I was walking around Brazil Game Show with a friend, and when we stumbled upon Minecraft Dungeons, he made the perfect assertion about it, which I only caught up on when I finally played the limited demo at the show. He said, and I quote “that any kid playing Minecraft would be perfectly fine transitioning to Minecraft Dungeons… after all, one game is about putting things together, while the other is about destroying them Diablo-style”.
That pretty much summed up my overall impressions of the demo, given that Minecraft Dungeons pretty much plays like a more easygoing Diablo game on a controller, only set in the Minecraft world. Down to its interface, Dungeons is a bona fide hack n’ slasher that’s particularly aimed at younger players looking to crawl out of their constructing safe zone while still remaining immersed in Minecraft, and for that it absolutely nails it.
Even while walking around the show floor, it was clear that Microsoft hit it big with this game, as droves of kids were enamored by the game. With Minecraft being one of the biggest brands under their umbrella, it’s a great idea to expand it to more genres, as the Telltale series proved a couple of years back with their own adventure game series based on Mojang’s hit.
Personally, I see the incredible appeal that Minecraft Dungeons has, even if it’s way simpler in all regards when put in comparison to similar games like Path of Exile or even the original Diablo from 1996. It’s easily the friendliest of the bunch when it comes to new or younger players, so for parents looking to introduce and ease their kids into new game genres, I could definitely see this game making that bridge possible.
The over-the-head isometric view of the game is a far cry from Minecraft’s first-person perspective, but it makes sense given its obvious inspiration and the gameplay style of Minecraft Dungeons. It also works to its benefit when aiming attacks, be it melee ones or the ranged kind, which is handled by smashing a controller trigger. I was only able to test the game while fighting my way inside a pyramid level of sorts that happened to be very dark torch-lit and gloomy dungeon full of spiders and skeletons, and that helped show off how well the graphical style of the original game has transitioned to this new view point.
Outside of the change in game perspective, I don’t see how Dungeons will not be extremely playable among fans of the colossal hit that the base game is. Sadly, it’s still going to be a little while until we can get our hands on it and actually have the final word out. Minecraft Dungeons will be coming out on Xbox One and PC sometime in 2020.
