The result is a hodgepodge of Minecraft creatures beating the snot out of each other in a jumbled mess, which you can join in on with your trusty sword. There's some nuance to this command-you can specifically choose to only send one of your melee fighters forward, for example-but there's no way to give orders more specific than that and better take advantage of each unit's unique strengths. Beyond getting your troops to follow you, the only other command you can give them is to charge. It's a pretty cool feeling to gallop toward a sea of Piglins with a horde of Minecraft creatures at your back, only for both forces to crash into each other with murderous intent.īut that feeling of empowerment all comes crashing down once the actual battle is underway. Since you can only direct troops who are following you and you have to walk up to units and give them the 'Follow Me!' command to get them to fall in line behind you, the start of each battle typically begins with you waving your banner and trumpeting the war to come, and then rushing toward the enemy with dozens of troops at your side. And, in practice, this does create moments of epic warfare. I like the idea of making the player an everyman general who moves throughout the world and fights alongside their troops. It's not an entirely novel concept, as other games have also moved away from the player being an omnipresent god who looks down upon the world like an all-knowing puppeteer-but it's not executed well here. Although this better highlights the action side of the game, where you battle your enemies alongside your troops, forcing you to split your time between directing your mindless soldiers and actually fighting, this can frequently feel like a distraction as opposed to a seamless and symbiotic back-and-forth. To war!Īs creative as all that is, though, Minecraft Legends simplifies its real-time strategy elements too much for that side of the game to be fun. And having the chance to forge alliances with normally antagonistic Minecraft creatures, like the surprisingly honorable Skeletons and all-too-eager-to-die-for-the-cause Creepers, is also enjoyably silly. It's a fantastic concept that's made even better when the game dips into the more absurd elements-you can build giant redstone-powered cannons to lay waste to entire battalions of enemy Piglins one explosive shell at a time, for example, or construct ludicrously giant wooden bridges to safely transport troops over whole stretches of mountainous terrain. In a final act of resistance, Foresight, Action, and Knowledge call on you and your building smarts to construct defenses, Golem soldiers, and war machines to slaughter the invading forces. The simple villagers and animals are under attack by the Piglins, who are constructing portals across the land and building machines that make everything more like the Nether. This Overworld is overseen by Foresight, Action, and Knowledge-three deities who each add a dash of charm to an otherwise straightforward story of good versus evil. In the story campaign, you play as a denizen of the original Minecraft, who is plucked from your time and transported back to an older version of the Overworld that has long since passed into legend. However, it has good ideas outside the story-driven campaign that keep the game from descending into an absolute slog of an experience. Sadly, it's one that doesn't quite pay off in Minecraft Legends as the simple action elements actively detract from the more tantalizing possibilities present on the strategy side. Taking the world and characters of the original Minecraft, a sandbox block builder, and putting them into a real-time strategy game with action elements is-while certainly a cool-sounding idea-an experimental move.

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