Minecraft Dungeons – Before You Buy

And we’re back with another episode of before you buy that show we give you some straight-up gameplay and our first impressions of the latest game is releasing as usual it’s me Jake and today we’re talking about minecraft dungeons we’ve been playing a review copy of it and let’s just jump in this

Is kind of like the logical next step for Minecraft in some ways you know it is a geared towards younger minecraft fans sorta but it’s still a creative spin on the series you know more so I think than the telltale story mode thing this just has that minecraft feel you know it’s

Still vague enough in spots to let you use your imagination to fill in the blanks from graphics to the music and the general vibe and I’m about it minecraft dungeons is kind of like a simple accessible spin on the Diablo formula and it’s a pretty solid little

Game they could have pushed things a little further but it is solid so you get a quick little story set up and then you’re dumped right into it basically there’s an ill agend from his village he wanders off finds some supreme magical power and now out of spite he’s

Basically conquering all of the land so it’s up to you random lone adventurer to fight your way through missions and dungeons and save the land and defeat the bad guy now his presence is felt throughout the game but generally the game is pretty light on story presentation-wise it’s still decent cuz

You get some good adventurous narration before almost every level that sounds like straight-up rip from Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings still it’s very straightforward you know it’s more about the gameplay that before you drop in you make a character you choose from a bunch of

Skins now this is this is a weird request cuz it’s a separate game but I wish somehow you were able to either completely make your own skin or choose your minecraft skins you may have in the standard game overall that might be a thing down the line I don’t know but

Overall I wish there was more creative integration with the actual standard minecraft game but that’s a broader issue for me than just this core game here the game itself is like I said really straightforward you know you have a home base camp which slowly has new

Things added to it and you access your map and then you drop into quests immediately it’s got that dungeon crawler feel in a good way considering the game is called minecraft dungeons mission accomplished dude you hack and slash your way through some surprisingly long levels with an

Attack button there’s a ranged attack on the trigger a limited dodge and in all kinds of mapable loot and abilities and stuff at your disposal it’s extremely simple but I think there’s just enough there to still make it compelling and make you pay attention as you’re playing

Like you don’t you’re not gonna fall asleep especially considering the way the loot itself works you pick up stuff all the time new weapons new armor sets limited potions that act as buffs and special items that have cooldowns some add new effects to your bows like you

Know you have a quiver that gives you fire arrows some are just magical buffs some or AoE attacks or push away attacks or maybe a temporary speed boost or even a summon you name it they actually thought of an impressive amount of variations on items that can change up

How you play I really like the way the artifacts work there’s also a multiplayer focus of course either drop in co-op with a controller or search to play with other friends online and the game is certainly designed for it you know things get pretty chaotic and there

Ends up being a lot of complex bosses and crowd control enemies everywhere where it’s like a borderline shmup or shoot-’em-up game and the flow is a bit better with a friend and honestly sometimes that means a game has shortcomings on its own when you say better with friends but minecraft for me

Has always been a chill-out game you know a game where maybe you pop in a server or something and chat with a friend while you guys do whatever so going back to your little base camp for the main flow of the game you have different types of traders you can

Access and interact with one for gear and one for artifacts you use and then map and basically the main loop acts as just re-rolling stuff you spend in-game currency to buy a random chest that may have a stronger item or weapon or whatever in it sometimes it’s an

Exciting rare new thing other times it’s just a better version or better stats of something you already have so the main system is about rolling for stronger loot straight up and it’s fine if a bit simple but you can get a little hooked on it because some of the loot is so

Exciting like with the variations and of course with that you level up your character and earn enchanting points that you dump into any piece of gear you have and it improves certain stats or perks you have each feel a bit different which is nice you know it’s not always just as

General as increased attack power or something like that there’s more spins to it all and although it’s expensive to dump points into stuff you know each point is super important and valuable stakes are never too high because if you deconstruct an item you end up just getting the enchant point anyway so it’s

Cool and it’s accessible and it’s good either way because the game rewards exploration like a lot it’s super hand holy the main game you know which might annoy some folks it always just kind of points you right where to go like down to a tee do this thing kill these guys

Right here save these villagers over here you know stuff like that but you can very easily wander away from the path that’s guiding you on and you know it’s not just like small hallways off to the side or a dark corner there are whole pretty big areas that are totally

Optional and here of course you can find new enchanted items and more currency to spend back at your base camp and the game is so so generous with how many opportunities it gives you to explore and genuinely be rewarded and I like that it’s a big part of what kept me

Playing exploration is nice too because there’s a lot of environmental variety and it’s really nice to see a team basically take the minecraft art style and build off of it you know the Minecraft areas but more detailed and more specific with different types of weather effects way more foliage stuff

Like that you’re in swamps you’re in snowy areas you’re in coastal towns with docks spooky caves ancient tombs and stuff that just kind of really meshes with the Minecraft lore and vibe really well you can say the same thing about the music it’s almost the same thing as the original minecraft game it

Amps up four bosses and stuff in new and unique ways but it kind of just all fits right in you know what I mean also the enemy types are really fun to fight there are the standard minecraft enemies you know like creepers still give me PTSD from the old days of playing

Minecraft alpha on my PC but now I’m kind of happy to kind of like wreck them yeah it just feels really good to help them with arrows and magic and stuff but then there are like some nice new spins and takes on creatures and things in the Minecraft

World that really really fit in here some things you encounter you just expect they were already in the traditional Minecraft game if you didn’t really know any better and I think that says a lot I think that says that they did really good work here with this game

And like I said I like how it works as a minecraft property more so than just a telltale or like other little spin-off things like that this here really fits right in the only thing is that I wish it really was more in sync with the standard minecraft game like I said I

Wish there was some way to like translate things from one to the other like skins or maybe even incorporate some sort of building elements you know the game doesn’t really have a lot of that you can’t interact with many blocks out in the world I would love to be able

To have more opportunities to manipulate the environment at least from what I’ve seen so far in the game there’s not really much of that you know like how Lego games kind of work with like building and bricks and stuff and they embrace that I wish that minecraft

Dungeons did something like that in a similar way do you know what I mean does that make sense either way though there are three difficulty levels there’s normal there’s adventure which is harder and then there’s apocalypse you have to earn those though you only get normal at the

Start but then in your game each mission itself has a difficulty slider so bump it up if you’re higher level and you can handle it and you reap a bit more rewards I enjoy this because the game might feel simple and not too challenging by some for the most part

There were a few bosses I hit that felt like pretty big surprising difficulty spikes and I was like whoa you know I was asking myself like is this not a game for young kids or do I need to play with friends like to get through the

Game but really I ended up doubling back out of the mission and trying a different quest on my map and then coming back a little stronger and with some cooler loot and gear and then it was much better so it’s not the hardest game by any means but it’s not exactly a

Total cakewalk for young kids like you might expect it’s a good happy medium and there’s a lot of enemies that are pretty fast and some enemies that just run towards you you can easily get overwhelmed and surround it it’s like a good happy medium you know and it’s adjustable

Like I said plus some accessibility options which is a nice plus overall long story short this is a nice spying game especially worth checking out if you’re a big minecraft fan just the whole thing or maybe you have Xbox game pass and you’re just looking to pop

Into something maybe with a friend and just chill out and kill enemies the combat is simple but not too simple and it’s still engaging and then the loot is pretty interesting and fun really that’s it it’s pretty simple that’s all I got for you but this is of course it before

You buy you know how this goes down by now I’ll give you some pros some cons and some personal opinion and now I want to hear yours down in the comments if you’re like me if you’re twenty-something and maybe you played minecraft from day one or day zero or

Whatever you want to call it what do you think about like jumps into this arena like what do you think about the expansion of Minecraft from when it was just kind of like a weird PC nerd game are you into this maybe you’re older maybe you have kids are they into this

I’d love to hear your feedback anything you think about Minecraft dungeons whether you’re playing it or someone you know or maybe you’re just watching a streamer let’s talk about anything Minecraft dungeons down in the comments guys if you enjoyed this video though maybe we helped steer you in the right

Direction clicking the like button does help us out so much we really appreciate that and if you’re new consider subscribing maybe hitting that notification bell because we put out videos every single day but as always thanks for watching we’ll see you guys next time 50 which is live at the heart of the

Sinister swarm they conjure up all manner of moves to empower the arch illa jar and his ever-growing army if you don’t find and defeat those witches the images will be unstoppable but tread carefully the swamp is home to many horrors you you