After becoming one of the most popular games in history, Minecraft ventures to conquer other genres, this time that of the RPG action in zenith perspective, in the style of Diablo. But don’t be confused, even though he has a more fantasy and darker vision of his universe, Minecraft: Dungeons knows how to surprise us by following different rules.
It is a bit paradoxical, but many of us were shocked that Minecraft , a game that literally will make anything you can think of come true, can be adapted to a genre such as RPG action . But Minecraft: Dungeons has succeeded, and what is better and more important, it has done without limiting itself to copying what others do. Certainly, at first glance this game may seem like a diablo skin with the typical skeletons, pigs, spiders, villagers and creepers of the cubic universe of Mojang; but as the hours pass one realizes that the gameplay follows its own rules.
If you have followed the news of the program through 3DJuegos, you may remember that last month I shared some impressions of the beta of Minecraft Dungeons where, broadly speaking, I was worried about the possibility that the final version was a decaffeinated Devil without dark magic no statistics. In fact, determined to make a comparison with another game to better drive your expectations, I mentioned The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords. Well, after completing the game it has become very clear to me that Mojang has not opted for either the depth of the role or the intensity of the action. Instead, he has bet fully on the fun.
Virtue is in the middle ground, said Aristotle, something that can be seen here with total and absolute clarity. In Minecraft: Dungeons, you’ll spend a lot of time scrutinizing inventory and reading what each weapon, armor, and artifact enemies drop when they die; But when it comes to facing a boss, no statistics will make you invincible, and there it will be time to play with your head taking advantage of the particularities of the map and each piece of equipment. By the time you hunt down the Archimaldean, the villain who is wreaking havoc on the world, chances are good that you’ve unconsciously created dozens of fun character “specializations ” guided primarily by your imagination. It’s a solid negotiation of its own, and why fool us, it feels great.
Jump into action and learn on the go
Minecraft has never taken itself too seriously, its part of its DNA. After all, humor is a great way to open up to all audiences. But it has also shown that, when you want, it can also be a great fantasy game with knights encased in obsidian armor fighting the Dragon of the End. Minecraft: Dungeons pulls that same thread to accommodate the role-playing genre, and from at first it draws a somewhat darker story than you might ever imagine firsthand, with a war between, hostages, and razed fields. Make no mistake: the ending is very cartoonish and the story couldn’t be less important, but the tone is what it is. Here, more than a survivor, you have to be a true hero.
From a narrative point of view, the campaign does what it can to give more or less meaning to a succession of maps that are perfectly differentiated from each other artistically and mechanically. Each one has their own fantasy: there is a sinister enchanted forest, a desert with trapped Aztec ruins, mines where enslaved villagers work tirelessly and of course, a massive castle guarded by the best guards in the kingdom. A narrator always puts you in a situation about what is cooked on each map when entering and leaving, although the general idea for all is the same: what is important is not the narrative, but the mechanics and the immersion. And at that level it does measure up.
The levels obey very specific themes, yes, but they are often divided into different biomes. For example, the castle I was talking about above has a sort of battlefield outside and beautiful regal hallways with cool light effects filtering through the stained glass windows inside, and so on. Keep in mind, however, that in order to achieve this level, it was necessary to sacrifice the procedural generation of territories, which is a whole jug of cold water for those who are used to this type of environment. Be that as it may, the truth is that each level also strives to put on the table something new and fun that refreshes the gameplay. Some scenarios do better than others, but they all have something.
Following the examples above, the ruins have tiles that, when stepped on, activate blades or walls that close; mines have unique, immobile and harmless ‘mobs’, but which summon additional troops every few seconds if not stopped; and outside the castle there are jumping platforms. It is an interesting way to alleviate the fact that there are no more events than those that are already predetermined, and that most mission objectives come down to approaching and interacting with such a number of NPCs or objects. Everything is very well measured and fun, but maybe it could have been taken a little better. The other problem I find with these quests is that even though they all hide some sort of secret, most of the time there is no point in straying from the main objective to explore. On rare occasions there is a hidden dungeon, but it is a problem that extends to other aspects below.
A couple of extra comments before moving on to the next point: The campaign can easily take you around 10 hours depending on your skills and how long it takes to collect loot, but as you level up you unlock new difficulties that scale the intensity and power of enemies for each mission. Also, completing the campaign unlocks Adventurer I setting – essentially the first of Diablo 3’s Torments – and if you defeat the final boss in this one, you get Apocalypse mode. Each setting gives access to better rewards (unique, in fact) if you are able to defeat their elites, so there is always an interest to keep playing. The other point I wanted to emphasize is that the world Map It does a wonderful job accurately reflecting what rewards you can get in each mission, how much power they will have when you fall, and which ones have previously passed through your inventory. It is very important for what you will see below.
Minecraft: Dungeons has no character classes. It is an aspect in which its managers have insisted on several occasions during the development of the program, and I think that I had not given it the importance it deserves until I had the game in my hands. You can and should specialize your hero, but that is only done through objects that it has equipped. Each has its own personality and effects, and a number of semi-random features to back it up. For example, a ninja armor will always give you 25% attack speed, so you can supplement it with daggers that carry an enchantment (mod) that is likely to deliver an extra cut each time you attack; and even with an artifact that increases movement and attack speed. Do the math: I just mentioned just three pieces of equipment, but you already have a class that looks and acts like a ninja that attacks very quickly.
Specializing a character is literally that simple. Yes, you may have to go to the blacksmith several times until you get a few daggers with the enchantment you want, and perhaps your highest powered ninja armor – and therefore with better health bonus – has a lower rarity and fewer enchantment slots than a lower level one; but on a functional level, all comply and are fun to play. The best thing is that the game is relatively generous with loot, and the luckier drops often give a lot of interesting customization options. For example, in the final stretch of the campaign I had a crossbow that shoots like a machine gun, increasing the cadence little by little. It had two enchantment slots, with three options to choose from in each slot. After making my decisions, my automatic crossbow luck has a 48% chance of not spending ammo when shooting, and generates ammo as they shoot at me.
Not all loot falls blessed like that, sure, but it’s very satisfying when it does. On the character sheet, you’ll only find three main equipment spaces (armor, melee weapon, and ranged weapon) for three artifact spaces, and none of these items has more stats than you can remember. Since each piece of equipment behaves predictably (for example, all scale armor favors close combat) it is very easy to mount something similar in a class on the fly, on the fly. Each weapon and armor has perhaps one, two, or three affixes, all very simple; and you can specialize with up to three enchantments and each with up to three possible options. Best of all, each piece feels fun individually, like the automatic crossbow I was talking about above.
The game gives you a lot of facilities to do things like that. A hunting bow complements miner armor well because the first one makes pets attack you’re shooting opponents and the second one always has a bat with you. There are statistics involved, yes, but the functional and mechanical use prevails over everything else. If you are unlucky and do not have good enchantments for your weapons, there is no problem: in the settlement that serves as the base of operations there are two merchants They sell you random items (one, artifacts; the other, weapons and armor) as long as you’ve already unlocked them. It’s far, far away from the amenities offered by the Diablo 3 enchantress or Kanai Cube, and it’s one of the points where it frankly feels that Minecraft: Dungeons is not up to par with its more complex competitors. But again, you are facing a game that follows its own path for good and bad.
This lack of amenities and features wouldn’t be a problem if the game also had some issues with rewarding exploration. Aside from the few optional sub-dungeons in some missions, swerving often only serves to find more enemies to defeat, which is disappointing. And it also happens that elite bosses and enemies often provide no more reward than a few emeralds. There is nothing to object about in the early stages of the adventure, but when you arrive at the obsidian castle and you find no less than three Redstone golems in a row and none of you drops anything when you die, one begins to despair. The Apocalypse difficulty promises much more generosity, but it will be hours and hours before you can cope.
Apart from this, the game comes translated into Spanish in texts and with (few) English voices at a fairly good level. These are complemented by purely ambient music and many sound effects rescued directly from the original Minecraft, respecting the charm of each character in every way and improving their animations. The PC version, meanwhile, supports split-screen multiplayer as well as the console version; although there is no online matchmaking – tap invite friends to use drop-in / drop-out co-op. Be that as it may, it feels stable, it has a small variety of customization options and there is no FPS cap.
Minecraft: Dungeons can’t be measured head-to-head with other deeper games in the genre, but it doesn’t have to be. It feels fun and nimble on its own, and anyone who wants to spend hours on end will find more interesting gear anyway as their heroes improve and difficulty increases. Regardless of the hours it lasts, you will find a universe faithful to the original legendary Minecraft with a very well-made fantasy setting and with very interesting missions.
- It is a very fun and energetic game that combines role-playing and action perfectly.
- Specializing the hero is very easy and fast, and the results convince instantly.
- Most boss fights are challenging and have interesting designs.
- All enemies have unique behaviors and they are exploited very well.
- The feeling of being a fresh RPG and able to reinvent itself when you need it.
- Exploring the map and killing optional bosses does not reward the player as it should.
- You feel something in diapers, we miss better merchants and characteristics.
- Support for mods or cross play are still on the to-do list.
- The lack of randomness and depth compared to other games of the same genre.
- There is local and online multiplayer, but the latter has no pairing.
- Duration:8-10 hours (minimum) + multiplayer
- Players:1-4 (Cooperative: Local and Online)
The requirements of Minecraft Dungeons in its PC version have finally been revealed. Below we leave you the minimum requirements of the Microsoft video game to play it on PC:
Minimum requirements:
- Operating system:Windows 10 7 or higher (64-bit)
- Processor:Core i5 2.8GHz or equivalent
- Graphics card:NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 or AMD Radeon HD 7870 or equivalent DX11 GPU
- Memory:8GB RAM, 2GB VRAM
- HardDrive : 6GB of free space
- DirectX:DirectX 11
