Crucible Review - A Slow Struggle

Publisher: Amazon Games

Rating: Teen

Reviewed on: PC

Hero shooters are all the rage these days, so games in the middle or bottom of the field struggle to compete against the lead dogs. Crucible is one of those games, where its mediocrity only earns dismissal. Crucible is like a bland and forgettable meal – inoffensive going down, but quickly passed over for something with a little more flavor and spice.

Crucible’s heroes fail to entertain on the personality and character level, but they often have memorable and interesting moves that cater to perfection and learning. With the exception of the adorable robot Bugg, most of the cast lacks appeal. With color-by-the-numbers characters like Military Man, Berserker Lizard, and Fish Sniper, the heroes feel like they were ripped from the pages of a rejected comic book.

On the loadout side, learning a character’s nuances is highly entertaining. For example, the militant Sazan has a set of skills that's easy to understand on the surface, but has lots of room for growth and skill. Discovering how to distance myself to juggle my assault rifle, shotgun, and throwing knife cooldowns was a fun exercise. Mastering a moveset, both partial and perfectly, is satisfying and applicable to many of the heroes.

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The map, with its event spawns that help drive the action, is a suitable environment with plenty of spaces to play in. While there is only one map, it's constantly changing with different spawns to mix things up, and you can learn the locations of various landmarks to duck behind cover or jump off a ledge. Event spawns differ from game to game, but many are simple NPC enemies. Other events like power capsules enhance your whole team, but much of the time you may not see another soul as you complete these tasks in an arena largely devoid of activity.

Team clashing is the best part of the game, with skirmishes that pick off players and small-scale engagements taking the spotlight. True 4v4’s are interesting, but there’s a distinct lack of teamplay elements. The combat is weightless outside of a few big attacks, with little feedback or punch to most weapons and abilities. Everyone simply does the same thing they would normally be doing in a 1v1 scenario and hopes things shake out. Crucible lacks any in-game voice communication, which forces you to connect with people you already know via other services. For example, letting teammates know you're sacrificing an objective to glean an edge elsewhere is an important memo to relay, as they may go and fight otherwise and end up putting the other team even further ahead. A ping system attempts to mitigate this, but it’s not practical. Depending on the game, you may not even see the other team much, as you both farm dinosaurs and pick off stragglers in 3v1s or trade control of points of interest.

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One of the larger issues is the PvE component, which tasks you to essentially spend time dunking on dinos and spitter creatures between encounters with the other teams. The battles against these NPCs are fun for a few games, but then they become an absolute bore and a chore. The PvE component does everything it can to tear you away from fighting other players, instead forcing you to slaughter uninteresting one-note blobs of XP wholesale instead of actually playing the game.

Of the three game modes, the only one worth mentioning is Heart of the Hives. If you’re going to play, this is the mode to check out. Two teams of four battle over PvE objectives, so you have cool decisions to make, like when to engage with the somewhat dangerous PvE entity or if you should cede a flag capture to the other team so you can grab some levels and powerups for an easier win. Like many other aspects of the game, this mode provides fun for a few games, and then fades from memory altogether. Eventually you realize that you could be doing something else or playing something more fun than being slowly dragged across the map on a dino-chain for what might be a slightly satisfying team fight.

Crucible isn’t a bad game, but it’s not a good game either. In the context of today’s hero-shooter environment, that makes it a lost soul, struggling to find a strong sense of identity. With time, perhaps Crucible can find reasons to stay on the menu, but right now the recipe is diluted and dull.

Score: 6.75

Summary: The hybrid PVE/PVP experience has cool concepts, but many of them fail to resonate in a meaningful way.

Concept: Play as a variety of heroes in a third-person shooter, team-based environment

Graphics: The environments can look slick and colorful, but a permeating sameness prevents the details from making an impact

Sound: The effects and music are competent, but they can’t carry the experience by themselves

Playability: Highly accessible to new players, with room to grow in terms of mastering timing, skills, and strategies

Entertainment: Crucible has genuinely interesting character movesets, but is dragged down by a lack of combat impact, PvE that turns into a rote chore almost immediately, and sluggish pacing

Replay: High

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Timelie Review – Making Every Second Count

Publisher: Urnique Studio, Milk Bottle Studio

Developer: Urnique Studio

Rating: Teen

Reviewed on: PC

When a child awakes in the middle of a mysterious facility full of hostile robots, she begins looking for a quick exit. Along the way, this innocent girl discovers she has precognitive powers that allow her to explore future timelines until she discovers the optimal route to safety. That's the premise to Timelie, Urnique Studio’s tightly designed stealth puzzle game that occasionally challenges your reasoning and critical thinking skills, but runs its course too quickly.

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All of Timelie’s levels are miniature mazes that have you dodging security drones as you make your way toward digital keypads to unlock the exit. Navigating these mazes is relatively simple, and your goal is almost always obvious, so the challenge comes from your limited windows of opportunity to dodge patrolling sentries and reach your target. Fortunately, your nameless heroine can see into the future. Practically speaking, this means that you can pause and rewind the action by scrubbing through a timeline at the bottom of the screen, which lets you fine-tune your movements through each tangle of hallways. Weaving through guard's eye lines and narrowly evading their grasp is always satisfying. Once you’ve perfectly orchestrated your escape, you can watch a real-time video of your plan in action, which is neat in concept. In execution, I was usually happy to skip these playbacks thanks to the main character’s slow movement.

In the middle of this adventure, you befriend a stray cat. This cat can squeeze through narrow vents to reach new areas and can meow to distract guards at key moments. Because this kitty can’t reach keypads, you have to bounce between control of the cat and the girl, using their skills in tandem to outwit an army of security robots. Controlling two creatures at once is a fun wrinkle that adds welcome depth to Timelie’s otherwise simple structure, and I had the most fun carefully coordinating both of my characters’ movements like they were performing a well-rehearsed dance.

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Even after the addition of the cat, Timelie’s puzzles never grow complex enough to be fully satisfying. A few sequences forced me to stop and consider all my options, but Timelie quickly runs out of tricks to throw at you, which makes the experience feel somewhat shallow overall. Additionally, during some of the late-game puzzles, I had to rewind to the beginning of a level’s timeline to correct an early mistake (which I didn’t know was a mistake at the time), forcing me to replay the whole stage. Most levels only take a few minutes to navigate, so this is a minor inconvenience, but it adds a sense of monotony to some of Timelie’s cleverest puzzles.

Several games offer players the chance to rewind time and pause the action, but I’ve never grown tired of this particular power fantasy. I appreciate Timelie’s stealth-based, tactical approach to time manipulation. But just as Timelie starts to hit its stride, I hit the credits. Timelie isn’t the most comprehensive exploration of time manipulation, but its bite-sized puzzles are a welcome distraction.

Score: 7.75

Summary: Urnique Studio’s tightly designed stealth puzzle game occasionally challenges your reasoning and critical thinking skills, but runs its course too quickly.

Concept: A young girl works to escape the confines of a robot-infested facility only to discover that she can control time

Graphics: Timelie’s environments aren’t detailed, but its smart use of color makes for a few interesting backdrops

Sound: This generic orchestral score doesn’t add much to the action of this wordless adventure

Playability: Controlling time is perfectly straightforward, but characters plod along at a snail’s pace

Entertainment: Mastering time is fun and weaving past enemies in the nick of time is a thrill, but fine-tuning some of those near misses can be monotonous

Replay: Moderate

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Fury Unleashed Review – Old-School Shooting With A Roguelike Bite

Publisher: Awesome Games Studio

Developer: Awesome Games Studio

Rating: Teen

Reviewed on: PlayStation 4

Also on: Xbox One, Switch, PC

A run in Fury Unleashed often concludes with either you or a boss falling. This epic fight often comes down to both sides just having a sliver of health left. The spoils of victory are obviously greater than defeat, but even death can be rewarding, as every run potentially unlocks a new weapon, and perhaps enough experience points to level up and upgrade abilities. Developer Awesome Games Studio has created a balanced roguelike that delivers fun run-and-gun action and challenging battles that get a little less painful each time you attempt them.

Holding true to the Contra and Metal Slug games that Fury Unleashed draws inspiration from, you zip around stages filled with enemies, rotating the analog stick every which way to open fire. The controls are responsive and fluid, allowing you to quickly dash to new positions, and alternate between firearms and melee should enemies get too close. You can even bounce on enemy heads to make them explode, bank grenades off of walls, and use special attacks to freeze foes in place. All of this nicely made action is even better when you are playing with a friend, which is sadly only offered as couch co-op. If the game seems too hard, you can always lower the difficulty. The game is easy to get into and even easier to get lost in, given just how fun and rewarding it can be.

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If you chain together kills, you hit combo thresholds that activate abilities that give you an edge, such as various damage resistances and healing. The entire game is set within the panels of comic books in which you battle a random assortment of creatures, humans, and machines (most dying within a few hits, but rare variations of enemies in a red hue play the role of mini-bosses). The variety in the enemies is a bit light, but I like how some panels explode in unexpected ways, whether it’s Venus flytraps or turrets emerging from walls to join other foes.

If you die along the way, you are sent back to the comic’s first panel, only it’s different, and every following panel is also rearranged, sometimes bringing better rewards and other times deadlier foes. A giant boss waits for you on the final page, and should you be able to take it down, you move on to a new comic book with an entirely different theme with its own set of adversaries. This setup works well for lightning-quick playthroughs, which is fantastic since you often want to level up or change gear after a run. The comics are linked and arranged in random ways, so you don’t have to finish a run when you find the last panel; you can always spend more time in a book by going back to see what each missed panel holds.

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Since weapon and armor drops are all over the place, the randomized levels almost always deliver satisfactory loot. I may not find the exact weapon I want in each run, but I never find myself sticking with something I don't like for long, and am also able to pick up plenty of armor along the way. The true challenge is risking all by taking on a side task handed to you by an NPC. They ask many things of you, such as only using melee strikes to kill specific enemies or launching yourself through a dangerous gauntlet of obstacles, all for an unknown reward. These challenges create variety in the levels and make each run a little more interesting.

Fury Unleashed’s story is its biggest surprise, as it focuses on the comic-book creator, who is down on himself and feels lost creatively. His story unfolds through text messages and social media posts that show how he and others feel about his work. When the first story moment is revealed, it’s a bit of a record-scratch moment, but once you pick up on what is happening, the story is fascinating to see unfold. It isn’t what you would expect from something that looks and plays like Contra.

Like Dead Cells before it, Fury Unleashed is one of those roguelikes that is hard to put down, as you know the next run will only give you a better shot making more progress to unlock new comics, gear, and ultimately a better chance at taking down the final boss. It’s a hell of a lot of fun, whether you’re playing solo or co-op.

Score: 8.5

Summary: Mowing down enemies for rewards that stick with you is a lot of fun, especially when it plays this well.

Concept: A roguelike that plays like Contra and doles out meaningful rewards that help make subsequent runs easier

Graphics: Stylish and bloody. The action is easy to follow, even with numerous enemies, spinning sawblades, and rockets crowding the screen

Sound: The intense soundtrack is sometimes buried by the explosions and chaos, but that’s also when the sound is at its best

Playability: The controls are responsive and surprisingly deep, allowing for quick dashes, grenade tosses, special attacks, and weapon switches to be performed as you bounce across platforms

Entertainment: The action pops and is excellently crafted. You always feel like you are on the verge of making more progress, which is a great feeling for a roguelike

Replay: Moderately High

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Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath Review – Kombative Continuation

Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive

Developer: NetherRealm Studios

Rating: Mature

Reviewed on: Xbox One

Also on: PlayStation 4, Switch, Stadia, PC

Since the Mortal Kombat series received a soft reboot in 2011, it has stood shoulder to shoulder with the most elite fighting franchises thanks to superb 2D fighting mechanics and consistent post-launch support. However, NetherRealm Studios’ Fatality-filled fighter reigns supreme in its story mode. Since the reboot, the series has delivered three cinematic stories that have expanded the franchise’s universe in interesting and absurd ways. Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath adds a new tale that picks up right where the base game left off, giving you yet another exciting adventure featuring the expanding cast of Mortal Kombat characters.

As Aftermath begins, series antagonist Shang Tsung emerges from a portal to inform Raiden and Liu Kang that they need the destroyed Crown of Kronika to rewrite time without destroying the universe. After the duo agrees to form an alliance with the devious sorcerer, players are treated to an entertaining time-travel story starring several characters that were previously only available as DLC, including Nightwolf, Shao Kahn, Sindel, and Shang Tsung himself.

As you work through five new story chapters, you experience a tale of deception and betrayal rife with superbly choreographed fight scenes, fun character interactions, and plenty of bloody battles. I love how Aftermath’s story shines a light on characters that previously weren’t a part of this narrative; seeing Sindel and Shao Kahn wreak havoc is enjoyable, and I enjoyed watching Shang Tsung try to convince everyone he’s not the snake they know him to be.

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Between fights, Aftermath carries on the series’ legacy of incredible cinematic sequences. Characters clash, limbs are severed, souls are stolen, and alliances crumble in the most bombastic ways; these cutscenes hold nothing back. The impressive motion- and facial-capture tech is on full display, with battles that would feel at home in a modern action movie. Believable facial movements sell the character interactions, whether they are reacting to dialogue or getting dealt a devastating blow. However, the tale is anchored by the performance of its main character: Shang Tsung as portrayed by Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. Tagawa is best known for his portrayal of the evil sorcerer in the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie, and he slides effortlessly back into the role in a starring capacity.

Also returning to a familiar role is Peter Weller, the star of the 1987 movie RoboCop. While RoboCop doesn’t appear in the story, Weller performs aptly as the character three decades later, and it’s fun to see him back as the cybernetic police officer as one of the three new characters included in the Aftermath bundle. The technology-based bruiser is formidable; I had fun combining RoboCop’s heavy shoulder charges, flamethrower, and Auto-9 pistol for creative combos that bullied my opponents.

Longtime Mortal Kombat fans also see the return of two familiar faces in Fujin and Sheeva. Sheeva’s heavy-hitting grappling approach gives her all kinds of powerful ways to toss her opponents around a stage, and the Shokan queen’s Dragon Drop move can cause trouble for players trying to stay out of her grabbing range.

Fujin has been a less prominent character in the franchise recently, but because of his limited role, his story chapter is particularly interesting. It gives the player insight into his history and dynamic with other characters, including his brother Raiden. Fujin’s playstyle is much more agile than RoboCop and Sheeva, and using the wind to manipulate your enemy is a blast. His Fatal Blow, where he uses his godly powers to throw around his katana, is among my favorites.

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In addition to the premium story, characters, and skins in Aftermath, NetherRealm released a free update that adds multiple offerings for all Mortal Kombat 11 owners. The biggest inclusion is the return of Friendships, over-the-top, goofy finishing moves introduced in Mortal Kombat II. These hilarious finishers offer friendly gestures in stark contrast to the gory mutilations in Fatalities, ranging from Sub-Zero wheeling out an ice-cream cart to Noob Saibot performing an energetic jump-rope routine. Each Friendship is hilarious in its own way, and I always looked forward to seeing the silliness that ensued when one was initiated.

Also included in the free part of the update is a suite of new stages and Fatalities associated with them. I loved returning to the acid-filled Dead Pool, but the Retrocade is my favorite addition. That stage delivers a ‘90s arcade complete with change machine, cardboard standees of past Mortal Kombat games, and even Primal Rage and Rampage arcade cabinets. Plus, it has classic, pixelated stages projected on the wall behind you.

While you’re able to play through the story in a single evening, Aftermath gives you a deeper look into the Mortal Kombat universe as seen through the eyes of characters who aren’t typically stars of the show. When combined with three additional characters, Aftermath delivers a strong package for fans of the latest iteration of the bloody fighting franchise.

Score: 8.5

Summary: Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath delivers a fun story to play through and three unique characters, making this a strong package for fans of the latest iteration of the bloody franchise.

Concept: Continue the bonkers story of Mortal Kombat 11 and add three fighters to the ever-growing roster

Graphics: Some of the impressive cinematics feel ripped straight out of a Hollywood blockbuster, and the detailed facial animations put an exclamation point on every painful blow

Sound: Hearing Peter Weller reprise his role as RoboCop is a treat, but the star of the show is Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Shang Tsung

Playability: The three new characters flawlessly fit into the existing playstyles, and the story does a great job of putting you in control of various post-launch characters not in the original story

Entertainment: Seeing a continuation of the bonkers Mortal Kombat 11 story is thrilling, and the new characters are solid additions

Replay: Moderate

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Monster Train Review – Delightfully Devious Deckbuilding

Publisher: Good Shepherd Entertainment

Developer: Shiny Shoe

Rating: Not rated

Reviewed on: PC

Monster Train owes much to Slay the Spire for popularizing the roguelike deck-builder RPG, both at a high level and in some of its features and mechanics. But don’t dismiss Monster Train as a mere clone or derivative work like so many other games today attempting to capture the deck-building magic.

In Monster Train, your mind goes into overdrive like a locomotive ripping through hell as you determine the most decadent, degenerate combinations of cards and combos. At first, the experience is an easy task that requires little effort to complete, but subsequent runs and customization unlocks add serious complexity to the mix, making Monster Train a game that makes hours – even days – melt away in a masterful moment.

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The action all happens on a three-story train, where enemies come in on the bottom floor. If they make it to the top, they bash your life points away. When your life points are gone, your run is over. The goal is simple: through a variety of monsters and spells, stop them from stopping your train. Some bosses are the same every time, but they come with a different mix of abilities and cronies that help keep things feeling fresh.

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Different selectable factions form the basis for your decks and champion each run, consisting of core cards and an upgradeable leader. While you can liken some of them at the base level to mage, healer, or aggressive melee archetypes, there's a lot more going on here. Each faction plays quite differently, and you combine two different factions in each run to determine your spell, monster, and artifact pools. These synergies lead to a ton of fun experiments, and each faction feels unique on its own as well. From the candle-creatures that boast incredible power but burn out over time, to the umbral race that feeds upon little morsel-monsters that look like they escaped the forges of Spirited Away, the choices are distinct and a blast to concoct curious alchemy with. 

You can weed out unwanted cards from your deck as well as add and modify new ones. Combining your cards with artifacts that have persistent global effects can make or break a run, like an object that randomizes the play cost of all your cards, potentially letting use your high-cost options for free. Each little synergy you discover is a joy, and then putting multiple concepts together to tackle a high-difficulty run is incredibly satisfying, stacking many layers of strategy on top of each other.

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However, runs can start to feel too much the same after you discover the various ways you can break things extra hard by stacking multi-strike effects or armor incantation. On the mega difficulty modes, you are forced to seek out the most brutal and broken combos each time, and although the core bosses change a bit, the game can feel like you’re simply playing against yourself and some randomization each time instead of any real enemy.

Monster Train is a pleasant, mind-blowingly addictive exercise that’s well worth your time, especially if you’re a fan of roguelikes, card games, and deck-building fare. Hours of entertainment await, often chained back-to-back like a crazy card combo.

Score: 9

Summary: Get on the train, we're taking back hell!

Concept: Steer a train into the depths of hell to reclaim it from the forces of heaven

Graphics: Animations and assets bring a surprising amount of life to waxen combatants and overgrown vine monsters

Sound: A stirring score keeps your mind chugging along with the train as you ponder your turns

Playability: Easy to pick up and understand, with considerable complexity for players who want to dive into progressively more challenging runs

Entertainment: Monster Train may seem simple at first, but hours melt away with disturbing ease as you attempt to break the game – then break it even more as the challenge rises

Replay: High

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Deep Rock Galactic Review – Off To Work We Go

Publisher: Coffee Stain Publishing

Developer: Ghost Ship Games

Release: February 28, 2018

Rating: Teen

Reviewed on: PC

Also on: Xbox One

The great triumph of Deep Rock Galactic is transforming drudgery into something thrilling, repeatable, and fun. You work for a corporation that cares more about minor profits than your survival. You are sent into dark caves to hack away small quantities of minerals. And your rewards are paltry compared to the risk you face, squaring off against massive alien bugs that hunger for your flesh. Yet as a stalwart space dwarf doing what he does best, you’re having a grand time, because the game’s systems contrive to transform that work into something magical.

One big reason for that is the smartly structured approach to cooperative play. Deep Rock Galactic may be played solo, with the help of an A.I. drone to aid in your mining efforts, but it’s profoundly less enjoyable. The game is at its best with a full four-person team of miners working together, ideally with a full spread of the available classes. Thankfully, a fast and responsive backend allows for quick joining or hosting of sessions, so good grouping is possible even if your friends aren’t around.

The four classes are thoughtfully balanced and play well together, complementing each other’s skill sets. The Scout’s speed, flare gun, and grappling hook get him quickly to where he needs to be. The Driller’s tunneling capabilities expedite any endeavor or escape, and his flamethrower is a crowd control boon. The Gunner’s weaponry holds the line in any fight, and his zip lines make team navigation manageable. And the engineer’s platform creation enables the mining of spots that might otherwise seem impossible to reach, even as his automatic turrets help hold specific control zones. Taken together, each adds something invaluable to the group, and I enjoyed my time with each.

In any given mining run, your space mining crew is sent hurtling into the depths of a mineral-rich behemoth of a planet, which also just happens to be overrun by hostile alien bugs. Sometimes you’re just there to collect a particular type of rock, but other objectives keep things interesting, from eliminating particularly nasty foes to retrieving the goods left behind by a previous mining crew that didn’t make it out. Secondary objectives lend an interesting risk/reward dynamic, adding time and danger in the depths, but with significant boosts to your payout. And as you climb the ladder of harder missions, there are other secrets to uncover, from hidden cosmetics in long-lost collapsed caves, to challenging “machine events” that throw in an extra challenging combat exchange. With a pickaxe in hand, there’s a satisfying balance in each mission between figuring out how to reach that elevated gold vein, and then switching gears to stave off a horde of attackers. Battles are intense and challenging, and demand constant teamwork.

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Regardless, the procedurally generated cave systems are fascinating and expansive. The game encourages a focus on discovery and exploration – the mapping and objective markers are limited. That’s frequently a ton of fun, leading to moments of excitement as you smash through a dirt wall to find a massive crystalline chamber just beyond. However, at times the focus on freeform wandering can lead to a sense of aimlessness. Likewise, the game makes great use of light, as the dwarves send out rechargeable flares (or the scout’s longer-lasting flare gun blasts) to survey the area. But the overriding sense of oppressive darkness can wear thin after a time, and the shifting light sources mean that it’s easy to get lost.

In between work shifts, your time back on the space rig features some fun interjections, especially when shared with others. You upgrade a beer brewing license with newly discovered materials, letting you toast each other before a number of silly effects take over, like lighting you on fire, or changing your size. Some drinks can even offer a buff for the next mission. You’ve got a place to dance a dwarven jig to the nearby jukebox, and a button to turn off gravity in the station for a time. Or how about you just kick some barrels around? It’s all frivolous and amusing.

This space station is also where you gradually upgrade your miner’s equipment as they climb through the levels. Consistent play leads to an array of perks, but most of them have only minor effects on the chance of success. A few unlockable weapons await each class, and an array of upgrades for armor and the rest of your arsenal. However, many of the most important upgrades are acquired in the early hours, and the focus shifts to a very slow cosmetic unlock path. I found myself wishing for some more meaningful options and customization after a time; the game demands many hours of investment to tweak your look to exactly the way you like, and more gameplay-affecting upgrades would have been welcome. You eventually open up “promotion,” which adds some new extended missions and a few additional upgrade options. With that said, the leveling curve is relatively flat, and characters of disparate levels can generally play just fine with one another, except on the hardest settings.

Minor quibbling about progression or navigation frustration aside, Deep Rock Galactic is consistently a great time, and highly replayable. The dwarves grumble and shout at each other, complaining about their lot, but happily tackle each new challenge with dogged determinism. It’s immensely satisfying to have your whole team empty out into a new cavern, and then immediately set to work chipping away at rock and bug alike. Even transplanted from their popularization in Tolkien or Snow White and into a dark corner of space, the essence of the dwarven fantasy is richly realized here, and consistently makes me smile. Bring some friends, a handy pickaxe, and a cantankerous attitude, and you’ll be smiling as well.

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Score: 8.5

Summary: Tightly balanced between resource gathering and fierce shooting exchanges, this dwarven mining expedition is a great time – especially with friends.

Concept: There’s a planet to mine, and it’s filled with deadly alien bugs. You’re space dwarves –  get to it.

Graphics: The star of the show is the lighting from your flares, as the balance between darkness and light in the deep caves adds a lot to the gameplay.

Sound: Foul-mouthed and grumpy dwarves make you laugh with their boisterous shouts, and the occasional high-octane musical riff lets you know things are about to get real.

Playability: Each of four classes is thoughtfully balanced and fun, with solid options for difficulty selection. The limited mapping and waypoint options are purposeful, but can frustrate at times.

Entertainment: A fantastic cooperative experience that delves deep into one narrow corner of fantasy tropes – the dwarven love of hard work and pretty rocks.

Replay: High

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Minecraft Dungeons Review – Familiarity Needs Content

Publisher: Microsoft

Developer: Mojang

Release: 2020

Reviewed on: Xbox One

Also on: PlayStation 4, Switch, PC

Minecraft Dungeons is a roller-coaster ride of an action/RPG, giving new players a fairly deep representation of the genre while providing veterans a nice diversion from traditionally grimdark trappings. Minecraft’s familiar world, tools, and other elements seamlessly make the transition from the mainline series. Its suite of enemies is a natural fit for this type of game, and Mojang introduces new members of the menagerie to fill out a few missing archetypes. Unfortunately, Minecraft Dungeons’ padded-out midgame is repetitive even among its grind-heavy peers. The first big drop in this ride had me screaming, but it wasn’t from exhilaration.

Minecraft’s “play how you want to” philosophy is a driving force in Dungeons. When you start, you pick a skin for your character, but not a class; instead, Dungeons has more of free-flowing feel. One moment I was taking down zombies with a flurry of up-close dagger strikes, only to smack a golem in the forehead with a newly found giant hammer a few minutes later. That flexibility is a great goal, and I appreciate not being held down by choices I made hours ago. The implementation of this freedom isn’t fully successful, however.

In its first few hours, the power progression comes as quickly as the leveling. Sure, the loot drops aren’t as frequent as you might expect from an action/RPG, but since just about every piece of equipment you find is an upgrade in one way or another, it doesn’t matter. After you settle into the midgame, when progress comes at a comparative crawl, the cracks are hard to ignore.

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Most notably, you’re completely at the mercy of probability tables when it’s time to replace your weapons, armor, or artifacts. You can’t upgrade an item’s fundamental level as you outgrow it, and there aren’t stores that sell specific pieces, so you can’t craft or customize anything new to fit your desired playstyle. This approach severely limits your options, because, without any foundational class abilities, everything your character can do is determined by the items you have equipped. No matter how much you want to be a tanky fighter, you can’t unless you are lucky enough to have the right equipment at the appropriate level.

You get these items as rewards for defeating enemies, but you also use in-game currency to buy blind-box chests from merchants. The contents of these chests are so wide in scope that they’re essentially worthless. You can buy chests with gear or artifacts, but “gear” encompasses all categories of weapons and armor – swords, bows, armor, axes, maces, daggers, and more. “Artifacts” include every type of spell-like ability, from pet-summoning to healing. This turns every blacksmith visit into a virtual casino, and rather than looking forward to what each transaction might bring, I started to dread every encounter with the smith. Good luck getting what you’re after.

Getting gear may not adhere to the overall Minecraft spirit, but Dungeons’ take on enchanting is interesting. When you eventually get a weapon or suit of armor that you like, you can add special abilities through enchantments. A degree of randomization is at play here, with potential enchantments pulled from a large pool, but I enjoyed seeing the different possibilities. For instance, a burning enchantment sets enemies within melee range ablaze. Piercing gives arrows the ability to travel through multiple enemies. A set of armor can be imbued with a snowball enchantment, firing icy projectiles automatically at short intervals to stun enemies. Better quality gear has a higher chance of having better enchant options and additional slots.

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Artifacts are essentially your skills, and they can be equipped like gear. These operate on cooldowns, and, coupled with enchants, allow for some basic and satisfying synergies. A fireworks arrow lets you fire a special projectile with a damaging blast radius. I loved this artifact on its own, but using it with a bow equipped with multishot and infinity enchants not only gave me a random chance of firing several of these explosive payloads at once, but of nocking an additional one for a bonus follow-up salvo. Combinations like these are rewarding, which makes it even more of a bummer knowing that I’d eventually out-level their utility without a reliable way of finding replacements. Levels have defined loot tables, so it’s possible to target your desired loot a little, but it would be great to have some more agency when it comes to gearing up.

Curiously, for a game with such a focus on items, managing them is a bare-bones affair. You can’t mark items as favorites or junk, or create gear sets for different purposes – say a loadout that focuses on support skills like healing when playing co-op, or a pure survivability build for solo play. You can’t share loot that you’ve found with other players, either. Loot is targeted for individual players when you’re grouping together, so you don’t have to worry about someone else stealing gear, but the collaborative element of keeping an item so you can give it to your buddy later is sorely missing.

Minecraft Dungeons nails the franchise aesthetic, with 10 main story levels based on a variety of the mainline game’s biomes. Your adventure begins with a visit to a village in distress, before taking you through the autumnal Pumpkin Pastures, the rainy (and appropriately named) Soggy Swamp, through the Desert Temple, and ultimately an encounter with the evil Arch-Illager. This evil sorcerer swoops in several times throughout the campaign, which lasts around five hours, summoning minions and generally being a pain.

Beating the campaign unlocks a higher Adventure difficulty setting, with better loot and tougher monsters. Beat that, and you get the Apocalypse setting, which promises even more of everything. I managed to do so over the course of several marathon sessions, but it’s not worth the trouble. The awkward middle period of the game lasts entirely too long; that’s when you can see the possibilities that the various enchantments and items have, but none of the drops are good enough to live up to that potential. I didn’t get any drops with three enchantment slots until the tail end of Adventure mode – after playing the same levels over and over again for about a dozen hours. Every item I picked up was a compromise in some way, but not in a fun or gratifying way. The difficultly is simply tuned too high to make all but a few items viable. It’s fun to have a llama or wolf pet, but they die almost instantly against enchanted foes. It’s better to take on another healing item instead. Useful, sure, but boring.

Once the initial novelty of recognizing familiar elements from the Minecraft world wears off, you’re left with a remarkable sense of déjà vu. Sure, levels are procedurally generated, but barely so. I was convinced that something was broken since the variation between playthroughs was so slight. I played one level back to back and was proven wrong. The main beats of a particular stage are the same session to session, with subtle variations in where hallways may go or whether one section will have a few extra rooms. I’m not expecting completely reworked levels, but it makes exploration boring. That’s inexcusable for a Minecraft game, and it feels stingy. I eventually stopped trying to clear out the map fog before finishing a level, because I knew the majority of the discoveries would be worthless. Sure, there might be a pot at the end of a hallway with five emeralds inside, but when you consider the smith charges upward of 100 gems for a chest, it’s just not worth the effort.

I was also puzzled by the overall lack of interactivity within the stages. I wasn’t expecting fully destructible environments or the ability to tunnel my way through the world; that’s what actual Minecraft is for. But the lack of any real interactive elements in the worlds makes it feel like you’re touring a museum. Crates, barrels, and other genre staples are in abundance, but your weapons pass harmlessly through them. Even Creepers detonate without leaving so much as a scratch on the environment, failing even to break nearby pots. Again, I’m not expecting them to leave massive craters across the world, but their implementation in Dungeons falls completely flat.

Overall, I’d say my frustrations with Minecraft Dungeons are amplified because I love so much of what it does. Mojang effectively tapped what makes Minecraft Minecraft, and I marveled over the various nods and references throughout my early sessions. Witches toss (and drink) potions like they do in the mainline game, making them a priority elimination in larger battles. Endermen and Evokers pop up as mid-bosses, adding a sense of urgency and danger to the adventure. There’s even a Treasure Goblin analog, though it’s a pig with a treasure chest on its back, which you can loot after chasing it down. It’s a joy to stroll through these worlds at first, but playing the same handful of levels back to back to back gives way to monotony.

Minecraft Dungeons has a solid core, and I’d love to see where it goes from here. Hopefully, Mojang recognizes the fact that games with grinding don’t have to be as much of a grind. It would be great to have some kind of way to experience levels in a remixed format, similar to how Diablo III has rifts or Torchlight and Path of Exile offer more randomized maps to encourage replays. But Minecraft Dungeons’ current approach is simply replaying the same stuff over again, and just isn’t enough.

Score: 7

Summary: Minecraft Dungeons’ padded-out midgame is repetitive even among its grind-heavy peers.

Concept: An approachable action/RPG set within the world of Minecraft, featuring recognizable creatures and biomes

Graphics: Minecraft’s iconic aesthetic shines and looks great as a backdrop for the action

Sound: The score beautifully fits with what you’ve come to expect from Minecraft. Audio is light overall, and the silent heroes, as on-brand as they may be, feel weird

Playability: Aim assists make targeting enemies at range a breeze, and melee has a satisfying bite. However, combat is repetitive, even within a genre built on the grind

Entertainment: The first few hours are a treat, and the late game has a nice element of experimentation. Unfortunately, its flaws balloon during the lengthy middle stretch.

Replay: High

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