Since its debut over a decade ago, Minecraft has gone from being an underground hit to a cultural phenomenon. It’s been a video game, a source of income, a way to explore creative thinking, and even a choose your own adventure game with Minecraft: Story Mode. Now, Mojang Studios has returned to the voxel-filled world of Minecraft with a Diablo-esque adventure called Minecraft Dungeons. As the name implies, it’s a dungeon-crawler with an isometric viewpoint. This allows the in-game world to shine brightly, with this bright setting standing out immediately from the fantasy settings of many games of its ilk. Much like how the original game was a fantastic gateway game for those looking to get into world creation and resource management, Dungeons aims to have that same effect on action-centric RPGs.
There’s an emphasis on ease of use with Minecraft Dungeons that definitely helps with its aim to be a gateway game for the genre. On-screen icons are large and clearly labeled with bold text, making it easy to figure out which button does what. It’s also pretty helpful in its overall design as the procedural generation has been crafted in such a way that you’re never left with the deck too stacked against you. You’ll have waves of enemies to defeat, but unless you’re in a blocked-off area that won’t open up until you defeat them, you can avoid many enemies by attacking from afar with your arrows and then slicing up others when they come near with your sword. You can even augment your weapons with elemental powers, so if you want to attach a lightning strike to your sword slash, give it a shot.
For the first time ever, a Minecraft game will get a launch day release on the Switch alongside other platforms. As a whole, you can enjoy the game on PC via the Microsoft Game Store, the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch. Xbox Game Pass users can also enjoy it on whatever platform they have Game Pass on, while Game Pass Ultimate users can enjoy it on PC or Xbox One. At only $20, it’s a fantastic value for the money if you’re itching for a dungeon-crawler, and it has enough versatility in its design between melee and long-range attacks to keep it fresh for quite a while.
