Minecraft Dungeons 2 review: it's looting time, kids!

Beyond the essential, inexhaustible building experience of the original, Minecraft has been spun off over the years into an adventure game with Minecraft Story Mode (2015), a hack & slash with Minecraft Dungeons (2020) and a strategy game with Minecraft Legends (2023). Of those various sidesteps, it was the action-RPG that got the warmest reception from players and critics alike. Little wonder, then, that a sequel has now turned up. This second instalment doesn't try to reinvent the wheel either, and remains first and foremost a “Diablo for kids”. That description isn't meant as a slight in the slightest — local co-op lends itself particularly well to a family experience.

Younger players can count on their parents or older siblings to read out the quest objectives, while the blocky visuals steer well clear of excessive violence. The main threat is of course embodied by the dreaded Illagers, who are once again picking on the brave and harmless Villagers. It falls to us, then, to take up arms and fight on their behalf. The story is little more than a pretext for heading off on an adventure, but then again, that's really all it takes to get a young audience motivated. The game also throws in a few likeable cutscenes. They're short and thin on the ground, yet they still manage to give events a bit more substance, not least by introducing the Sift, a parallel dimension with the air of an alien planet.

A dedicated jump button adds verticality to the exploration, and lets you unearth a few chests and dungeons tucked away in out-of-the-way corners. 

The improbably shaped wildlife and oddly coloured plant life make for a proper change of scenery, while Unreal Engine 5 serves up some lovely lighting effects. The overall structure, meanwhile, is semi-open world. Unlike the previous game, which strung together self-contained levels, here you can roam freely across one big main map, home to assorted main and side quests as well as several fast-travel points. That said, teleporting into the Sift through a rift, stepping through a dungeon door, or even simply moving between floors of a tower all trigger a loading screen. These interruptions only last a few brief seconds each time, but we wouldn't have said no to a fully fledged open world.

The Diablo is in the detail

Getting around the map is also enriched by the arrival of a proper jump, whereas the first game relied on the dodge roll to carry you automatically across gaps between platforms. A dedicated jump button adds verticality to the exploration, and lets you unearth a few chests and dungeons tucked away in out-of-the-way corners. Taking to the air can also come in handy for dodging certain boss and mini-boss attacks. Combat, however, remains essentially a matter of gear rather than skill. On top of the effects of your melee and ranged weapons come those of passive talismans, activatable artefacts and armour pieces, now split into four independent slots (head, chest, legs, feet). Enchanting and upgrading features are in there too. This wealth of options allows you to put together some interesting builds and tailor the gameplay to your own tastes, or even to specific encounters when the need arises. Sometimes a simple change of kit is all it takes to turn a difficulty spike into a mere formality. It is a shame, though, that the loot system skips any crafting feature worthy of the name. For a game with Minecraft on the box, that's a particularly glaring omission.

The state of polish also raises eyebrows, because we ran into bugs on a regular basis: enemies suddenly going limp, waypoint markers pointing the wrong way, our hero getting stuck in the scenery, and even outright crashes! Some players have also had trouble connecting to their Microsoft account. We were spared that particular headache, but that doesn't mean the problem has been put to bed for good. For the record, it's now been several years since we were last able to connect to the first Minecraft Dungeons… Finally, you can tell the game is keeping something in reserve for later rather than handing over all its content up front. Ten hours or so is enough to wrap up every quest, while a sizeable chunk of the world map remains unexplored and out of reach once the adventure is over. Given that two DLCs are already planned, it's hard not to suspect those areas have been set aside for the future expansions.