Minecraft Legends. Initial Thoughts

Minecraft Legends is a real time action strategy game developed by ‘Mojang Studios‘ and ‘Blackbird Interactive‘ but published by ‘Xbox Game Studios‘. Minecraft Legends is a big game with lots of ‘room potential’. X35 Earthwalker has already dived into Minecraft Legends. There’s lots to see. So here are X35’s initial thoughts and some gameplay. Let’s take a look.  

Minecraft Legends is definitely a completely different thing for Minecraft. Matter of fact on the same day that Minecraft Legends came out we played Minecraft Dungeons. That was an excellent game but very different from what was to come. The opening cutscenes are real clean and truly explain what’s going on. We get introduced to these very important beings known as ‘Knowledge, Foresight and Action’. They basically call you, summon you, somewhat arm you and depend on you to save their world. We have questions definitely. Like does out character know these beings? Why did he so quickly accept to help them? What’s the reward? To list a few.

Now the controls are a big one though. There’s many mechanics and many things you can do and control. You can control and command units under your control, you can build structures, harvest materials, select upgrades (basically), do specific commands concerning the movements and strategy for your units. This is a lot of stuff but it can get deeper like selecting specifically which unit or unit types do your command. We like that this provides lots of room for strategy and offers more controls for players. Now you will need some time to get use to all these controls before you can truly flow. Movement is smooth and makes sense. No issues with movement.

There’s different mounts in Minecraft Legends. X35 Earthwalker found a beetle… Brilliant Beetle. It has the ability to climb any surface basically. So walls don’t matter. So yeah, looking forward to seeing what other mounts there are but we doubt X35 will be changing anytime soon. The progression in Minecraft Legends seem fair and you feel it fast. You need the resources to build new things including structures that will unlock the means to gather new materials like Redstone and iron. You get access to new units very quickly and so your army capabilities grows.

Speaking of units players will start off with a melee and ranged unit. Cobblestone golem and plank golem. Both are useful and have totally different functions but the plank golem is definitely far more effective so far. It definitely looks like the cobblestone golem needs a damage buff for destroying structures. Destroying structures is basically their main function and yet they don’t seem that efficient at it. They need a small power up. More units are on the way. Players can also command other things too. You can command skeletons, creepers and zombies. so recruit them and mix them with your army. They of course have their own attacks. The creatures and beings of the Overworld support you clearly. The fact that there’s fixed times to events add pressure to players. for example you will learn of an attack that the piglins have planned. They WILL attack tonight. You have to be there or that village or location will actually get attacked. So be prepared. The world is quite alive and has action going on. Time matters, especially when it comes to day and night.

Now lots of good things are said but here’s a big negative. Structure building… more like the taking it down part… more specifically the walls. You can place out a whole stretch of walls but a wall is that one square space. So when you are removing a part of the wall, you have to select each individual part and remove it. The option to hold down the button to remove the wall doesn’t appear instantly. You have to stand still by it for a moment. The whole process is slow. Maybe there is a way to highlight and select multiple wall segments for removal but we haven’t been told about it or shown in the game yet. We hope that gets sorted out. Also it doesn’t seem like we can get of the mount. Lame but if that’s the design choice then so be it. Some resources are much harder to find than others. As you be running around for a good while and still not find any. A bit more frequency would be good but we are on a higher difficulty and it does say that resources are less frequent so yeah… there’s that.

The map is very useful and gives the details that matter. We don’t like that the note showing your name is constantly there. It gets in the way and is annoying. There needs to be a way to remove it to make the map experience better. Raiding piglins structures and fighting them does feel good but those pigeons definitely have the advantage right now with their units. We have seen some big strong piglins who even act like artillery but direct though. Currently feeling outclassed but we making it happen though. What’s great its you can build certain structures to aid you in combat against the enemy. You can build stairs that lead up so you can get to the higher ground. Fortnite players will like and understand this. You can build a well house to act as a point of fast travel and a place to respawn too if defeated. So as you can see, players will have to plan and set up before a raid.

Here’s some Minecraft Legends gameplay below. Fun fact: Did you know that X35 Earthwalker found some, let’s say treasure, at the top of some trees. After a bit of parkour, he got it. So yeah, explore and keep your eyes open for goodies.

Overall Minecraft Legends so far is excellent. The developers have done an excellent job. There’s lots to do and get started on. There tons of potential here too. You just know updates and additions are coming to the game to enhance the world. We do what to see more though. It’s excellent but not where we want it to be and it’s not where it should be. Minecraft Legends is worth playing. We are aware of the competitive move against other players and additional modes but we are here for the campaign. Lastly Minecraft Legends being on Xbox Game Pass makes everything better. We can play this game on the move too. Something PlayStation can’t do. We will leave this here. X35 Earthwalker stands at the top. Now Minecraft Legends may have a hero and real time world but it’s all too slow and small for… the ‘Earth Walk!’