Minecraft Dungeons
A more approachable entry point for the hack and slash genre.
Boiled down to its rudiments, Minecraft Dungeons is made up of three things; fighting, collecting, and levelling. The 10-hour campaign whisks you and up to three other friends across a number of diverse levels filled to the bucket with enemies and loot, and it’s your job to explore every nook and cranny, dispatching mobs via classic point-and-click combat embellished with plenty of Minecraft flavoured twists.
There’s even a story to follow along with if you need some narrative context to all the hacking and slashing but, honestly, it’s nothing to write home about. There’s an evil king with a mystical orb of power who you need to take down… aaand that’s about it. While I appreciate the production value boasted by Dungeons’ handful of plot advancing cutscenes, it’s a shame that Mojang doesn’t make better use of Minecraft’s expansive well of folklore for something a bit more fan servicing. No-one would have missed the simple story that’s presented here instead, which feels like a wasted opportunity at best.
Thankfully, Minecraft’s prosaic storytelling isn’t much of an issue, because its key ingredients are compelling enough on their own terms. Mojang has taken a more inventive approach to the action RPG template, ditching traditional class-based roles for a system of player progression and customisation that’s far more malleable, albeit at the expense of some depth. A character’s role on the battlefield is instead determined by whatever armour, weapons, enchantments, potions, and ability-bestowing artefacts they might have equipped at the time, each carrying stat bonuses and special abilities that combine and react with each other like active elements in an alchemical cocktail. The results are everchanging, always fun, often visually spectacular, and sometimes radically unbalanced, but never to the detriment of Dungeon’s entertainment value.
Want to be a wizard-like healer that also just happens to wield a massive, electrified warhammer? You can do that. Found some agility-boosting Fox armour that meshes perfectly with your Elite Power Bow and Flaming Quiver? Become the volleying vulpes you always knew you were born to play. Minecraft Dungeons’ refusal to abide by the compartmentalised rules of its forebears makes for an experience that gleefully embraces the volatility of experimentation.
There’s a general sense of fluidity underscoring combat, ensuring every swing of the blade and thrum of the bow is precise and satisfying in its feedback, all anchored by a silky smooth framerate, easy-touse control scheme, and high threshold of technical polish that never once lets up.
Mojang’s smartly streamlined dungeon crawler makes for a more accessible alternative in the action RPG space.
Rachel Watts