Minecraft Dungeons: beyond the blocks

What began as a sandbox of blocks has now grew beyond the limitations of its origin. How fairs the IP of Minecraft when it doesn’t have the absolute freedom of creativity, and is instead given a few rules to play with? How well can a game change its very genre, and survive on its prestige alone?

As we near ever closer to the real-time strategy title Minecraft Legends, now is the perfect time to look at another one of the blocky spinoffs. Let’s examine the time when Mojang took its iconic sandbox and flipped it on its head as a dungeon crawler with Minecraft Dungeons.

Let me tell you a tale

The correlation between Minecraft and Minecraft Dungeons is far from the first of its kind. Most notably would be anything in the Super Mario franchise. Starting as a 2D platformer it has spawned numerous titles across Sports, Party Games, Racing, and more. In less broad strokes Final Fantasy 7 in its success (and with the release of the movie) cultivated the release of Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, going from turn based RPG to on-rails Fantasy Shooter. In practice, this shifting of genre is nothing new to a successful franchise. However I think it hits a little different with Minecraft Dungeons.

There is much debate on the “story” of Minecraft. Given the end credits haven’t been touched on in years, some would say there is no story. Which makes Minecraft Dungeons unique in that it has a lot of story. There are characters, villains, motivations and more, all coming from a game that technically has no story to draw from. In 2018 the announcement trailer for Minecraft Dungeons was released to much fanfare, showing things we’d never seen in the base Minecraft game. In following trailers we would see the ‘Villain’ of the game in the Arch-Illager, and would pursue him as the Heroes to end his tyranny.

Welcome to the Dungeon

All this preamble is fine, but how does the genre change work? Does going from a near infinite sandbox of building blocks to an isometric dungeon crawler break the spirit of Minecraft? I think not.

To start with, Minecraft Dungeons handles much like what you would expect from a top-down dungeon crawler. You have a fixed perspective with a character running around and attacking or dodge-rolling. Enemies spawn at set locations as you travel through the levels, many of them having the same attacks you would expect in the base Minecraft game.

Except in this world, everything moves so much faster, and in the best possible way. It may just be me but I love how swift you can move in Minecraft Dungeons. Its not just a zombie rubbing their face against you and you taking damage, its a horde chasing you and swiping at you as you try to survive. As far as controls, its superb. Nothing too complicated but there is some skill involved.

I can swing my Sword Sword

So you can move faster, is that all? Nope, not by a long shot. In the base game we have Swords, Bows, Tridents, and a handful of other things to help fight off the night. A few enchantments that help boost things here and there, and you have a decent supply of weapons. Minecraft Dungeons takes that and runs with it. We got Daggers, Glaives, Boneclubs, Mechanized Sawblades and even an Anchor. Don’t want to be up close and personal? Trade out your bow for a Saberwing, or Call of the Void. And the fun doesn’t stop at weapons. Armor sets with unique designs and stats, artifacts to help attack or defend. You can even collect pets.

The layout of gameplay in Minecraft Dungeons is fairly straightforward. You pick up a mission at the Missions Table, go to the level, run the level and leave. As you explore you can gain XP to level up, hidden chests, or alternate routes to different levels. Some missions have you hunting down a specific enemy, others have you just getting to the end and surviving. It can get very hectic, especially if you’re alone. Which is what makes Minecraft Dungeons truly stand out from the base game. Multiplayer out the gate is encouraged, and honestly by comparison much easier.

Eyes up, Hero. We got work to do

With multiple DLCs, season Pass events, Holiday Events, and more Minecraft Dungeons is a brilliant addition to the franchise IP. I’ll be honest, when I first saw it I was a skeptic and a cynic. I was on the bandwagon of “Microsoft buys game, ruins it” and I didn’t give it the chance it deserved. Now? Honestly I get hype to run daily missions and pick up rare weapons. I like collecting things, and want to get better and see more of the world. Give it a shot, it’s worth a moment of your time.

Minecraft spins into a new direction next week!

Now, we are on the verge of another exciting spinoff for Minecraft. Minecraft Legends is shaping up to be another cannonball in the gaming space. With what we’ve seen it could very well revolutionize what it means to make a real-time strategy action game. Time will tell and I look forward to telling you myself when the time comes.

Minecraft Legends will storm onto the scene April 18 2023 on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Steam and Xbox Series X/S.