Minecraft Legends Preview – More Than Building Blocks

I love Minecraft and have been playing it on and off since it landed on Xbox Live Arcade in 2012, but I couldn’t care less about the series’ spin-off games like Dungeons or the Telltale-developed Story Mode. While those games were fine, they defeated the point of why I love Minecraft – building, and crafting. 

Developer Mojang Studios is shaking things up with its next spin-off, and after my behind-closed-doors demo at Gamescom, I’m interested. 

Minecraft Legends can be described as a real-time third-person action strategy game. Yeah, that’s a lot of keywords, but I promise the game is easier to understand than you think. You play as the game’s hero, tasked with destroying the enemy Piglin armies who’ve established strongholds across the overworld. Strategy is at the heart of the game, so while you’re capable of swinging a sword, you’re much more practical building and commanding soldiers to fight on your behalf. In that way, it reminds me of 2007’s Overlord. 

Every enemy fortress is different – some prioritize defensive structures over offensive, others ranged units over bruisers. To build an army that can counter them, first you need to scout for the best location in which to construct a base. A company representative leads the presentation. He begins to farm a hillside nearby for resources, and then builds a base. 

Minecraft Legends has a unique building system. Pre-fabricated buildings with unique properties are created instead of individual voxel block placements. It’s an effective method since this is a strategy game, and every minute counts. In our session, I only saw a few of these buildings, but they all fit within traditional RTS pipelines – unit production, field upgrades, mobility, and defense. It’s at this moment that everything clicks and I see how awesome Minecraft Legends can be. 

We’re at siege with The Horde of the Bastion, a party of Piglins entrenched in a base with sturdy walls and Netherspreaders. Think of Netherspreaders as the Zerg’s Creep in Starcraft – it spreads a dangerous surface across the map and is hard to navigate. To penetrate the enemy’s perimeter, the player enlists the help of Cobblestone Golems, units capable of breaking down walls quickly. Plank Golems as well as Mossy Golems assist the players, who are skilled in dealing with ranged healing and damage. 

We charge down the hillside and besiege the horde’s base. A troop of allies will follow you across the battlefield. However, you have the option to direct their actions towards specific targets or buildings. To stop enemy reinforcements, we target the barracks that spawn more Piglins. A representative from the company places an Extendable Platform, which transforms into a mobile ladder to scale large cliffsides in the base while simultaneously cutting and dismantling enemy units. 

We make our ascent towards the Nether Portal, the base’s nucleus. We’re told a nasty boss awaits us inside, and we must defeat it to clear the base. But unfortunately, that’s when our demo ends.

I’ve been thinking about Minecraft Legends since my demo this morning. I am constantly thinking about how Mojang could incorporate Minecraft elements into RTS. Redstone is used to upgrade buildings, structures and farms, while farming can be used for maintaining and feeding an army. Railways are also available for linking bases. There are many possibilities to explore, but sadly we’re left to our imaginations until Minecraft Legends releases in 2023.