Minecraft Legends will test your strategic skill while Dead Island 2 tests your survivability. Plus, seeing the best the Canadian video game development scene has to offer.

Minecraft Legends brings boxy mobs into a new type of game

The latest Minecraft entertainment arrived yesterday (April 18) in an entirely new type of video game for the franchise.

Minecraft Legends is a real-time strategy game, with a bit of tower defence mixed in. Developed in Vancouver by Blackbird Interactive, with support from Mojang, it’s a blast to play.

You begin by selecting a Minecraft character in all its cuboid glory, and in short order you find yourself thrown into action, trying to rescue and defend villagers from the nasty “piglins” that are invading from another dimension.

The first half hour or so is training, helping you learn how to save the world. In a real-time strategy game you do this by developing and managing an army. The Minecraft twist here is that, just like you do in the original Minecraft, you harvest natural resources like wood and stone that give you what you need to build the generators that create your army of golems.

You’ll also use those resources to manifest constructions like bridges that help you navigate the world, and towers filled with archers you can use to defend villages. That’s where the tower defence aspects of Legends comes into play.

As you progress through the game you unlock the ability to harvest other resources and you discover plans to build other structures and golem types. You’ll also be able to recruit mobs – creepers, skeletons, and zombies – to fight on your side.

The complexity and sophistication in Legends comes from discovering how to use resources wisely and how to best configure your defences.

While it’s fine to do this in the game’s story mode, there’s another level of devious delight that comes when you go online, by yourself or with friends, to test your strategic skill against other players in 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4 battles, sending your golems and critters against those of your opponents. Finding ways to overcome and outwit other real players is a bit of a thriil. It’s also maddening when you realize that you’ve been outwitted yourself.

Minecraft Legends is available on Xbox consoles, Playstation consoles, Nintendo Switch, and Windows. It’s also part of the Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass subscription services.

Dead Island 2 provides an open world to explore, experiment in, and survive

Gamers just can’t get enough of zombies, and Dead Island 2, developed by Dambuster Studios and published by Deep Silver, delivers on the promise of having plenty of zombies to play with.

While the first Dead Island, released in 2011, took place on an actual island, this sequel is set in Los Angeles. While playing through the open world story, you’ll find yourself roaming through Bel Air, Beverly Hills, Hollywood Boulevard, the Santa Monica Pier, and Venice Beach. The environments are brightly coloured, befitting the California location.

You get to choose from six characters who may be immune to the virus that’s turning people into zombies, and as that character you’ll play through a story that shifts a bit depending on the backstory of your slayer. They are all distinct, written and performed wonderfully, and with unique benefits.

You survive and progress through the story by crafting and modifying weapons and by, more importantly, weaponizing the environment to take out the horde in numbers.

What makes things fun – for those of us with a certain sensibility – are the side missions where you’re introduced to some of the denizens of Hell-A. These stories are loaded with subtext and are specifically designed to make fun of all the California tropes you can think of, including the social media influencers and streamers who cavort in ridiculous clubhouses.

You can double the fun by playing with a friend in co-op mode, although it’s online only.

My sole complaint here is about the levelling system, which involves slotting skill cards into slots. I didn’t find that this provided me with enough differentiation, and couldn’t see how the cards actually affected my character’s ability. I much prefer skill trees that make it obvious where I’m spending skill points.

One of my favourite franchises is Dead Rising, which began in 2006 (the latest game was 2016’s Dead Rising 4) and Dead Island 2 owes a lot to what Capcom created. These are games that put you in a ridiculous, saturated environment and give you a sandbox of options to play with.

Dead Island 2 is available on Friday, April 21 for PS4, PS5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Rated mature.

Canadian Game Awards get handed out this weekend

The Canadian Game Awards, which recognize achievemeng in video game design, development, and publishing, will be distributed this weekend.

This year the awards are split into two ceremonies. The Candadian Indie Game Awards take place on Thursday, April 20, at Artscape Daniels Launchpad in Toronto.

The 90-minute Canadian Game Awards go on Friday at the Daniels Spectrum on Dundas Street in Toronto. Tickets are available for people in the area, and the show is also being livestreamed on Twitch.

I’ll publish the list of winners next week.