Minecraft's blocky and endearing charm suggests it can become another game successfully. Many have actually attempted, at least within the confines of Minecraft. But, in recent years, Mojang Studios has been expanding the reach of the best-selling video game of all time. Minecraft Legends is Mojang Studios' latest shot at diversification. Unfortunately, whereas Minecraft Dungeons was a genuinely good attempt at a child-friendly Diablo-lite, the second Minecraft spin-off is more of a mixed bag.

Whereas Minecraft Dungeons was a dungeon crawler, Minecraft Legends is an RTS game with action gameplay elements as well as both co-op and competitive multiplayer.

Ahead of its release on April 18, critics got a chance to check the game out. As the review embargo lifted, it's become more evident that Minecraft Legends might not be for everybody.

Here's what the critics are saying about Minecraft Legends:

• NME - 4/5
• Windows Central - 8/10
• Game Informer - 7/10
• IGN - 7/10
• Pure Xbox - 7/10
• Games Radar - 2.5/5

The thing with strategy games is that they're really hard to make for everybody. On one hand, genre stalwarts will squawk at anything that might limit strategic options for the sake of simplicity. On the other hand, giving audiences the ability to micromanage everything comes at the expense of implementing complicated systems, which will definitely be an issue with casual audiences. It's a very thin line that very few has ever successfully walked across if ever. It's safe to say that Minecraft Legends failed to achieve this.

Minecraft Legends is neither complicated enough to cater to RTS fans nor deep enough to make casual audiences feel like they're engaged without necessarily making them feel bad about themselves.

The oversimplification of the strategy genre limits what players can do in Minecraft Legends. As a result, the combat and strategies feel repetitive and boring.

Minecraft is huge because it caters to everybody. However, Mojang Studios needs to learn that this doesn't have to be the case with its spin-offs. You can't help but feel that Minecraft Legends could be so much better if it didn't try to sell itself to people who wouldn't really play RTS games in the first place.

It remains to be seen if audiences will have a different opinion on Minecraft Legends when it comes out on April 18, but we doubt it.