Minecraft Dungeons review: Compelling combat, relentlessly rewarding, deceptively difficult

Source: Windows Primal

Minecraft Dungeons is a game that I didn't know I wanted. When it was first appear a few years ago, I wondered if information technology was going to be some other unproblematic spin-off like Minecraft Story Mode, or something akin to Left iv Dead. Instead, we've ended upwardly with something that defies all of my early on skepticism and truly delivers.

Minecraft Dungeons is an action RPG through and through, borrowing the isometric camera view and combat menses pioneered by the likes of Diablo. At that place'south no grinding materials or building hither. Minecraft Dungeons is all about satisfying combat in a gorgeous blocky world, built atop advanced visual features and physics, all on the Unreal Engine.

My expectations ran high since playing the recent beta, and although the PC client has a few quirks, the game is relentlessly rewarding, with massive potential for on-going support.

This is Minecraft Dungeons, which is easily one of the all-time games Microsoft has put out in the past decade.

My new addiction

Minecraft Dungeons

$20

Lesser line: Minecraft Dungeons meat is in its satisfying gainsay and complex grapheme-edifice opportunities, and in that, the game delivers by the truckload.

Pros:

• Endlessly satisfying, polished gainsay
• Great performance and optimization
• Tons of possible gear combinations
• Great fine art and music
• Peachy toll

Cons:

• Some minor bugs in the PC client, with disconnects and memory drain
• Barebones story handling is a missed opportunity

Minecraft Dungeons: Visuals, music, story, and performance

Minecraft's unique art style is one if it's signature features, and the teams at Double Eleven and Mojang managed to blend the pixel-manner 3D designs with some advanced visual features and physics attributable to Unreal Engine and other modern tech. The game but looks keen and runs incredibly well on my RTX 2060 Razer Blade 15, on maximum visuals with threescore frames per second.

Category	Minecraft Dungeons
Title	Minecraft Dungeons
Developer	Mojang Studios, Double Xi
Publisher	Xbox Game Studios
Genre	Action RPG
Minimum Requirements	Windows ten (64-bit)
Game Size	2.69GB
Players	1-iv players, local and online co-op
Launch Price	$xx

While Minecraft Dungeons isn't rocking ray-tracing or anything on that sort of level, it does have some impressive lighting effects and moody atmospherics, which actually come up into their own in some of the game'due south cavernous dungeons similar the claustrophobic Redstone Mines. Shimmering Redstone crystals dot the walls, while minecarts weave effectually threatening to knock yous over, all while waves upon waves of Skeletons and Creepers try to hunt you lot down.

The game has a wide diverseness of biomes to cull from equally you progress and unlock the game's levels. The Desert Temple level is crammed with traps, winding corridors, and sandy Husks, and the Soggy Swamp is the ideal locale for swarms of giant slimes trying to ingest your juicy mankind. But don't accidentally dodge roll into the muck, or yous might non live to tell the tale.

Source: Windows Central

Some of the more evocative visuals come from the game'south bosses and mini-bosses. I don't desire to spoil too much, but some of the boss battles are quite large with complex mechanics and visuals to match.

Thought the Endermen were creepy in regular Minecraft? Dungeons takes it to a new level.

The Corrupted Cauldron boss was a particular favorite, spewing Slime mobs beyond the whole surface area while expelling plumes of purple fire in melee range. Mobs like the Endermen also come up with screen-distorting spell effects, complete with intense and dynamic combat music to match. Thought the Endermen were creepy in regular Minecraft? Dungeons takes information technology to a new level.

The music especially is a big point of praise in Minecraft Dungeons, with each area, dominate, and mini-boss getting a unique and dynamic theme. During more dire battles, the intensity of the music ramps up to match, with a broad and varied score that is truly one of 2022's greats.

The soundtrack weaves in nicely with the game'southward story beats likewise, which, while few in number, are quite charming and entertaining when you practice encounter them. The evil "Curvation-Illager" claimed an artifact of immense power, granting him broad magical powers. Intent on getting revenge against regular villagers who bandage him aside, your chance mainly hinges on dismantling the Curvation-Illager's state of war machines, supply lines, and ultimately, the Arch-Illager himself.

Source: Windows Cardinal

The plot is light-hearted and is geared towards youngsters, just what'southward there is entertaining enough in that typical Minecraft way. I honestly wish there was a fleck more of it, but Mojang was upfront nearly the fact story actually isn't Minecraft Dungeons' focus. That's its gameplay, which nosotros'll get to in a minute.

Performance-wise Minecraft Dungeons is typically solid, but I did encounter a few problems during my time through the review period that I hope gets fixed earlier launch on May 26. Running the game in a borderless fullscreen window fashion seems to upset Desktop Window Manager (dwm.exe), introducing foreign CPU and GPU spikes. This might exist more of an issue with the Microsoft Store "Modern Apps" APIs, since running information technology in a regular window or in fullscreen mode doesn't crusade the issue.

Additionally, the game seems to have a bug where you get occasionally disconnected when completing a mission from an online session. Thankfully y'all don't lose any loot when this occurs, and the client does have an instant "Reconnect" button if you're playing with friends, merely it'south a little flake abrasive how frequently this occurred. Neither event is game-breaking, though, and volition probably be fixed sooner rather than later.

Minecraft Dungeons: Gameplay, mechanics, and longevity

The meat of Minecraft Dungeons is its gameplay. And like a juicy stack of freshly cooked pork chops, Minecraft Dungeons delivers a delectable spread of satisfying grind and deceptively tough higher-level content. Minecraft Dungeons really does seem to nail the "easy to play, difficult to master" design mantra Diablo Three fans are no uncertainty familiar with, as its dizzying collection of intersecting enchants, enemies, and combat styles is something I'one thousand sure I'll be dissecting for months to come.

Minecraft Dungeons follows many of the gameplay traditions set up about past its base game, revolving around "enchantments" as its primary source of character progression. There are likewise tons of dissimilar types of armor sets, weapons, and antiquity abilities to unlock and use, which overlap in their mechanics in surprising means.

I truly feel similar I've barely scratched the surface on the types of playstyles I could create.

In that location are no set character classes in the game every bit a upshot of this. Your playstyle is adamant wholly past your personal loadout, with specific areas hiding different types of loot, displayed on the globe map. If you're trying to ready up a "caster" wizard-type of playstyle, you'll want to chase downwards some of the game's "Soul" leeching weapons, armor, and abilities, which grant y'all a perishable resource for some of the game'south more magic-oriented abilities. Some of these items are more likely to drop in specific areas, and the college-level difficulty you lot select, the more powerful versions you'll learn. Equally of writing, I've completed the base of operations game and am grinding my mode through the adjacent difficulty tier, trying to pull together dissimilar gear parts to make something that looks similar to a wizard, using a Corrupted Beacon laser beam as my cadre spell, with a Soul-siphoning dagger and crossbow as my support weapons.

Source: Windows Cardinal

Designing your character build and working to obtain the correct pieces is where I expect much of the game'south longevity will come from for virtually players since the story mode itself can probably be finished in roughly four-half dozen hours. After completing the story, much similar Diablo, the game opens up with more complex mechanics in existing areas, more mortiferous enemies with unique affixes, granting them scarily powerful abilities. The rewards are far more potent, likewise, with armor and artifacts that can only be acquired through higher-level boss runs and dungeon dives, mimicking the gameplay loop of games like Monster Hunter Globe, with grapheme build design freedom to match.

I truly feel like I've barely scratched the surface on the types of playstyles I could create, with heavy armor and 2-handed weapons, ranged builds, pet-oriented builds, healer builds, shamanistic totemic builds, and many more possibilities swirling in my head equally I look at my inventory of plunder. The gear is undoubtedly i attribute of Minecraft Dungeons that Mojang thoroughly nailed.

Source: Windows Primal

Another aspect Mojang thoroughly nailed is the combat, because it simply feels sublime. Tossing a TNT crate into a swarm of mobs, seeing them ragdoll across the map into pitfalls and other hazards is a joy to behold every unmarried time, with weapons that experience weighty and impactful beyond the board. Whether you're slamming a 2-handed hammer into the flooring, squishing Creepers before they explode, or nailing them with a hail of arrows from your trusty crossbow, in that location's something for literally everybody to enjoy here. The diverseness of mob types and braze modifiers keeps repeated dungeon runs for loot feeling fresh. Ensuring the combat feels adept is utterly crucial in a game like this, and Mojang hit a home run.

Ensuring the combat feels good is utterly crucial in a game similar this, and Mojang hit a dwelling house run.

The just feedback I would give Mojang pertains to the "Soul" draining mechanic plant on some items and gear. If you build a grapheme that is designed around Soul spending as a main attack, boss battles become incredibly, ridiculously tough, because you can't go additional "Souls" from killing enemies to power your abilities. I'm not certain if the later stages of the endgame has whatsoever unique armor or weapons or modifiers that let for passive Soul-regeneration (and it may well exist the case), but initially, the mechanic feels a piffling odd.

Update: I actually only found a unique dagger that gives yous Souls on-hit, rather than on-kill, rendering this point a scrap moot. There's also a unique armor set specifically designed for Soul-generation, making this type of playstyle far more viable.

Some character builds will naturally be better at certain things over others, with some that orient more than around team-play over soloing, and that'south fine. Still, the Soul mechanic feels clunky in its current implementation. I'g sure other things may demand tweaking down the line, but for the most part, all of the weapons and armor types experience well-balanced.

Another thing that bugs me is that Microsoft, once once more, couldn't resist adding loot boxes to the game. Yes, you can't buy them with real money, but the layers of randomness could end upwardly existence frustrating for people hunting down specific items and gear.

Dungeons offer specific rewards in the completion chest at the end, giving you a caste of control over what you get, at least, just the enchants are totally random. I'm already getting flashbacks to decoration-hunting in Monster Hunter World, where fifty-fifty after 700 hours of playtime, I haven't constitute a specific gem I want for my build.

As pertains to progression, yous can deconstruct your weapons into Emeralds and so spend them at vendors in your army camp to larn new ones, if your items are getting obsolete. It's a little abrasive, though, if you've found a actually cool weapon you enjoy using, only to accept to ditch it for something else for the raw power to progress. That'due south pretty typical of the genre, though. Minecraft Dungeons throws and so much loot at you lot that you're bound to find something y'all like to utilise, and the gainsay is so fun that the journey is relentlessly enjoyable.

Should yous purchase Minecraft Dungeons?

Source: Windows Primal

Minecraft Dungeons is only $twenty, which in my listen is an incredibly high-value proposition given its multiplayer capabilities and piles of boodle to sift through and obtain. If you lot're simply in it for the story completion, you may exist a flake disappointed, given its length.

If you're a fan of action RPGs, I cartel say Minecraft Dungeons will finish upward existence your side by side add-on.

Minecraft Dungeons simply takes cues from Diablo and other similar games revolving effectually loot and combat, rather than plot immersion. This disregards the fact information technology's too on Xbox Game Laissez passer, complimentary for anyone with a sub.

Information technology's hard to say what the post-launch support will look like, but Mojang is already planning to send additional content in the class of new adventures and areas, alongside a cross-play update allowing players from Xbox, PC, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4 to group up and play together.

I've already sunk several hours into the game as I dive deeper into the endgame difficulty tiers, getting wrecked past empowered Slimes with boosted armor and flame trails just makes me desire more powerful loot fifty-fifty more than. That familiar, satisfying addiction that comes with loot-oriented games similar this has already gripped me, owing to the game's persistently fulfilling gainsay. If you lot're a fan of action RPGs, I dare say Minecraft Dungeons will end upward beingness your next addition also.

My new habit

Minecraft Dungeons

Minecraft meets Diablo.

Minecraft Dungeons effortlessly blends the world of Minecraft with the activeness RPG stylings of Diablo to create something truly compelling.

We reviewed Minecraft Dungeons using a copy provided past Microsoft, on a Windows 10 PC.

We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more than.

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