Synopsis:
Fight your way through an all-new action-adventure game inspired by classic dungeon crawlers and set in the Minecraft universe. Brave the dungeons alone, or team up with friends—up to four players can battle together through action-packed, treasure-stuffed, wildly varied levels in an epic quest to save the villagers and take down the evil Arch-Illager.
Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
Reviewed on: PS4 (Pro unit)
Also available on: Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC
Developer: Mojang Studios
Game Director: Mans Olson
Game Designers: Daniel Brynolf, Laura de Llorens Garcia
Level Designers: Pontus Hammarberg, Christian Berg
Narrative: Max Herngren, Kelsey Howard
An accessible, more family-friendly version of Diablo isn’t a bad idea on paper. That’s clearly what Minecraft Dungeons aims for, but it doesn’t fully get there. It’s an enjoyable, simple ARPG; however, by failing to commit to a truly family-first take on the genre, it is left in a rather middling spot.
Like all classic ARPGs, Minecraft Dungeons is about mowing down enemies, grabbing loot, and tackling boss fights. You can play solo or co-op with up to three friends locally or online. Oddly, there’s no public matchmaking—an omission supposedly being addressed later.
Across nine base levels you’ll fight familiar Minecraft foes: golems, Endermen, skeletons, plus the usual creepers and zombies. Zombies go down easily; arrow-launching skeletons are more irritating; Endermen show up as periodic mini-bosses.
There’s usually a boss at each level’s end, but they rarely slow you down; you can blast through the campaign in just a few hours, especially on the default difficulty.
You can nudge the overall difficulty higher as you go to improve gear drop odds; I kept bumping it up a couple of notches. Beating the final level unlocks the next base difficulty; finish that and you’ll open the hardest tier. Each tier still lets you fine-tune difficulty for better loot chances.
The game is designed for replaying a handful of short levels. On my second run I spotted new gear and mini-boss variants I hadn’t seen before. The problem: while Diablo makes the grind fun, Minecraft Dungeons often feels samey. Levels are only slightly randomised; the same enemy sets appear in the same biomes; bosses spawn in the same arenas. There isn’t enough surprise. A “shuffle” gauntlet mode—stringing randomised levels together with escalating bonuses—could have helped, but the game wants you to literally replay the journey, start to finish.
Loot is also underwhelming. Enemies don’t drop much, and there aren’t enough chests. Too often I’d spend a minute or two carving down a side corridor—only to find nothing. ARPGs teach us to expect a reward for off-the-beaten-path exploration; Minecraft Dungeons rarely delivers.
Instead, the game pushes you toward RNG vendors in the home camp—a large hub that’s mostly a level select with two NPCs. One sells a random piece of gear at your level; the other, a level-matched artifact. You earn currency during levels, but you can only spend it on these random pulls. There’s no option to save for a specific rare or unique item—effectively, it’s in-game loot boxes.
For a family-friendly ARPG, exciting, easy-to-grasp gear should be priority one. Minecraft Dungeons stumbles by not letting you upgrade favourites or lean into a preferred “class.” If you love nimble archery, you might only find brute-force armour and be nudged into a different playstyle.
There are no classes at start. Abilities come from three equippable artifacts—which quickly become outclassed, forcing more change. Armour sets do hint at roles, but you can’t save loadouts to swap between builds.
You can roll perks onto weapons and armour, and those upgrades meaningfully boost usefulness. New items outlevel old ones quickly, though. The good news: scrap an item and you get your invested points back to spend elsewhere—smart and player-friendly. Still, I wish I could spend those points to tier up a beloved bow from common to uncommon and so on—more kid-friendly, and it would let players stick with what feels good.
Visually, the blocky art style translates nicely to an isometric ARPG. Underground lighting looks great, and the music is fresh yet distinctly Minecraft. But it’s odd how little of Minecraft’s identity shows up in the mechanics: you can’t smash random blocks, dig for secrets, or even break barrels. That feels wrong in a loot-driven game.
Beating the game in a few hours is fine for the budget price, but seeing DLC advertised on the level-select screen at launch is a bit of a slap.
Co-op uses a shared-screen setup like the LEGO games, which works well. If everyone is downed, the game warns that night is falling and spawns extra mobs—a good “hurry up” mechanic. It’s clearly the preferred way to play, but note: you can’t share loot. If your sword-loving friend rolls the perfect sword, that envy will sting.
Despite the issues, I’ve had fun—but my post-credits runs have been “podcast mode” sessions with headphones on. Minecraft Dungeons is a solid entry-point ARPG that could have been much more if it leaned further into being “baby’s first ARPG” and embraced more of what makes Minecraft unique.
