Abandoned by his family, a poor and frail Illager eventually comes across the Orb of Domination, which corrupts him and transforms him into an evil Arch-Illager bent on establishing a regime of terror. So much for the Minecraft Dungeons scenario, quickly dispatched by a rather nice intro cutscene since it incorporates all the aesthetic codes of Minecraft. It's also the whole game as a whole that does the same. We find with pleasure the emblematic enemies of the license, in particular the famous explosive creepers. Most of the decorative elements and characters are built from cubes, while the environments are both varied (snow, lava, rock, swamp, desert, etc.) and familiar since they are also inspired by the game. original. Fans are bound to appreciate it. The others too, because the artistic direction works very well. The cubes manage to correctly represent the landscapes, the different paths remain permanently legible, and the whole, supported by modern light effects, does not lack charm in the end. In short, the Minecraft aesthetic answers the call, and we can only welcome it. On the other hand, do not expect more than these graphic references and a common universe with the original title of Mojang. Minecraft Dungeons ignores any destruction of blocks or construction of objects. Don't expect to dig into anything, blow up anything other than enemies, or craft your own gear. None of this is present, and it is very regrettable for a game stamped Minecraft. The developers could have used this "briquophile" filiation as an added value allowing them to stand out from the competition. Especially since Dragon Quest Builders has already, and rather brilliantly, proven that it is quite possible to integrate construction elements into an action-RPG...
"MY VERY FIRST DIABLO"
Because it is indeed an action-RPG that we are dealing with today. And even more precisely to a Diablo-like. The influence of Blizzard's title is constantly felt, which we obviously won't complain about because the recipe is so effective. But beware, everything has been simplified so that the experience remains accessible to the youngest players. Not only does the game always stay cute and refuse any real violence, but it also takes great care never to be complex. Thus, life is essentially managed using an infinite healing potion only limited by a cooldown. Equipment is limited to a melee weapon, a ranged weapon, and armor. As for spells or other abilities found elsewhere, they take the form of artifacts with various effects (fishing rod to attract enemies, boots to move faster, summoning a familiar, explosive shot, etc.) . Knowing that it is only possible to equip three of them simultaneously, all the commands remain permanently at hand, without it ever being necessary to go to an overly complex menu.
The enchantment of pieces of equipment is done in an essentially random way, and we find this predominance of chance in the purchase in town, since the blacksmith and the artifact merchant do not sell objects directly, but only kinds of medieval lootboxes containing random equipment. It should be noted in passing that the main camp therefore only has two NPCs in all and for all! There's also no character class to choose from, or points to spend on varying stats. In addition to this simplification of the main Diablo-like concepts, the game is also generous in a more global way. Thus, dismantling a weapon allows you to recover not only money, but also the enchantment points that you had spent to improve it. During the game, you can die and come back to life three times before the real game over. And the direction of the current objective is permanently indicated by an intelligent icon, which literally guides us to the exit. We therefore tend not to explore the levels too much which, in any case, do not hold many surprises, the fault of a fairly basic random generation.
FORBIDDEN FOR OVER 18 YEARS
As you will have understood, the game is aimed more at beginners than at hardcore players who have already returned to Diablo 3, Path of Exile and Grim Dawn. Naturally, we can see in all this rather a quality or a defect, depending on the category to which we belong. The game nevertheless has some good objectively nice ideas, like this pig who takes on the role of the treasure goblin from Diablo 3, these cute little living keys who take advantage of the slightest confrontation to escape us and return to their initial point, or again the carts of the mine which cause us damage if we stay on their way. Alas, such delicacies are not very numerous. The game still tries to appeal to more seasoned players thanks to a double difficulty system. The first allows you to complete the adventure in three successive modes (named "default", "adventure" and "apocalypse"), while within a given mode, it is possible to apply a multiplier of different difficulty with each mission, in order to get the best loot. All this does not prevent Minecraft Dungeons from falling into the syndrome of the "small game", since it takes less than five hours to complete the adventure on the default difficulty mode. And the overall simplicity of the experience does not necessarily make you want to start over in the higher modes.
All this does not prevent Minecraft Dungeons from falling into the syndrome of the "small game", since it takes less than five hours to complete the adventure on the default difficulty mode.
The most irritating is that paid downloadable content is already planned since the game gratifies us with the message “two new adventures will soon be available for purchase” on the main map. Small moldy icing on the cake, we are entitled to a few rare bugs (door which refuses to open, character which remains suspended in the void…) but above all to a French location unworthy of a large publisher. The assignment of keys in the options menu is called "key bindings" (literal translation of "key bindings"), one menu speaks to us of "rotation" instead of "roll", another displays the phrase "les rewards are super strong" and one of the first messages you'll see in-game will be "You picked up Sword". That's a bit of a task for a publisher the size of Microsoft. In the end, the general impression that emerges from Minecraft Dungeons is that of a nice little action-RPG, especially for the youngest, but not deep enough to become as legendary as the original Minecraft.
