


I served as a commander playing music on a lute for commands and used my sword only for hitting piglins. That being said, it's a little disappointing I can't cheer on my units or do more with our friendship other than sending them off into battle and reviving them again at their spawn structures. It's difficult to say whether the on-the-ground perspective is more helpful than a wider view after only an hour of the campaign, but it did make my personal affection for units stronger. I really only felt the lack of mastery because of the multiplayer session that came later – but more on that in a moment. It did take me a fair bit of time to get used to all the commands, and I can't say I came away from my hour with the campaign having fully mastered them, but I think the campaign still does a good job of peppering in new layers of lessons during the early tutorial missions. I played exclusively on an Xbox controller. Directions to the mobs are rather simple (move here, follow) but become more complex steadily over time (command one set of units following to move or focus a target). First, you'll start with two kinds of golems, and then as the campaign progresses, you'll find allies in the iconic creeper and other formerly hostile mobs. Instead of commanding waves of soldiers or creatures from above, you're using music to direct a mix of mobs to attack piglin towers or defend an otherwise defenseless village. The action-strategy interpretation cuts out some of the impersonal aspects of real-time strategy and makes events and threats more focused. Dennis Ries, Executive Producer at Mojang, told me that one of the reasons Mojang didn't want to make a traditional RTS is because of the challenges they present when putting them on console. Instead of taking a top-down omnipotent view of the world below you, your character leads mobs into battle with a sword in hand. Minecraft Legends is an action-strategy game, which yes, is different from an RTS (real-time strategy), though only in a few critical ways.
