I really don’t understand why it took me so long to play Minecraft Dungeons. I remember being so excited when it first came out and I remember picking up a copy of the Hero Edition from the Argentina eshop because it was like $4. I was so happy that I even bought a copy for one of my best friends because I thought it would be so cool if the two of us could play the game together.

That was many months ago and I never started the game up for the first time until early September. A part of me was kind of like, now that I have it, I don’t really have to worry about it anymore so I pushed the game to the back of my mind. Another part of me saw a few gameplay videos of my favorite Youtubers playing the game and I didn’t really like it at the time. Though, I’m starting to think that it was because they were playing in a group instead of playing the game by themselves.

But after a very very long wait, I finally played the game and I ended up being really happy that I finally tried it out. By the end of just the second mission I was fully addicted with the gameplay loop and the Diablo III weapons and loot system

GRAPHICS: 8/10

I really enjoyed the graphics of Minecraft Dungeons for the most part. It’s not as 3D as regular Minecraft because the game plays in a fixed camera birds eye view that’s slightly tilted and everything’s smaller so that you can see a lot on the screen. Because of that, many of the blocks have less detail than they normally would and if you tried starring at individual blocks, it might start to hurt your eyes as a result.

One thing that I really liked was that many of the natural items have some level of animation. For instance, many of the trees, bushes, and grass will move around a bit in the wind. I thought that was a really nice touch. I also really liked many of the structures that are scattered all over the game world. There’s so many structures that have a decent amount of detail that make it look like this world had huge villages and lots of history versus very small villages with nothing around for miles in normal Minecraft.

It really looked more like a server where people have been building their own civilization for a while instead of a vanilla world. I really like having that kind of game world and it really brought the game to life more than I thought it would. I really liked the cutscenes too. Some were in game animations while others were more animated and they all looked really great.

The only thing that I don’t really like was the animation and FPC. I remember there were lots of times where I would be loading into another world and it would stutter a lot with the game basically pausing for a split second every one to two seconds. Not only that, but if I paused or went into a menu for too long, the FPS would be pretty low once I return to the game and that would last for a few seconds. But other than that, I ended up being pleasantly surprised with the graphics of Minecraft Dungeons.

SOUND: 9/10

When it comes to the sound, I ended up being pretty happy with what the game delivered. Minecraft Dungeons is for the most part definitely a Minecraft game when it comes to sound because you have many of the standard Minecraft sounds while you’re playing. This includes your generic menu sounds, combat sounds, and mob sounds. The music is also pretty good and feels right at home in a Minecraft game.

The thing that really caught me off guard is the voice acting. That was not something that I expected from a Minecraft game at all. Each of the cutscenes showed you what was going on but it was also being narrated. Not only is that great for simply getting the story across, the fact that there was fully voiced dialogue in Minecraft just blew my mind. Overall, the game has some really good sound design.

ADDICTIVENESS: 10/10

For the most part, I really enjoy dungeon crawling games. I love the gameplay loop and combat aspects of games like Diablo III and I thought that I would get the same feelings from Minecraft Dungeons. But once I actually started playing, I realized that I started having way more fun that I ever did with other dungeon crawling games. The dungeon crawling aspect of Minecraft Dungeons is a lot more casual and laid back than other games within the genre and it’s pretty easy too (Unless you make it really hard)

The game tries to be a dungeon crawling game that’s for everyone while also keeping the essence of what makes Minecraft fun, and I think that it works. Many of the missions are fun and once you start getting into weapons, loot, enchantments, and the games currency, you might even start having more fun.

Many of the missions were pretty long, there were some that lasted me 10 to 20 minutes. There were a couple times where 10 minutes in, I would be like ugh when does this level end. But I wasn’t doing that because I was bored or because I just wanted to progress to the next level. I was doing that because I wanted to head back to camp because I was excited to see all the different loot that I collected, weapons and upgrades that I got, and other things so that I could go right back into dungeons with a better loadout.

You can also have so much fun doing the same missions over and over again. You can do the same one multiple times if you want to get more money or loot, or even if you just want to battle, but there’s also a large number of difficulty levels for each mission. There’s like around 10 so if you beat the mission once, you can go back and try it again at a higher difficulty for a bigger challenge and better rewards.

There was one time where I wanted to grind for as much loot as I could get and I kept doing the same mission over and over but I was raising the difficulty each time. Because of that, it was a brand new experience each and every time, and it took me well over an hour to try all the difficulty levels. By the end, I had a lot of fun but also I ended up with a ton of sweet loot.

The gameplay and combat is also lots of fun. To me it felt more like an action RPG than a dungeon crawler and it was very fast paced at times. There were so many times where I’d be slicing up mobs with my sword and then fire my bow a few times before switching back to my sword and it was just fun.

This version of Minecraft doesn’t have mining. Or crafting. But it’s a whole lot of fun and has so much to do.

STORY: 8/10

Minecraft Dungeons starts off with the narrator talking about an Illiger who was kicked out of their raid tower and not wanted wherever he went but then one day he found a magical cube that gave him all the power that he could ever dream of. So like any liliger, he used it to basically take over the world. He wanted revenge on everyone that’s ever did him wrong and now it’s up to you to stop him.

After that opening cutscene, you’re off on your way to free the villagers that were trapped by him and you save the day. Each world that you visit has its own little sub story that changes as you go through the world and builds up to the final battle with the liliger. The story itself is a decent premise and I’m a fan of how it ended and the potential of another game.

DEPTH: 9/10

There’s a lot to do in Minecraft Dungeons. Sure, it’s not real Minecraft where the world is infinite, there’s a million skins, and endless possibilities. But there’s still so much when it comes to depth. For starters, there is a decent number of skins to choose from. There are 32 base ones that come with the game and then another 14 that can be unlocked with DLC for a total of 46. There’s also a ton going on when it comes to your inventory. There’s lots of weapons and armor to choose from, a ton of artifacts and enchantments to find, and many cosmetic items.

The world itself is also really big. You have your camp that you call home and the mainland area which itself is pretty big and has lots of missions to choose from, each takes place in their own world that’s pretty big. On top of that, you have a ton of island realms that offer many more missions and places to explore. Lastly you have a tab called Other Dimensions which lets you visit a bunch of places like the End and Nether for even more missions but those are all unlocked with the DLC.

The big thing is that you can’t just buy whatever you want or find things in specific places. It’s just like your standard dungeon crawler where you need a little RNG and whenever you find something, it will be completely random for the most part. You might even be finding some common items for the first time after many hours and getting every little thing that you need could take a lot of time as a result.

The game is fun and there’s a lot to do, enough to keep you busy for 20 or more hours and that’s if you’re playing by yourself. If you add your friends into the mix, you’re going to get so much more out of the game and you’ll end up wasting even more hours and having so much more fun.

DIFFICULTY: 2

The first few missions are all going to be super easy. Many of the mobs are going to have no armor on and they will all need just one hit to kill. By the time you get to the harder levels, you should have leveled up a bunch and have a ton of better weapons, armor, and enchantments. But you can also change the difficulty to make it as easy or as hard as you want it to be. Depending on your level, there’s going to be a number of difficulty levels to choose from and if you’re having too much trouble with one mission, you can try playing it on the lowest difficulty that the game allows. If that doesn’t help, then you should just go back to some of the previous levels and keep grinding until you find better loot or level up a couple times.

Once you do that, the game will be much easier but depending on how you play, it should rarely even get that hard to begin with.

OVERALL: 8.8/10

Overall Minecraft Dungeons is a game that can be lots of fun and it still has a ton of potential because new DLC was just released back in September and there’s the potential for even more new stuff to be added in the future which would give players even more to do. The game looks really good, has a decent story, has lots of content, and really fun gameplay. So if you’re a fan of Minecraft or you just like dungeon crawlers in general, then Minecraft Dungeons is really a game that you should be checking out.

I love Minecraft and I was excited for this game, but I really regret not playing it sooner because it ended up being even better than what I was expecting. Overall, my grade for Minecraft Dungeons is going to be an 8.8 out of 10.