Introduction
A new review is live, and this will be the first time a Minecraft game will be reviewed on reviews by Supersven, I am not going to look at the original Minecraft game (yet), but I am going to review Minecraft Dungeons. This game is a hack and slash game that wants you to play with different people. This can be very fun but also tough, there are a lot of problems with this game but nonetheless, Minecraft Dungeons was a fun experience.
As you might have expected you will gain experience points and gain levels for your character but instead of higher stats, you will gain new enchantment points. We are going to look at how enchantments work in the gameplay section. The game is wonderful and beautiful until you reach apocalypse mode, then you get to see the ugly side of this game. There are three different modes which mean that you need to complete the game three times at least. The missions that you undertake are based on your power level but the game has a hard time calculating what the right power level is for you. There are a lot of different items that you can use to create different builds, this is fun until you reach the apocalypse mode because most builds will not work at this point. This takes a lot of fun away from the game.
What did I think of Minecraft Dungeons before playing?
My wife and I were both very interested in this game because we were looking for new a co-op experience, this game seemed like a wonderful co-op game for us.
We got this game for Christmas and we finally defeated some backlog to play this game! We looked up some trailers and we both got very excited to play this game!
Minecraft Dungeons lets you know that this game is better to play with other people, luckily our communication with gaming is perfect!
My wife and I got the special edition with some DLC included but we still needed to buy one of the DLC that comes with the game but was not included in the hero pass.
We also got some cosmetic items but we could not find where the game stored these, we decided to make a character and get started on the game!
I rate Minecraft Dungeons with an 8.3 before playing.
This game looks great before playing and I love co-op experiences, I was also interested in what builds would be available.
Story
The story starts with the villagers living in peace, but there is one illager that looks a bit different but all the villagers chase the illager away because he looks different. The illager runs away from the village to find another village but he gets chased away again. The illager wanders the wilderness and finds the abandoned ruins that hold a dangerous artifact called the orb of dominance. When the illager picks up the orb of dominance he gets corrupted by the orb of dominance. the illager uses this power to take over the land and enslave the villagers. If only there was a hero that could stop him, this is where your journey starts, you will need to stop the illager and free the villagers!
I rate the story of Minecraft Dungeons with a 6.7
I think the story is weak, the story uses a template that gets used many times but adds nothing new. The name illager is also very odd, no inspiration from the developers, everyone can just remove one letter and call it a day! Yes, illager is the correct word and not a typo.
Gameplay
In Minecraft Dungeons you will need to equip items to become stronger as leveling up does not give you new stats, your health points come from your armor. Leveling up gives you enchantment points, these can be used to increase the potency of your items. The game is mission-based, which means that you can select a level and then you need to select a power level. You will see the recommended power level for you. In the first two modes called default and adventure, this is pretty accurate but once you hit apocalypse the power level calculation is completely wrong. Your power level is calculated by the items that you have equipped, you get three slots for artifacts that can have a multitude of effect. Some artifacts might buff you while others summon a pet, to survive in the apocalypse mode you will need the artifact love medallion to survive. If you equip soul artifacts you will need to kill enemies to gain the power to use them. You can equip certain items to gain more souls.
For many items, except artifacts, there is a unique counterpart with more abilities and better stats. These can sometimes be purchased in the camp. Before you can purchase items in the camp you will need to save the merchants in their respective levels. The same goes for the blacksmith, it will take three missions to upgrade your weapon to the power level that you are currently at. If you want to take a gamble you can purchase a mystery box, the items from the mystery box will be around your power level. If you kill enchanted mobs you can get more mystery boxes after one mission. There is also a merchant that sells you strong equipment, by killing strong mobs you can buy more strong equipment after each mission. For the normal merchant, you will need to save villagers to get more items in stock. If you play in co-op there is also a gift wrapper that you can use to send items to each other. but only once after each mission. The power level will be scaled up or down according to the power level of the character that you are sending the item to. There are many more secrets in the camp that you can find by exploring.
When you play in co-op you can resurrect each other in missions but you only have thirty seconds before the night comes and kills everyone. Playing co-op in the apocalypse mode can be a huge problem, if one character uses a love medallion build and the other plays a soul build you will never win. If the enemies die from the love medallion by making them friendly and then die, the other character won’t get enough souls to use their special soul artifacts. In each mission you can find secrets, these secrets can lead to great loot but sometimes these secrets can lead to a secret mission. The levels are randomly generated, this means that getting a secret mission can sometimes take up to 10 tries before the secret exit spawns.
Playing through the first two modes is very fun but we could not complete all levels before our power level exceeded that difficulty, this means that you will be forced to finish that mode before you have completed all areas.
Did you know that you can also kill yourself with your own artifacts?
Enchantments are different for all items, for example, your armor can give you enchantments to increase how many times you can roll or increase your defense. There are common and powerful enchantments, powerful enchantments cost more enchantment points but their bonus is also greater. Your weapon can get the leech enchantment that absorbs health points as you fight your way through missions. You can also wield a bow next to your artifacts, enchantments for your bow can include shooting multiple arrows or even arrows doing more damage from far away. There are loads of enchantments to try but I like the dynamo enchantment the best, this enchantment will build up damage when you keep rolling. This will even enable you to kill the end-game boss in one hit!
I rate the gameplay of Minecraft Dungeons with a 7.0
The gameplay is very fun for the first two modes, once you reach the apocalypse mode the game turns into a slugfest with a myriad of problems. Co-op is not well optimized and usually leads to bigger problems like gates closing before everyone has entered the fray to battle the enemies. Enchanting co-op partners can be impossible if someone uses pets, soul builds are almost impossible to use in co-op. There are too many problems to name them all, my advice is to avoid the apocalypse mode to prevent sour feelings against this game.
What did I think after playing Minecraft Dungeons?
My wife and I had a great time learning how the game mechanics in Minecraft Dungeons work, we both adore hack and slash games!
In the beginning, we set the missions at a higher power level but soon learned that this game penalizes you for doing so, another problem might have been that we started without armor.
We corrected the power level and tried again, we quickly got the grip of the game and saved our first villagers, the default mode was fun and balanced well.
We wanted to take it slow and enjoy the levels while trying to get all the rewards from completing the missions but alas here we ran into a big problem.
Our power level grew too fast and we quickly reached the highest power level of default mode and we were forced to defeat the end-game boss.
We had the same problem when playing adventure mode and we hoped this cycle would end when we reached apocalypse, little did we know how broken the apocalypse mode is.
We never had a game over or any problems with many of the different builds while playing adventure or default mode but as soon as we reached the apocalypse mode the balancing was broken.
My wife and I entered our first mission on apocalypse on the recommended power level and we got completely wiped off the board.
After entering this new apocalypse our desire to play the game quickly burned out, what was first fun and a balanced game turned into a horror show!
This game exceeded my expectations but on the other side, it disappointed me greatly.
I rate Minecraft Dungeons after playing with a 6.6
This game is a lot of fun but after reaching the apocalypse mode that you have been forced to unlock due to your power exceeding the highest power level available in adventure mode. The developers should have made the power level of adventure mode higher. My wife and I could not even complete all levels before we exceeded the power level without even playing the DLC maps! If they scrap or fix apocalypse mode, I would give this game a much higher rating. If you do play apocalypse mode, I recommend playing the apocalypse mode solo, playing apocalypse mode together is severely broken and not fun.
Sound and Graphics
The graphics are so horrible, it is just bad pixels everywhere I look, I am only kidding, the graphics look great for Minecraft and we had more fun with the graphics than we both expected. There are many different enemies that you will encounter, especially if you own the DLC of Minecraft Dungeons. The animations are good and it fits Minecraft perfectly. The items that you equip will change the look of your character, there are also many weapons to choose from.
The sound was fitting for Minecraft Dungeons but nothing too exciting, the sound effects were funny, this is a game for children. Maybe, I think some kids could be scared of the spiders or Enderman. Even I thought Enderman looked creepy with his teleporting skill into the darkness. Is there something in the corner of your eye? Is it moving? Maybe it is Enderman?
I rate the sound and Graphics of Minecraft Dungeons with a 7.5
The combination of sound and graphics is exactly what you would have expected from a Minecraft game.
Personal Rating
My wife and I did enjoy this game very much, that is until we reached the apocalypse mode. Apocalypse mode drained all the fun out of the game for us. I will rate the game together with my wife before entering Apocalypse mode and after apocalypse mode.
Our personal rating of Minecraft Dungeons before apocalypse mode is an 8.0
Our personal rating of Minecraft Dungeons after apocalypse mode is a negative 10.
Pros and Cons
Pros
– There are many different builds for you to try out in Minecraft Dungeons.
– The graphics are good and the game has many different enemies for you to slay.
– The missions are randomly generated which means that each new mission feels fresh.
– There are many different secrets for you to find at each level.
– Default and Adventure mode are fun to play.
Cons
– You cannot complete adventure or default mode before exceeding the highest power level.
– Apocalypse mode is unbalanced, especially in co-op mode.
– You are forced to use certain builds in the apocalypse mode otherwise you will fail.
– Secret exits can take many missions before they spawn on your map.
– Power levels do not build equally in co-op mode, my wife was at lower power levels at certain points in the game, later, she suddenly had a higher power level than I had.
– Every enemy will one-shot you in apocalypse mode, even with good armor equipped to tank hits.
Even though this game has some major flaws that arise in the apocalypse mode I would still recommend this game. The game is a lot of fun to play together before starting the apocalypse mode. I am unable to understand how apocalypse mode is this bad, in other hack and slash games like Grim Dawn, the highest mode called Ultimate still feels fair. You might indeed get one-shotted now and then. Mostly by special mobs but Grim Dawn also learns you how to counter this by equipping armor with the right resistances. This is something that I missed in Minecraft Dungeons.
The final rating for Minecraft Dungeons is…Drumroll…
7.2
Let me know what you think about Minecraft Dungeons in the comments.
I hope that you enjoyed reading this review, I hope to see you in the next review!
