As someone who played a whole lot of Minecraft Dungeons, when I discovered there was a sequel on its way, I was very excited. A lot of the appeal of the first game was how much time you could sink into it, and that same situation is replicated with Minecraft Dungeons II.
Combat feels really smooth, which admittedly, is probably the most important factor in a dungeon crawler that is essentially constant combat. Minecraft Dungeons II adds the ability to jump and as a result, the jumping attack feels incredibly satisfying. Everyone loves a down attack with a sword.
The way you can use the bow has changed too. Rather than having finite arrows, and needing to find more to even use the bow can be frustrating, this time around the arrows regenerate over time, and it feels really good. The little chests obviously don’t have arrows in anymore, but they’re the same otherwise: emeralds and food (healing items).
The massive change, however, is that it’s now all one big interconnected map, and compared to quick travelling around from a menu, I far prefer it. There is still a fast travel system but being able to just traverse the map allows for much quicker progression as you can just kill numerous mobs. This allows for a smoother experience. Additionally, the missions (and side missions) tie nicely into the overall game flow, and are quite interesting overall.
There are other overhauls too. The enchanting system is completely different. Rather than hunting for weapons and armour pieces that have specific enchantments, you now collect enchanted books (of which there are 32 total). All weapons and armour have a much higher rate of having “effects”, whereas before the only items that had extra effects before were the “unique” ones. As a result you can get some cool builds using artifacts. I’m currently using a Greatsword with “healing smite” which gives a high chance of creating a regenerating field, with the “Blizzard Bangle” artifact that allows me to freeze (and slow) enemies. Combining these lets me clear out huge enemy waves very easily, so I end up looping them all together to clear a wave.
Another new addition are the talismans, which can give various buffs ranging from increasing your maximum health to summoning a pet wolf to fight by your side. There are 24 in total, and I will definitely be collecting them all.
There are some strange choices, though, such as having every single animated part of the game in 24fps. I understand that this is the standard for things that are animated and is done so to mimic how a movie would look, but going from running the game at over 100fps on PC and getting thrown down to 24fps for a cutscene looks poor and is jarring. You sort of cannot ignore it.
Additionally, while it may seem like rather a nit-pick , I really wish you could set waypoints. With all the sidequests available as you progress through, being able to just see a way point that you can set on the map would be quite nice.
Also with the open map, exploring is something that is actually worthwhile in the new title. Where Dungeons before sort of felt as if it was a “one route only” kind of deal, having it be an open map with an abundance of chests and emerald pots to smash feels much more “free” compared to its predecessor.
On the release of Minecraft Dungeons, one big complaint was about story length, seeing as you could complete the story in about 3-4 hours, On reflection nowadays, I think that was fair. Equally, the story in Minecraft Dungeons II, seems is a good length longer. It’s also moreish enough that I think I will find myself trying to 100% the game, and that it might take a good amount of time to do so.
Another complaint about the original Dungeons game is that the story wasn’t that engaging. With Minecraft Dungeons II, I don’t have that complaint. It feels concise and well told. If someone asked me what the story was, I could recount beats from the story, which I think is great. Furthermore, the game does make an attempt to create a sort of personable nature toward some of the villager NPCs as the story progresses through helping them through their investigations on stopping the Illager council.
Minecraft Dungeons II is a step up from the original game. It feels smoother (aside from cutscenes) and as a sit-down multiplayer co-op title it’s a well made experience. The co-op I played felt nice, while the new features all add something making it a better game overall. The inter-connected world is sublime compared to fast travelling from a map, too, making Minecraft Dungeons II a satisfying co-op dungeon crawler that many, many hours will be sunk into.
