Being developed with the help of Blackbird Interactive, Minecraft Legends is a third-person action strategy game, similar to Overlord or Pikmin. Players will recruit and lead allies to aid in the battle against piglins, who have placed Nether portals to invade the Overworld. It will feature an expansive, procedurally-generated open world with dozens of mobs to defeat and also fight alongside. The setup of the story is intriguing enough and expands the Minecraft lore while adding brand-new friendly and unfriendly mobs for players to discover. Multiplayer, however, is arguably one of the most important areas that could make or break Minecraft Legends, and so far it looks very promising.
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Minecraft Legends’ Multiplayer Has Major Potential
Similar to Minecraft Dungeons, Legends will offer cooperative multiplayer, but it will also include competitive play. This will be an official feature by Mojang, so players won’t need to rely on community-made servers to experience PvP, as is the case in Minecraft. Combining competitive multiplayer with the strategic aspects of Minecraft Legends could prove to be a potent mix for a unique multiplayer experience. What’s more, Minecraft’s community has always been devoted and passionate. If the multiplayer offers enough depth without sacrificing too much of its accessibility, it has the potential to keep those players coming back for a long time.
Little has been announced at this point regarding co-op, but from the brief gameplay and hints given so far, it seems players will work together and join in their own unique worlds to battle piglins and help stop Nether corruption. Some aspects of the gameplay for Minecraft Legends shown thus far includes world traversal, resource gathering, building, Allays, and combat, and all these seem present in co-op. Effective team play will seemingly come down to how well players will fulfill certain roles to provide continual support for resources, mobs, and structures.
Competitive Multiplayer Offers Surprising Unpredictability
Competitive multiplayer in Minecraft Legends will be somewhat familiar to fans of traditional RTS games like StarCraft or Warcraft, but with unique Minecraft elements thrown in the mix. The objective in PvP will be to destroy the other team’s base, but there are many components that play a role in the outcome. Resource management will be crucial to maintain structure and mob progression, allowing players to gain the upper hand in a battle with the risk of structures being destroyed by enemy players. Up to four players will be allowed on each team and the piglins from single-player will be present in multiplayer as well.
One of the more unique aspects of Legends that sets it apart from other RTS games is that the multiplayer arenas will be procedurally-generated, so no two matches will be the exact same. Because of this, strategies will need to be constantly adjusted to account for varying resources, terrain, and possibly even environmental hazards. Even with these unique features, however, it is still unknown for sure if this game will provide more depth than Mojang’s previous multiplayer featured in Minecraft Dungeons. One thing that’s clear, though, is that players will be encouraged to adapt their play style depending on the environmental hand they’re dealt.
In the same way that Minecraft Dungeons was an attempt at the hack-and-slash action RPG genre, Minecraft Legends is a step into the action strategy/RTS genre that looks to appeal to a wide audience. Given that this franchise has featured cross-platform play and cross-progression in its other titles, it’s expected that Legends will offer those same features as well. At the core of Minecraft, the franchise has always featured resource gathering, building, and growth. Minecraft Legends appears to be no different, embracing those elements in new ways for the multiplayer experience.
Minecraft Legends releases in 2023 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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