Minecraft Dungeons
Unfortunately, my first impression wasn't great. Minecraft Dungeons is a fairly straightforward dungeon-crawler, tasking you with exploring a set of fairly linear maps while defeating enemies in order to reach a boss or an exit at their end. However, before you can get to the gameplay, you need to "customize" your character and navigate through a few menus. This is where the developers made it painfully obvious that I wasn't playing the whole game. Every DLC skin available was listed in the character creation screen, linking to the store if I wanted to use them, and then the level-select map did the same with all of the DLC chapters, making it seem like I wasn't going to have a complete experience, despite having the whole base game.
Even after making it past the cheapskate shaming, the first few levels were a relatively poor experience. Everything was so abhorrently easy that I had almost no reason to seek out better gear, but I can excuse that as a move towards accessibility. What really troubled me was the maps. Before I learned what not to do, I was exploring every nook and cranny of each area, expecting to be stopped by an invisible wall if I couldn't go any farther. Instead, the game let me keep going, even when it meant that I would get trapped and have to perform an insane wiggle and roll dance just to start moving around again. There are so many spots where this is an issue that I had to stop getting close to the edges of the map for fear of getting permanently stuck.
Luckily, once I got used to the bullcrap, the rest of the game ended up being really rewarding. While it was still repetitive, relatively bare-bones, and very generic (the only Minecraft thing here is the aesthetics), I was having enough fun that I didn't care. Dungeons lets you choose a difficulty before every level, with better rewards available to those who push themselves, making the combat a lot more interesting. That difficulty drove me to start developing my character, which I really enjoyed. Defeating enemies earns experience points for leveling up, which boosts your stats a little, but also earns you enchantment points to improve your gear. I thought that finding gear and upgrading it was an absolute blast, especially when I could use them for passive auto-attacks. It was awesome entering enemy-filled corridors to find that my animal friends and magical armor had already started clearing the way for me.
Ultimately, beating Minecraft Dungeons doesn't take long, but it is a lot of fun after the initial slump. Plus, there's plenty more game available if you really want it. However, I personally think the main campaign is just right, and I probably would've gotten sick of much more repetition. Honestly, if some of the effort that went into crafting the DLC levels was spent on refining the game and squashing some bugs instead, this would probably be a much better title. As it stands, Minecraft Dungeons is still a fun way to spend a few hours, and I wouldn't refuse a chance to play again, I just don't think I'll ever be aching to seek it out on my own.
The game is available for Steam here (as of 9/18/21): https://store.steampowered.com/app/1672970/Minecraft_Dungeons/
The game is available for Switch here (as of 9/18/21): https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/minecraft-dungeons-switch/
The game is available for Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S here (as of 9/18/21): https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/minecraft-dungeons
The game is available for PS4 and PS5 here (as of 9/18/21): https://store.playstation.com/en-us/concept/10000378/
