Review: Minecraft Dungeons is a solid, but simple gateway into Diablo-like games

Setting aside Minecraft: Story Mode, Minecraft Dungeons is the franchise’s first foray into an all-new genre of gameplay: dungeon crawling. In beautifully rendered environments, players will have to hack and slash their way through mobs of familiar enemies, fight bosses, pick up loot drops and suffer through the game’s banal attempt at a story. 

Minecraft Dungeons isn’t a bad game - it’s just a simple one. It stands on the shoulders of much better titles in the genre such as Diablo and Path of Exile, and doesn’t bring much originality to the table in comparison. It is a great deal simpler than these games however, serving as little more than a ‘baby’s first action-RPG’. If you’re new to the genre, or looking for a casual game to play with the kids - this is actually a surprisingly great option. 

Behold, the Orb of Dominance

Minecraft Dungeons’ simplicity is especially evident in its story. The events of the game kick off when we meet the Arch-Illager - a homeless Illager shunned by society, who comes upon a mystical artifact: the Orb of Dominance. The Orb corrupts the Illager, giving him enough power to exact his revenge on those who once ignored him, and the rest of the world for good measure. 

As far as the story goes, it has as much depth as the average Saturday morning cartoon - entertaining enough, in a forgettable kind of way. I imagine it’ll appeal to kids more than adults, but most will want to skip past these plot-heavy moments to get to actual gameplay anyway. If nothing else, it creates a good enough reason for you to fight through endless mobs of your favourite Minecraft monsters. 

You’re going to have to wait for good loot drops

Instead of picking specific character classes and abilities, Minecraft Dungeons allows you to build your characters in any way you choose by making use of various loot drops. For example, you could build a melee-focused character using swords and defensive armour. Enchantment points are given to you as you level up, and they can be used to upgrade weapons you might have grown attached to. There’s enough variety to make you reconsider dropping a weapon entirely when something else with better stats comes your way. 

Minecraft Dungeons’ Artifacts can really make or break your character builds. These nifty items can be picked up as loot drops, and function as special abilities for your character. For example, you could pick up a pair of boots that grant you a movement buff, or a fishing pole that pulls in distant enemies for a final blow. Others are decidedly more satisfying to use: huge area of effect attacks to counter overwhelming numbers, or passive healing. 

If you’re like me, you’ll find a couple artifacts worth building around. Passive healing means that you might worry less about wading through enemies with a simple sword, and area of effect attacks make it easier to smash through them. It’s pretty fun creating character builds in this game, but it seems like a rather watered-down system. Other issues in combat also bring the fun factor down a notch. 

Combat has its problems

Combat in this game seems geared more towards multiplayer co-op gameplay, and it can be a lot harder for players to beat the game solo - which flies in the face of its otherwise kid-friendly design. Potions and a useless dodge ability are stuck on long cooldowns, which makes maneuvering around the map a real pain if you don’t have the right artifacts. Enemies often surround you in hordes, and the dodge ability doesn’t allow you to roll through them - making it pretty useless as anything other than a dash button. 

Loot drops are way too rare in a game of this genre. The best stuff is either given as end-of-level rewards, or bought at in-game shops in the hub world. That means that you are rarely rewarded for defeating huge mobs of enemies - which makes for incredibly unsatisfying gameplay in the long run. It also makes the game’s pacing feel really slow, despite its already short length.

Environments are gorgeous

In this game, you'll explore various procedurally-generated levels, which will never look the same way twice. That’s important, considering that the game’s story can be beaten in under six hours, and any replayability hinges on you beating the same levels again and again on higher difficulties. 

As someone who has put way more hours into Minecraft than I'm proud of, these environments were really fun to explore. The world of Minecraft is brought to life in a really stunning way - with a gorgeous lighting system and unique environmental details in each level, making them all a joy to explore. These levels almost look like the ray-traced version of the original game, breathing new life into Minecraft’s blocky art design.

That being said, I couldn’t help but be disappointed in the way these levels are designed. They simply lack Minecraft’s soul. The original game is all about exploration and destructibility, and wading through enemy mobs to gather materials and build something creatively. I don’t expect to do the same here, but I would have liked better reasons to explore. 

The paths I took would only diverge when there were a cluster of pots to break, or very rarely, a loot chest to open. The game just feels frustratingly linear and lacks the destructible environments of the original. It feels like a missed opportunity to really cement the game’s unique selling point as a Minecraft game with Minecraft-like features, instead of being just another watered-down action-RPG. Franchises have spun off into other genres and still retained their identity - Gears Tactics being a success story in that regard. 

Verdict

Minecraft Dungeons is a fun, if shallow experience. It’s one of those games you can just kick back and play - after turning your brain off for a couple of hours. Its price point justifies its short length, and that becomes even less of an issue if you’re subscribed to Xbox Game Pass. While this game won’t blow your mind as either a replacement for Diablo or Minecraft itself, it’s a fun enough way to spend a weekend or two. 

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