{"id":33204,"date":"2020-05-26T09:42:43","date_gmt":"2020-05-26T09:42:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/?guid=899fbece6644e0534cb618f039b04423"},"modified":"2020-05-26T09:42:43","modified_gmt":"2020-05-26T09:42:43","slug":"minecraft-dungeons-review-familiarity-needs-content","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/2020\/05\/26\/minecraft-dungeons-review-familiarity-needs-content\/","title":{"rendered":"Minecraft Dungeons Review \u2013 Familiarity Needs Content"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\t\t\tPublisher:<\/b> Microsoft\n\t\t<\/div>\n
\n\t\t\tDeveloper:<\/b> Mojang, Double Eleven\n\t\t<\/div>\n
\n\t\t\t\tRelease:<\/b> 2020\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n
\n\t\t\tReviewed on:<\/b> Xbox One\n\t\t<\/div>\n
\n\t\t\tAlso on:<\/b>
\n\t\t\tPlayStation 4, Switch, PC\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p>\n

Minecraft Dungeons is a roller-coaster ride of an action\/RPG, giving new players a fairly deep representation of the genre while providing veterans a nice diversion from traditionally grimdark trappings. Minecraft\u2019s familiar world, tools, and other elements seamlessly make the transition from the mainline series. Its suite of enemies is a natural fit for this type of game, and Mojang introduces new members of the menagerie to fill out a few missing archetypes. Unfortunately, Minecraft Dungeons\u2019 padded-out midgame is repetitive even among its grind-heavy peers. The first big drop in this ride had me screaming, but it wasn\u2019t from exhilaration.<\/p>\n

Minecraft\u2019s \u201cplay how you want to\u201d philosophy is a driving force in Dungeons. When you start, you pick a skin for your character, but not a class; instead, Dungeons has more of free-flowing feel. One moment I was taking down zombies with a flurry of up-close dagger strikes, only to smack a golem in the forehead with a newly found giant hammer a few minutes later. That flexibility is a great goal, and I appreciate not being held down by choices I made hours ago. The implementation of this freedom isn\u2019t fully successful, however.<\/p>\n

In its first few hours, the power progression comes as quickly as the leveling. Sure, the loot drops aren\u2019t as frequent as you might expect from an action\/RPG, but since just about every piece of equipment you find is an upgrade in one way or another, it doesn\u2019t matter. After you settle into the midgame, when progress comes at a comparative crawl, the cracks are hard to ignore.<\/p>\n

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Most notably, you\u2019re completely at the mercy of probability tables when it\u2019s time to replace your weapons, armor, or artifacts. You can\u2019t upgrade an item\u2019s fundamental level as you outgrow it, and there aren\u2019t stores that sell specific pieces, so you can\u2019t craft or customize anything new to fit your desired playstyle. This approach severely limits your options, because, without any foundational class abilities, everything your character can do is determined by the items you have equipped. No matter how much you want to be a tanky fighter, you can\u2019t unless you are lucky enough to have the right equipment at the appropriate level.<\/p>\n

You get these items as rewards for defeating enemies, but you also use in-game currency to buy blind-box chests from merchants. The contents of these chests are so wide in scope that they\u2019re essentially worthless. You can buy chests with gear or artifacts, but \u201cgear\u201d encompasses all categories of weapons and armor \u2013 swords, bows, armor, axes, maces, daggers, and more. \u201cArtifacts\u201d include every type of spell-like ability, from pet-summoning to healing. This turns every blacksmith visit into a virtual casino, and rather than looking forward to what each transaction might bring, I started to dread every encounter with the smith. Good luck getting what you\u2019re after.<\/p>\n

Getting gear may not adhere to the overall Minecraft spirit, but Dungeons\u2019 take on enchanting is interesting. When you eventually get a weapon or suit of armor that you like, you can add special abilities through enchantments. A degree of randomization is at play here, with potential enchantments pulled from a large pool, but I enjoyed seeing the different possibilities. For instance, a burning enchantment sets enemies within melee range ablaze. Piercing gives arrows the ability to travel through multiple enemies. A set of armor can be imbued with a snowball enchantment, firing icy projectiles automatically at short intervals to stun enemies. Better quality gear has a higher chance of having better enchant options and additional slots.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Click here to watch embedded media<\/a><\/p>\n

Artifacts are essentially your skills, and they can be equipped like gear. These operate on cooldowns, and, coupled with enchants, allow for some basic and satisfying synergies. A fireworks arrow lets you fire a special projectile with a damaging blast radius. I loved this artifact on its own, but using it with a bow equipped with multishot and infinity enchants not only gave me a random chance of firing several of these explosive payloads at once, but of nocking an additional one for a bonus follow-up salvo. Combinations like these are rewarding, which makes it even more of a bummer knowing that I\u2019d eventually out-level their utility without a reliable way of finding replacements. Levels have defined loot tables, so it\u2019s possible to target your desired loot a little, but it would be great to have some more agency when it comes to gearing up.<\/p>\n

Curiously, for a game with such a focus on items, managing them is a bare-bones affair. You can\u2019t mark items as favorites or junk, or create gear sets for different purposes \u2013 say a loadout that focuses on support skills like healing when playing co-op, or a pure survivability build for solo play. You can\u2019t share loot that you\u2019ve found with other players, either. Loot is targeted for individual players when you\u2019re grouping together, so you don\u2019t have to worry about someone else stealing gear, but the collaborative element of keeping an item so you can give it to your buddy later is sorely missing.<\/p>\n

Minecraft Dungeons nails the franchise aesthetic, with 10 main story levels based on a variety of the mainline game\u2019s biomes. Your adventure begins with a visit to a village in distress, before taking you through the autumnal Pumpkin Pastures, the rainy (and appropriately named) Soggy Swamp, through the Desert Temple, and ultimately an encounter with the evil Arch-Illager. This evil sorcerer swoops in several times throughout the campaign, which lasts around five hours, summoning minions and generally being a pain.<\/p>\n

Beating the campaign unlocks a higher Adventure difficulty setting, with better loot and tougher monsters. Beat that, and you get the Apocalypse setting, which promises even more of everything. I managed to do so over the course of several marathon sessions, but it\u2019s not worth the trouble. The awkward middle period of the game lasts entirely too long; that\u2019s when you can see the possibilities that the various enchantments and items have, but none of the drops are good enough to live up to that potential. I didn\u2019t get any drops with three enchantment slots until the tail end of Adventure mode \u2013 after playing the same levels over and over again for about a dozen hours. Every item I picked up was a compromise in some way, but not in a fun or gratifying way. The difficultly is simply tuned too high to make all but a few items viable. It\u2019s fun to have a llama or wolf pet, but they die almost instantly against enchanted foes. It\u2019s better to take on another healing item instead. Useful, sure, but boring.<\/p>\n

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Once the initial novelty of recognizing familiar elements from the Minecraft world wears off, you\u2019re left with a remarkable sense of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu. Sure, levels are procedurally generated, but barely so. I was convinced that something was broken since the variation between playthroughs was so slight. I played one level back to back and was proven wrong. The main beats of a particular stage are the same session to session, with subtle variations in where hallways may go or whether one section will have a few extra rooms. I\u2019m not expecting completely reworked levels, but it makes exploration boring. That\u2019s inexcusable for a Minecraft game, and it feels stingy. I eventually stopped trying to clear out the map fog before finishing a level, because I knew the majority of the discoveries would be worthless. Sure, there might be a pot at the end of a hallway with five emeralds inside, but when you consider the smith charges upward of 100 gems for a chest, it\u2019s just not worth the effort.<\/p>\n

I was also puzzled by the overall lack of interactivity within the stages. I wasn\u2019t expecting fully destructible environments or the ability to tunnel my way through the world; that\u2019s what actual Minecraft is for. But the lack of any real interactive elements in the worlds makes it feel like you\u2019re touring a museum. Crates, barrels, and other genre staples are in abundance, but your weapons pass harmlessly through them. Even Creepers detonate without leaving so much as a scratch on the environment, failing even to break nearby pots. Again, I\u2019m not expecting them to leave massive craters across the world, but their implementation in Dungeons falls completely flat.<\/p>\n

Overall, I\u2019d say my frustrations with Minecraft Dungeons are amplified because I love so much of what it does. Mojang effectively tapped what makes Minecraft Minecraft, and I marveled over the various nods and references throughout my early sessions. Witches toss (and drink) potions like they do in the mainline game, making them a priority elimination in larger battles. Endermen and Evokers pop up as mid-bosses, adding a sense of urgency and danger to the adventure. There\u2019s even a Treasure Goblin analog, though it\u2019s a pig with a treasure chest on its back, which you can loot after chasing it down. It\u2019s a joy to stroll through these worlds at first, but playing the same handful of levels back to back to back gives way to monotony.<\/p>\n

Minecraft Dungeons has a solid core, and I\u2019d love to see where it goes from here. Hopefully, Mojang recognizes the fact that games with grinding don\u2019t have to be as much of a grind. It would be great to have some kind of way to experience levels in a remixed format, similar to how Diablo III has rifts or Torchlight and Path of Exile offer more randomized maps to encourage replays. But Minecraft Dungeons\u2019 current approach is simply replaying the same stuff over again, and just isn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n

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Score: 7<\/h2>\n

Summary: <\/b>Minecraft Dungeons\u2019 padded-out midgame is repetitive even among its grind-heavy peers. <\/p>\n

Concept: <\/b>An approachable action\/RPG set within the world of Minecraft, featuring recognizable creatures and biomes <\/p>\n

Graphics: <\/b>Minecraft\u2019s iconic aesthetic shines and looks great as a backdrop for the action <\/p>\n

Sound: <\/b>The score beautifully fits with what you\u2019ve come to expect from Minecraft. Audio is light overall, and the silent heroes, as on-brand as they may be, feel weird <\/p>\n

Playability: <\/b>Aim assists make targeting enemies at range a breeze, and melee has a satisfying bite. However, combat is repetitive, even within a genre built on the grind <\/p>\n

Entertainment: <\/b>The first few hours are a treat, and the late game has a nice element of experimentation. Unfortunately, its flaws balloon during the lengthy middle stretch. <\/p>\n

Replay: <\/b>High <\/p>\n

Click to Purchase<\/a><\/p>\n\n

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