Minecraft Dungeons is a spin-off from Minecraft. It is an action hack and slash with the loot system at its central core gameplay loop. The graphics are based off the blocky aesthetics that you’d expect from the Minecraft name. The story and setup are quite simple. In the past, an adventurer was looked downupon and they become the big bad linear, known as the Arch-Illager. He was willing to take over the world and was using monsters to aid in his conquest. You play as the plucky new adventurer, where you just might be the one to bring the Arch-Illager down. That’s all for the story as it gives you just enough of an excuse to fight through the various dungeons. Apart from the beginning and ending cutscene, the rest of the story is told via some voiceovers at the beginning and each of each level.
The gameplay is simple, and it suits the theme since this is like a “lite” version of something like Diablo. When you’re controlling your character, they can swing their current weapon. The attack style changes depending on which weapon you have equipped. The character can dodge and there are also three slots that are hot-keyed to the remaining three face buttons. These are your abilities and will depend on what item you have equipped into that slot. Thus, there is a degree of flexibility in adapting to your playstyle. That’s all there is to the game and again, it is a simple premise, but it works. Ultimately, the combat can get repetitive as you work through the dungeons.
The maps are procedurally generated, which can be good and bad. It’s good in that it is something different each time you play through the game but bad in that it can feel too generic as it lacks interesting detours and secrets. It’s not unique to this game as these are always the flaws of a procedurally generated game. The many short dead ends with nothing at the end can be annoying. The levels will eventually become quite big and more like a maze. You will most likely pull open the map and rely on it all the time if you don’t want to spend your time getting lost. It’s a shame given that the in-game map is one that spreads out in front of you taking over a lot of the screen, rather than something more akin to a mini-map in an upper corner. That said, the game makes it easy to know where you need to go to get to the next objective, it’s just if you wanted to explore everything then you would want the map on all the time.
The game’s camera is fixed in an isometric view. While it does its best in removing the buildings and structures that block your view, there are often times where you can’t see what is behind something and just have to blindly mash the attack button. Enemies, known as mobs, are mostly easy. When harder enemies appear who act as mini-bosses, they can be more challenging. Perhaps the most difficult parts of the game are where you get swarmed by a lot of enemies at once as there aren’t any crowd-clearing moves that you can spam, and you can see your health depleting very quickly. If you end up dying in a level, you will respawn, but you only have limited lives in each level, so there is still a penalty for dying.
Replaying levels are recommended given the brevity of the game. You can tweak the difficulty of each level and the higher the difficulty, the better the loot. As you defeat monsters and open chests, there will be loot which is the main source of powering up. The drops you’d want to see are strong equipment and this is where it tries to keep you addicted through better and between equipment drops that you equip and get stronger with. While at the same time you gain experience points from defeating mobs, allowing you to level up and use the enchantment points to unlock additional abilities of your equipment.
You will need to play through most of the game before you end up getting a piece of gear with decent effects. After that point, the game finally starts to become more addictive as you have enough abilities to rush through the dungeons repeating the motions of defeating enemies, searching for treasure, and then moving on. Unfortunately, the game is short, with only around ten levels plus a few more secret levels that you can unlock. You end up finishing the story in around five to eight hours. Of course, the game encourages you to repeat the levels to get better equipment but when there are such few levels, and some of them have annoying gimmicks that you don’t want to replay, it can only keep you interested in it for so long.
Finishing the story also unlocked higher difficulties, which of course, provides higher chances of better loot. There have been several updates that introduced two or three additional levels that you can play without requiring the DLC. Each of these levels are quite sizable on their own, introducing different themes and new enemies. New modes are introduced such as the Tower, where you battle floors of enemies. You start with nothing and only gather gear one piece at a time as you climb up the floors. It’s one of those modes where if you die, you lose everything and must start again but the reward if you make it to the end is worthwhile.
Overall, Minecraft Dungeons is an approachable start into the genre. It has its charms, thanks to its iconic aesthetic. The voiceovers and character models are both unique and add to its appeal. It’s great that it at least has a story instead of just throwing you one dungeon after another with no explanation, even if the story is a short one. This is a simple game that’s easy to pick up and its key draw is its gameplay loop of going through dungeons of higher and higher difficulty to get better and better gear. It never quite captures that extreme addictive nature, but it is a fun game all the same.
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