched into our hearts forever. And that game is… Drumroll please… Minecraft. Who here wouldn’t be able to recognise those instant gratification tunes of entering the overworld after a long day at work or school? Yes, Minecraft… Brought to us by Mojang Studios. I wonder if they ever knew they were sitting on an upcoming legend back then? Oh well, that’s water under the bridge by now because do you know what a real legend is? Minecraft: Legends! Heyo! Here you play as the hero again, to save a multiverse version of the Overworld. Piglins have overrun most of the Overworld, and are striving to conquer it whole, spreading the Nether everywhere they go in their obsessive nature to devour all. But you are not alone! Because not only will you be able to recruit your own golem minions, but also this world’s mobs are flocking towards your banner to help combat these pesky Piglins. Will you prevail, or will you be thrown into the muck? Let’s find out in this review of… Minecraft: Legends!
Small sidenote: I couldn’t test the multiplayer part of Minecraft: Legends, since I couldn’t find any other multiplayer game.

What we Liked!

• Visually beautiful| It has to be said, visually I couldn’t find one thing that didn’t take me aback. The game is in itself just a beautiful thing to behold and I’ll fight anyone who begs to differ. The colours are vibrant and poppy. The effects and overall style format is what we already are accustomed to. With more than enough changes of scenery, the team at Mojang did it again! Not only did they create a world that’s expansive they also created an Overworld that is nice to behold! Though some more attention to detail could’ve would’ve been appreciated to differentiate some types of wood from stone. But don’t get me wrong! This doesn’t subtract from the beauty that is Minecraft: Legends. Furthermore, the cutscenes? Look absolutely on point! With fluid motion and some slapstick humor sprinkled here and there to spruce things up. What also stood out was the fact that each faction of Piglin has their own distinct biome and visual style, for instance the Tribe of the Horde has a green-blue ish tint to their skin or armor, while the Tribe of the Hunt has a more red-ish style with a leathery tone to it. Mwuah! Love that tiny attention to detail that often gets overlooked elsewhere.

• Open world| The (over)world is your oyster. While not as fleshed out or expansive as the Original Overworld, you still have freedom of choice as to the how and the where that you go. There are no real boundaries and you can literally get anywhere you set your mind to. With more than enough hidden parts and buildings for you to discover, the world feels like there’s always something new to discover… But it also comes with an asterisk. Because with great worlds also comes great responsibilities, and those are what I found lacking as well. Read more on this in the other section.

• Voiced| Forgive me if I’m wrong, but I think that Minecraft Legends is one of the first games that is in the Overworld universe that has voiced characters. Mind you, it’s not you that has a voice, but rather the guardians that came to your Overworld universe in the hopes of recruiting you for saving theirs, and by doing so, also save your own. And it has to be said, the voice actors did an amazing job on voicing their characters! Though their characters is a bit with a trope that felt a bit… cringe? How many times has it now already been done in games that the big broad blocky character has a high/childish voice, and the short tiny dot sounded like they smoke a whole box of cigars, a day? But, it made me chuckle, that’s for sure!

• Sound design| Not only did they get a win on the visual department, the audio department deserves some praise as well. They made the soundtrack match the vibe of the surrounding areas. Are you in a siege? Then you’ll get some sweet adrenaline pumping tunes. Are you just roaming around, then feast your ears upon the soothing songs that these champions made! The ambient sounds also helps dragging you into the world, filled with nature vibes and everything that comes with it.

• Mounts have a purpose| When you start your adventure, you will be granted a horse. This trusty steeds helps traversing the Overworld with ease. Though you might be lucky and stumble into a den of the Overworld’s native creatures. While some may be slower than the others, they bring their own value. For instance, my go to mount was the beetle. Reason being that it could traverse harder to get through terrain. So my advice? Explore, find animal nests and find the mount that works for you!

Mixed Feelings

• Empty world| While the world may be big, and resources are strewn about everywhere, you’ll also notice fairly quick that that same world also feels kind of empty. Sure ever so often you’ll come across an animal, or a randomly placed Piglin. But other than that? You’ll just be roaming around in a deserted Minecraft world, until you are close to one of the strongholds or mining camps from the Piglins. A pity… I was hoping on a more immersive world.

• Combat| Combat in Minecraft: Legends just feels lacklustre. While you can swing your sword and do damage, you don’t have any indication if you’re actually hurting them, or tickling them. There are even Piglins out there that are so massive, that they just don’t feel the soft caress of your pool noodle sword. You can send your recruited golems into the fray as well, and they do tend to do some damage, since they are all geared to do a specific task. Yet… Even though you can send your troops out with separate commands, the controls don’t really make it intuitive enough to make this a viable option to perform the necessary combat actions that would make your army suffer less casualties. That’s why I changed my tactics from an ‘in your face’ type of combat, to a ‘I’ll just fire from afar and then come for the clean-up after’ style…

What we Disliked

• Repetitive| While Minecraft: Legends has a huge repertoire of things for you to do or build, you’ll quickly come to notice that battles, sieges, … all work the same, in the same order. You’ll often suddenly find yourself employing the same tactic over and over again. Because, it just works. I’ve had unlocked a great deal of buildings, yet when I went on the offensive? I noticed that I did it constantly in the same pattern. Build artillery, build a few towers to defend the artillery and just fire away, from afar. Why did I do it like this? Because the combat just feels hollow and empty. Also when building up the defences around the villages, it’s always the pattern of building as well. Make a short but sweet circle around the base, place some towers and carpenter’s houses and voila… your base becomes nearly impenetrable… Over… And over again.

• Too much stuff to do| While the open world is great for exploring, and the emptiness rather gives you a sense of loneliness, the amount of chaotic events on the world map just throws the entire experience into a blender that’s been set to destruction. Why do I say this? Because when you finally get through the introductory battles, the world map suddenly opens up entirely, plopping down 3 great factions in response. All of these start scheming on taking over villages, while the mob towns (Skeleton, creeper and zombie) get raided as well… The game actually switches from a relaxed experience right into a hectic experience. You could compare it by standing underneath the drip of a waterspout. And suddenly someone smashes off the waterspout, and you get a high pressure blast right into the face. No, this doesn’t gamers a fun experience… Not at all!

• No Story continuity| What actually irked me the most was the fact that there was no story continuity. The intro shows us how everything escalated in the Overworld, with the Piglins just taking over every block that they could get their grubby little hands on. Then cuts to the guardians of the Multiverse, and go out to finding an adventurer brave and strong enough to save everything. The cutscene then forwards and who is it that pops up? Steve! So obviously, I thought ‘oh cool! We’re going to play as Steve!’. Those dreams were dashed very quickly though. Because when I wanted to start my new game, I had a character select screen, and Steve? Yeah… Steve wasn’t there! So they address you as the Hero, they suck in Steve because he IS that Hero and then… You suddenly change it all up and take away the Steve model. Why couldn’t it be that you choose your avatar and then the intro starts with that chosen avatar? That really broke the continuity for me going from the intro cutscene, into the game itself.

How long to beat the story | 20+ Hours
How long to achieve 1000G | 30+ Hours
You’ll love this game if you like these | Halo Wars, Dungeons 3

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