Are you ready? It’s time to grab three mates again, cram yourselves onto one couch and which about who gets what loot. That’s the beautiful chaos of Minecraft Dungeons II, and it’s an absolute blast.
If you’re new to this spin-off series, it’s a dungeon crawler, which means you and your friends smash through waves of baddies, hoover up loot and get steadily more powerful the deeper you get. If you’ve ever wanted the hacking and slashing of a big loot game without the homework, this is it.
The blocky Minecraft look is in place, but this time you’re diving into sprawling caves and a huge, connected world – now with a day/night cycle – stuffed with dungeons to poke around in. This includes the Deep Dark, a creepy new pitch-black cave region with fresh mobs.
Familiar nasties like skeletons swarm you in their dozens and beating them showers you in shiny new gear. And there’s a lot of gear. You’ve got slots for armour on your head, chest, legs and arms, plus special one-of-a-kind items called Talismans that hand you passive perks, like a Tasty Bone that summons a pet wolf to fight alongside you.
You can just grab whatever drops and keep on swinging, or really fuss over every piece to build the exact hero class you want. The rarer the drop, the better the perks it carries, too, so there’s always a reason to keep fighting.
The best new trick is the jump button, which sounds tiny but changes everything, letting you leap across gaps and crash down on enemies mid-fight. Even swapping your gear is slicker now, done in a quick little menu instead of pausing the whole game for everyone.
It’s not all smooth sailing, mind. Pile in with all four players and the screen gets very busy with so many explosions and effects, you can genuinely lose track of which little hero is you. Plus, the odd boss will absolutely wallop your team if you don’t work together. But honestly? Diving into the mayhem with your mates and figuring it out on the fly is half the fun. Round up your crew and get crawling.
Out Now on XSX, PS5, Switch 1/2, PC
