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The points you accrue by levelling are funnelled into enchantments, which imbue your gear with magical qualities.
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Yet the depth found in Minecraft Dungeons’ weapon upgrades is welcome. Genre fans will know that comment is no criticism: action-RPGs have long streamlined away the intricacies of RPGs in pursuit of a zen-like flow state, the sort of gaming that’s perfectly accompanied by a podcast or the natterings of a remote friend. Just like the footsoldiers in the Arch-illager’s zombie army, you can leave your brain at the door. Even when an objective asks you to find the exit, your next step is clearly marked. Pick up a consumable and it’s automatically used, while your standard health potion is tied to a cooldown, freeing you from fiddly inventory management or rows of hotkeys. Its helping hand pushes gently on your shoulder, respecting your intent and allowing room for skill shots.Īs with its parent game, there’s a wilful simplicity to Dungeons that makes it instantly likeable. It might seem odd to single out auto-aim for praise, but Dungeons has mastered that particular dark art. The shooting is even better: hold down the right trigger and you can spin your character on their heel to face a threat, then let the arrow fly the longer you hold, the harder the hit. But here it works a treat, the floaty weightlessness of first-person swordplay replaced by isometric wallop.
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It’s also a bold move, since hacking and slashing has never been Minecraft’s strong suit.
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This is a dungeon crawler, a Diablo-like, rather than a choice-and-consequence BioWare game. But if Mojang is drawing inspiration from a Baldur’s Gate game, it’s Dark Alliance. Its first area is called the Squid Coast, in apparent reference to Dungeons & Dragons’ Sword Coast. Ultimately, perhaps inevitably, Mojang simply became the Minecraft people.ĭungeons is the compromise - a new game that looks and sounds like Minecraft, but belongs to a different genre: the RPG. They hinted at a studio identity beyond that debut game. These games seemed to tug at some of the same themes as Minecraft: pushing back darkness with light, and the power of programming. And before he made himself persona non grata, Notch started work on a sandbox space sim that would feature a fully working virtual computer. Back in its earliest days, Mojang used its riches to fund Scrolls, a digital card game that was just a little ahead of its time. Try as they might, the people and projects around it have struggled to escape its orbit. Minecraft is a bit like that - not long or purple, but a phenomenon with its own powerful pull. When I swing the hammer, nearby enemies are sucked into its path, their soft skulls falling perfectly beneath the arc of the blow. Over time, I’ve come to understand that the hammer’s strength comes not from its enormous heft, but the crystal embedded in its centre: a gem that exerts its own gravitational pull. Since then I’ve grown fond of whacking evil villagers over the head with it, like plastic moles in an old arcade. In fact, that’s the name Mojang Studios gave it - I merely found it hovering a couple of feet above the ground, slowly rotating in a way that suggested immense, invisible power. Would you like to see my weapon? It’s got a long shaft, a huge purple head, and I like to call it the Hammer of Gravity.