Minecraft Dungeons Review

Here’s an odd elevator pitch: think Diablo with the Minecraft aesthetic. Your immediate thought is probably “Wait, that doesn’t work. It shouldn’t work.”

Minecraft Dungeons breaks down the Diablo formula even further in a way that allows the non-hardcore player to digest the dungeon crawler genre in an almost pure form.

You might mistake that as me saying “It’s a dumbed down version of Diablo” but the truth is, even Diablo has been heading in this direction since Diablo 3 went console. In Minecraft Dungeons, there isn’t a class system that you really need to worry about wrestling with, yet there is still a level of flexibility offered in the form of your skill and weapon points.

No classes to be found here; enhancements are the name of this game

The skills offered on each weapon are randomized, so not only is there an incentive to upgrade your weapon based on pure attack power, you may find a weapon with a set of skills more suited to your preferred playstyle. I think I prefer it this way because I’m incentivized to actually examine and try out new weapons. In the Diablo series, I’ve historically only focused on weapons that enhanced a very specific build that I am working on. It’s an unfortunate side effect of the core design that would usually result in me ignoring large portions of the loot table.

For the loot collector, I can see where this is an issue. As far as I can tell, there really aren’t any set items to hunt for and when you play a loot game, that’s ultimately the prize. I don’t think players should expect this to be a loot game though; I think it’s purely a dungeon crawler and that’s it.

It does retain the Minecraft aesthetic perfectly yet manages to craft entire areas that are varied and vibrant. My biggest concern was that everything in a Minecraft dungeon crawler would look the same and yet it doesn’t. That in and of itself manages to also show off how versatile this style can be.

For my playthrough, I played entirely on controller and at no point did I ever feel gimped by playing this way. They seem to have nailed it and after the success of Diablo 3, it would have been a major bummer if they didn’t get it right from the start.

One thing I am disappointed with is the lack of cross save between the PC and console versions. That relationship brings a lot of value into the Xbox ecosystem for someone like me, who’s lucky enough to have both a PC and an Xbox console. It’s not a deal breaker; you’ll have fun for any version you pick up. I just would have liked the ability to maintain the same character across different versions.

Should you buy it, wait for a sale, or skip it?

I would definitely buy it. Minecraft Dungeons is a fun enough game for both genre veterans and newcomers to thoroughly enjoy. If you’re looking for an introductory title into the world of isometric dungeon crawlers, look no further than this game.