Minecraft Dungeons II Review – Dungeons Done Right

Who expected that the sequel to Minecraft‘s original dungeon-crawling world could be so enticing? Minecraft Dungeons II builds on the first game with a new, exciting story, areas and content, including the Sift, new mobs, and fun around every corner.

Minecraft Dungeons II is a dungeon-crawling action RPG. It offers a solid gameplay loop: explore different areas, fight mobs, collect and level up gear, and progress through the storyline. I played it for about 10 hours in co-op with one other player. While Minecraft Dungeons II had a few issues, the experience was extremely memorable and one that will stick with me for a long time.

The exploration and world design are absolutely exquisite. There are different realms and biomes throughout the game, adding fun, varied visual elements. I loved the design of the Sift the most, as it was the first look at Minecraft‘s new dimension. The bright colours and new enemy mobs were so beautiful and incredibly enjoyable. I also really enjoyed the ice biome. It was so beautiful, and the snow foxes are a great touch. All the biomes were well developed and clearly differentiated, immediately signalling to the player that we’ve entered a new region.

Different environments also led to different mission types, which helped the game continue feeling fresh. It was a blast finding hidden areas and dungeons, especially with another player by my side. As you make your way through the world, exploration feels very rewarding rather than a chore.

The story was also outstanding and felt cohesive throughout the entire game. While the main campaign moves a bit quickly, it still offers plenty of side quests throughout. Each part of the campaign unveiled three to five side quests you could complete to level up your gear and earn more experience points.

Compared to the original Minecraft Dungeons, this game felt much more thought out, and the story was much more linear without having too much fluff. You are trying to defeat the Illager High Council. Illagers have stolen precious note blocks, and your job is to restore peace by finding them, defeating the High Council, and freeing the Sift.

The campaign builds steadily, with intense boss fights and varied dungeons packed with enemy ambushes. Enemies can also spawn as soul-corrupted, making them a bit harder to take down. The ending felt like a proper conclusion to the story, with a bit of surprise in the final boss fight.

Speaking of enemies, Minecraft Dungeons II featured a wide variety, which kept every fight feeling fresh, including ambushes, making fights dynamic and interesting. Enemies with unique abilities, like spiders that slow you down with their webs, made every fight feel distinct.

Not everything regarding enemies went well, though. Combat difficulty didn’t scale as well as it should have. At times, it felt like it scaled up too much, with ambushes one-shotting you. At other times, we one-shot mobs easily. This inconsistency made combat a bit annoying. You might enter a fight and get absolutely destroyed, or it could flip, and you put the enemies down easily.

This was a small issue with the enemies, but there were some other technical issues as well. For example, every time I launched the game, my computer would restart once. I’m running an RTX 5090 and an Intel i9 with updated NVIDIA graphics drivers, so there really shouldn’t be any issues. I even went further and troubleshot my PC, Windows 11 crashes, and more. Nothing revealed any issues with my computer, and after looking online, I wasn’t the only person dealing with crashes. Many people reported in-game crashes when they touched water, or similar crashes when entering dungeons or other realms. While this was certainly annoying, I don’t expect a game to be perfect, especially right after launch. It’s natural to have issues, and while they were annoying, they weren’t enough to stop me from playing; I was very drawn in and loved logging back in each time.

My favourite part was playing with people I care about. I did most of the campaign with my wife, and we had a great time exploring and delving into side quests together. For two hours, we also had our friend with us, and it was honestly a bit nostalgic. We all played Minecraft together, and running this kind of campaign was really fun and rewarding. We shared so many laughs along the way, and it felt great to have multiple people specialise in different things. For example, I was focused on healing upgrades, while others were focused on higher damage for both melee and ranged weapons.

The upgrading and scrapping systems felt really well thought out. You can use the Blacksmith to upgrade weapons and equipment, reroll certain abilities, and raise your item levels. You can also use the Enchantsmith to apply different enchantment levels to your items. The town merchant also sells weapons, armour, and artefacts. You can upgrade all three townsfolk to Level 3, giving you more abilities and unlocking more content.

Overall, Minecraft Dungeons II is a fantastic dungeon-crawling RPG with fun, rewarding exploration and plenty of memorable moments. Despite its shorter length, it offers tons of side quests, dungeons, and rifts to explore, plus two DLCs on the way.

Angel reviewed Minecraft Dungeons II on PC with her own bought copy. This review is based on the version of the game available at the time of writing, and our score will not be changed.