• Genre:  Roguelike, Dungeon Crawler
• Platforms: Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch, PC
• Developer | Publisher: Mojang Studios, Double 11
• Age Rating: PEGI 7 | ESRB E
• Price: UK £15.99 | US $19.99
• Release Date: 26th May 2020

A review code was not provided, I purchased this with my own money and my opinions are based on my own experience.

Gameplay

Minecraft Dungeons is not like traditional Minecraft, you don’t even mine or build. Instead it is a hack and slash dungeon crawler in randomly generated levels. You try to get to the end of each level fighting monsters, finding treasures, and collecting weapons. There are many different types of weapons, bows, and armour. Some are familiar to minecraft players like a Sword and Pickaxe, but most are completely new. Each piece of equipment has random abilities which can be upgraded with enchantment points you gain from leveling up. You get special skills called artifacts, which you can equip 3 at once, they are usually support items with some offensive options.

You have more than 10 levels to select from and each can have different artifacts and weapons to obtain within them. Levels can be anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes long, so it isn’t something you can pull out real quick and put back away. Higher difficulty options are available after beating the game. Game can be played with players on Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC through a Microsoft account. The whole game can be played with up to 4 players online, locally, or by yourself. Controls feel pretty good, everything makes sense where they are. My only complaint is that you can’t remap any of the buttons, but you will probably get used to it.

Graphics, Sound, and Performance

The graphics look nice, nothing mind blowing but really captures the essence of Minecraft and doesn’t look like they just built the world maps within Minecraft itself. The music is basically non-existent, there are sounds of explosions, items, and killing enemies, but you will almost never hear the music because it is too subdue. Performance is where this game really lacks. They game can become very laggy, frames will drop, and textures drop in resolution. Online is even worse, latency is a huge issue where you can hit an enemy and it won’t register till 1 second later which could mean life and death. Sometimes you will clip out of the world, enemies will spawn in unreachable locations, and even something as simple as skipping a cutscene will get you killed. Now a lot of these issues have been fixed slightly with updates. While it helps, it doesn’t completely fix everything, but I no point, it ruins my experience.

Difficulty

This game can get hard at times. It is never unfair, but you won’t be breezing through the whole game. Multiplayer doesn’t completely throw away the difficulty, yes it helps when more people are playing, but the game scales difficulty and number of enemies to how many players are playing. If you find this game too easy, the only way to increase it is after you beat the game, you unlock a higher difficulty, and one more after that for a total of 3. That might drive off a few players who are looking for a challenge, but the longer you stick around the harder it does get, with new weapons and more skills at higher levels. 

Conclusion

Minecraft is a good entry game for people who have tried dungeon crawlers. It isn’t as in-depth, skillful, or complicated as the others. It is a good game to sit back and relax without having to plan every move and at the risk of losing it all. Even though there is enough strategy to keep more skillful players here. With the game’s numerous bugs, and not being too revolutionary, you aren’t missing out on this one if you are a huge fan of dungeon crawlers. 

Verdict
Nothing mind blowing or revolutionary, but it was a pretty alright experience in the end. 
6.5/10