Despite its release over a decade ago, Minecraft is still one of the most popular video games, with a huge following on a huge range of consoles, mobiles and PCs. MinecraftThe relaxing and comfortable vibes of are perfect for almost any mood, while its deep crafting and survival systems offer more complexity for those looking for it. This same level of accessibility and complexity was not quite present in Minecraftthe previous spinoffs of , but hopefully the next one Minecraft Legends can reverse this trend.
Announced during the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase in June, Minecraft Legends is yet another Minecraft spin-off title, but this time the series evolves into the action-strategy genre. Combining the best elements of a third-person action game and a tower defense game, the action-strategy genre sees the player both controlling his troops, while participating in the action themselves. Hopefully this gender change is enough to give Minecraft Legends the depth it needs to stand out.
Minecraft Legends needs more gameplay depth than Minecraft Dungeons
One of the biggest criticisms of Minecraft Dungeons, the series’ most recent spin-off, was that it lacked depth. On the surface, Minecraft Dungeons was just a simple Diablo clone, using an isometric camera angle, and tasking players with hacking and slicing through a series of dungeons, defeating monsters, and earning loot along the way. Unfortunately, this surface layer was about all there was to Minecraft Dungeons.
Minecraft Dungeons was extremely simple. The game’s controls boiled down to simple button inputs, and the enemy AI required little strategy to defeat. The co-op mechanic, while a great addition, wasn’t as complex or well thought out as the game’s main inspiration. The basic hook of a game like Diablo and Minecraft DungeonsAlso, the loot didn’t offer anything players hadn’t seen before, with weapons and items that are commonplace in the dungeon-looter genre. After a few hours, the players had seen everything Minecraft Dungeons had to offer, and there was little incentive to keep hacking the game.
Quite simply, Minecraft Legends must do better. To really stand out from the crowd, Minecraft Legends needs to implement more complex game mechanics and systems, which theoretically should be fairly easy to do, as the action strategy genre is inherently quite complex, and usually much more than hack-and-slash fare in Minecraft Dungeons. Players are tasked with managing their sprawling forces, including buildings and soldiers, while engaging themselves in combat at the same time.
This is already an excellent starting point for Minecraft Legendsand with a few mechanical additions, it should be easy to add more depth to this spin-off. Minecraft Legends should ensure that it offers players many different styles of play, with a range of different building types and upgrades. The game is also expected to include a range of skill trees, both for player units and for the player themselves. Minecraft Legends should also ensure that there are many different types of enemies in the game, each requiring a different approach to defeat. Even the simplest approach to strategic combat, like Halo Wars’ rock-paper-scissors, can add a lot of depth to a strategy game’s combat, as each enemy type is weak to a specific unit type. While each of these systems is pretty simplistic, adding them together could make for a great complex action strategy title, and would help make Minecraft Legends stand out from the crowd.
Minecraft Legends releasing in 2023 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.