Minecraft Dungeons Review
Played on Xbox One (base)
Developed by Mojang Studios & Double Eleven
Released 26th May 2020
Played Co-op
Diablo, Torchlight, Warhammer: End Times, Left 4 Dead, The Legend of Zelda series and more were all catalysts for sparking intriguing ideas proposed by the developers. These influences shifted the final product away from a single-player experience, a class system, a mining and crafting mechanic and more - for better and worse.
Story
The story is simplistic; a battle between good and evil with a narrative that only appears to loosely string each dungeon/level together. Normally this would be fine, as games being focused more on gameplay is common and not at all a problem. However, the problem I have is that Minecraft Dungeons doesn't have a captivating story. The original world phenomenon had high amounts of lore and theories circulating its world and mobs and for a game like this to not even bother making a somewhat decent story is almost insulting to the legacy of Minecraft. Yet, it should be mentioned that this title was developed, advertised and sold as a co-op/ family fun experience for kids, so an attempt at a deep-lored narrative probably didn't seem that great of a pitch to the executives. As a result, I'll give the story the benefit of the doubt, but it still is lacklustre in its own regard.
Gameplay
The gameplay, unfortunately, is underachieving from my perspective. The exploration, crafting and building that Minecraft is known for are nowhere in sight of this 9-hour “joy ride”. Instead, it decides to stay safe and be simplistic in terms of gameplay with the repetitive mashing of the melee or ranged attack, occasionally using an artefact ability. You can go off and explore every nook and cranny in hopes of treasure and bonus loot for your discovery but most of the time it ends with a dead-end. We played on the hardest difficulty it always offered so that we could try to play strategically, however, the monotony this game presents was too overwhelming. Once you start receiving the "cooler" weapons, the game falls into this loop that is visually engaging yet tedious as the same task would be repeated all throughout: survive one or two ambushes, perform an area-specific task and then fight a boss.
The loot you would use for this cycle wasn't that good. The loot variations and quality didn't increase until we had 3 missions left - out of 14. In those final levels, the weapons were great, each with its own unique animations, strengths and weaknesses that were new for everything-Minecraft - glaives, hammers, dual daggers, etc. However, to reach this stage, you'd have to endure the blandness of a standard sword, pickaxe or bow. Even when you start getting higher-quality weaponry, the chances of you being able to equip it were low as these rare drops wouldn't be good enough stat-wise, undermining the whole loot system that dungeon crawlers thrive off of. The artefacts suffered from a similar flaw as the weapons - cool to use, but not effective in any regard. The artefacts were special, on-cooldown abilities that ranged in usability, from the Totem of Regeneration to the Corrupted Beacon's high-intensity beam. It really is a shame that the loot system of this game ruined many moments for me as I would've loved to use each of these abilities but simply couldn't if I wanted to survive any future enemy encounters.
This leads me to a missed opportunity I would've liked to see: classes. A class system would've fixed many problems I've had; from the random loot drops being too dependable on stats to abilities being nothing but a means of surviving rather than a way to expand playstyles, etc. The game takes a step in the right direction with enchantment points where instead of using your level-up points to increase health & damage you would normally get in a skill tree, you get enchantment points to upgrade your arsenal with intriguing abilities like the Minecraft norms of fire aspect to some more unique and new such as a poison cloud or gravitational pulls.
Bossfights
The boss fights of this game are entertaining to a certain point. The intimidation from their health bars, damage, and movesets perfectly synchronise with their lack of repetivity and environment-matching abilities. Whether it's the Redstone Monstrosity's heavy footsteps as he chases you in the obsidian arena with his high-damage knockback hits or The Nameless One's barrage of enemy spawning and projectiles in a forbidden oasis, these duels were entertaining. Unfortunately, this only applies to the 4 main bosses, who are accompanied by 3 mini-bosses that appear way too often to make them feel special and appreciated. The first time you get bombarded with the Enderman's teleport attacks or the Evoker's claw traps line up to strike you, you jump with shock and excitement as you've encountered a fight that's there to test your current skills and gear, however, by the time you get to the 5th Redstone Golem, you lose a sense of their immense strength and wonder why they even have a HUD-displayed health bar.
Atmosphere
The atmosphere of this game is amazing. Visually, it's impressive with its small lighting cues and fantastic level designs: a rainy and gloomy Soggy Swamp, a mix between long-forgotten sands and a Lilly-padded oasis of the Desert Temple and more. You can easily get lost in the beauty of this game, despite its blocky nature. The music is a little disappointing as it could've been utilised to bring life to the beginning areas as they desperately needed them. The iconicity of Minecraft's soundtrack is grand and while everyone knows that future spin-off games of the popular genre changer won't be as impressive, the developers could've at least tried to score a second place with this game's soundtrack. As previously mentioned, the design of the levels is fantastic visually, however, the mechanism of the level layout and structure is appalling as mentioned in the gameplay section. It either has an unenjoyable maze-like structure to it or has many pointless and unrewarding dead ends.
Story- 5/10
Gameplay- 6/10
Bossfights- 8/10
Atmosphere- 8/10
Mediocre
Dungeons is the third spin-off of the Minecraft IP and while I believe Telltale's Story Mode was superior in delivering a better experience, Dungeons does succeed in being a fun yet simplistic co-op experience, but it doesn't extend much past that point.
