Minecraft Legends is a genre-bending spin-off from Minecraft which has just been released and is somewhat dividing the fan base of the original game. While it changes up the style and appearance of Minecraft in a new-yet-familiar way, Minecraft Legends doesn’t do much to change the familiar style of strategy games for players familiar with the genre.
Nevertheless, there is a definite fan base within Minecraft that won’t have played many strategy games before. For these players new to the genre, Minecraft Legends is a great introduction to many themes and play styles familiar to strategy gamers. For this reason and many others, Minecraft Legends is a great entry-level strategy game.
6 The Tutorial
There are a lot of things to keep track of when players begin getting to grips with Minecraft Legends. This could be overwhelming for some players, particularly players who aren’t used to strategy games. Fortunately, the game’s tutorial when players first enter the world of Minecraft Legends is a very friendly experience that helps a great deal with getting the grips of all aspects of the game.
From simply learning how to move around the overworld to summoning new units, and gathering new resources, Minecraft Legends has a lengthy tutorial process. Players never really stop learning and being taught during the campaign, and the overbearing narrators who teach players new lessons throughout are extremely detailed in their explanations of how to learn new aspects of combat and building.
5 The Standard Elements
Of the many things which Minecraft Legends has to teach players throughout the runtime of the campaign, many of these are very familiar to strategy players. While veteran strategists will be so familiar with these elements that they may get a little tired of Minecraft Legends quickly, new players will get thrills from the building of resource deposits and the training of an army and making it tear down enemy structures.
The very things which make Minecraft Legends a fairly standard experience in many ways for veteran strategy game players are the same things that make it an excellent choice for younger players or ones new to the genre attempting to get to grips with these elements for the first time.
4 The Friendly Story
Minecraft and all the spin-off games related to it have threats and some adult themes, but the style has always focused on staying family-friendly for players of all ages. The story of Minecraft Legends is about a war, which in essence always leaves a danger that it will stray away from being in the same family-friendly style as other Minecraft games including easy elements such as fast travel.
However, the story is just as focused on the idea of the entire world coming together to fight another evil as it is in the actual war. The idea of zombies, creepers, skeletons, and golems all working together under the leadership of the hero makes the story feel hugely friendly and accessible to all ages, meaning it is a great first strategy game for younger players.
3 Chaotic PvP Mode
The campaign isn’t the only mode available in Minecraft Legends. One of the other modes which make it similar to other similar strategy games is the PvP mode. Players struggling against each other in an attempt to improve their strategic thinking and gameplay has been a mode made available in most big strategy games for decades now.
Introducing this aspect of strategy games to Minecraft Legends will be a great way to provide long-term gameplay for players as well as introduce the style of an RTS game to players who aren’t used to it. PvP is a huge aspect of many similar games and without learning it to some degree, players probably won’t fully understand all that there is to love about the strategy genre which, so many other games have used to stay relevant for long periods of time.
2 Simplicity
The style of Minecraft Legends seems complicated at first glance, but after players get to know the various aspects which the game is built upon, they’ll find it nice and simple. This is hugely important for players who are trying it out as their potentially first-ever strategy game. While other games feature more strategic elements, and far more unit options and advantages, Minecraft Legends starts with only a few unit options and strategic plans and adds a few here and there as the campaign goes on.
While all strategy games have a learning curve that can be a turn-off for players as they try to navigate all the rules of the gameplay, Minecraft Legends is relatively simple. There are units, buildings to make, and resources to gather, but the allays that the hero can control through music deal with the majority of the hardship under minimal direction. Players simply have to tell them what they want to be done, and they will handle it. This relatively hands-off style makes it easy to get to grips with the idea of strategy games without having to micromanage as much.
1 Familiar Design
The familiar design of the Minecraft world has been changed somewhat for the purposes of Minecraft Legends. But it is still very much familiar to fans of the best-selling video game of all time. This means that younger players or players new to the genre are probably picking up Minecraft Legends because they love the franchise and the original game.
Despite the learning curve of a strategy game, Minecraft Legends provides enough familiarity through the units available and the over-world/nether differential that most players will be able to enjoy their learning experience and get into the game, which will help hook them to the idea of the strategy genre.
Minecraft Legends is currently available on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X & Series S.