Minecraft Legends Preview
The Minecraft universe is set to expand once again with a brand new, non-canon spin-off Minecraft Legends. Minecraft Legends is a narrative driven, action strategy game that takes place in a procedurally generated Minecraft overworld. From a third-person perspective, you’ll command forces, attack foes, build structures, collect resources, and much, much more throughout a lengthy campaign. If you’ve been itching to dive back into the world of Minecraft, Minecraft Legends is just your ticket.
As noted, Minecraft Legends is a narrative based game, so while the adventure might be uniquely your own, you’ll have quests to complete in order to save the Overworld. The menacing Piglins have invaded the Minecraft Overworld. God-like creatures called the Hosts have called on you, our Hero, to save the Overworld by recruiting a world of mobs to fight back against the Piglin army. The campaign should take folks anywhere between 18 to 25 hours to complete, depending on how much exploring players do.
Being ResourcefulÂ
Minecraft Legends is an action strategy game that takes place solely on the Minecraft Overworld. You won’t be digging underground or exploring the Nether here. Many Minecraft aspects are included but refined to create a more streamlined and focused approach. For example, you’ll be required to gather resources, but you won’t be hacking away at tree after tree for seemingly ages. Throughout the Overworld, you’ll come across villages with friendly folk that you’ll need to protect against Piglin invasions. While you can attack, the brunt of your offense will come from using Spawners to recruit golems and other mobs.
Once you save a village, you’ll be tasked with rebuilding it – but rather than laying brick after brick, you’ll have some pre-made structures to create, assuming you have the resources. Of course, the Piglins will return, so you’ll also want to build some defenses so you can continue on your journey without worrying about your new-found villager friends.
Get Creative
Another aspect of the game will be finding and destroying Piglin bases, some of which will include bosses. Because the game is procedurally generated, the locations of these Piglin bases, and the surrounding terrain, will always be unique. For example, you might come across a Piglin base that is surrounded by a lava moat. To breach the base, you’ll need to build a bridge to cross the moat. For each Piglin base, your resources, available structures, and strategies will change and evolve over time.
To help our Hero out, you’ll have access to a variety of different means to get around in the form of mounts. These mounts could range from horses to Brilliant Beetles, each of which will have different abilities to get you from point A to point B. You’ll also get access to various items that temporarily buff your character, such as increased speed. Upgrades are available too, and these will give you the ability to mine new resources, which also unlock new structures to build. If you die, you’ll respawn at the nearest Well House, a structure you’ll need to build in liberated villages.
Distinctly Minecraft
Minecraft Legends is built on the Bedrock game engine, so the overall look is distinctly Minecraft. The environments, mobs, and various effects will all bring back memories of your time in Minecraft, while also introducing a variety of new mobs such as the badger and new Golems. The story is driven by gorgeously animated cutscenes.
Minecraft Legends also features a player vs player mode. This multiplayer mode takes some of the campaign elements and puts them into a PvP experience. In PvP, two teams will collect resources, build structures, fight Piglins and more. The end goal is to destroy the opposing teams base. The online, public PvP experience will be 4v4. But for folks who want to play 1v1, 2v2, or 3v3, they’ll be able to set up private matches. The battles will take place in procedurally generated maps, but these maps will be smaller than the base game. To avoid any griefing, communication will be limited to a Ping system. There will be no voice chat among players, with the exception of platform specific chats such as Xbox’s party chat. Matches will range from 20-40 minutes each.
The Future of Legends
At launch, Minecraft Legends will feature a marketplace where players can purchase new outfits for their Hero, among other things. While there won’t be any “seasons” per se, there will be monthly challenges, Lost Legends, for players to participate in. There will also be future title updates that provide players with all new content including new mobs.
Minecraft Legends is shaping up to be an excellent action strategy game with a robust single-player campaign and a fun & casual PvP multiplayer experience. This will be a unique Minecraft experience, but should still appeal to fans, probably even more so than the previously released Minecraft Dungeons. Minecraft Legends will be available in 2023 on Xbox Series S/X, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. Minecraft Legends will also launch, day one, with Xbox Game Pass.
***Minecraft Legends preview event was provided by the publisher***
