By Fletcher Wilkinson 
Six years after the release of the first game, Minecraft Dungeons 2 is finally here. As someone who loved the original, I was excited to get my hands on this one. Mojang has expanded the experience considerably right from the outset, with a wealth of customisation options, a semi-open world and a more substantial campaign that now includes side missions.
This sequel is clearly looking to raise the bar for the franchise, and considering how well the first Dungeons performed at launch, I know this one is eagerly anticipated. After 20 hours of play and completing almost everything available, does it reach the upper echelons of the genre, or does it hit obsidian and crumble to dust? Well, my name is Fletcher, this is Xbox Nation, and let’s delve into my review of Minecraft Dungeons 2.
The Story and What to Expect
I’ll give you a brief, spoiler-free overview of the story, which should also give you a better sense of what to expect from Dungeons 2. This new adventure centres on three Illagers who discover a hidden portal to a soul-charged dimension called the Sift, before going on to steal its power. Their goal is to unleash corrupted creatures and rifts across the Overworld as they seek to become the Prime Enchanter, Grand Illusioner and Supreme Evoker.
Of course, as the unnamed hero, you’ll set out to stop these Illagers from causing as much damage as possible. You’ll quest across the new open world, which I’ll discuss shortly, and take on a variety of bosses and puzzles on your way to the finale. The main story takes roughly 10 to 15 hours to complete, but with plenty of side quests and endgame activities, you can easily spend 20 to 40 hours with this new entry.
The Change to an Open World
As I just mentioned, this sequel has shifted to a semi-open-world format and is no longer built around the linear missions of the original Dungeons. Where the first game had you selecting missions from a menu before fighting your way through corridors, this entry drops you straight into the world of Minecraft and gives you the freedom to tackle its challenges as you see fit.
This new world is impressive, spanning two realms: the Overworld, of course, and the newly revealed Sift. The Overworld consists of five regions, while the Sift has three. Both are sizeable, and you’ll probably make frequent use of the fast-travel system to get around with ease.
I loved this substantial improvement, and the amount of content here is genuinely impressive. You might set out on a side quest to find a new creature called a Wobble, only to stumble across new dungeons as you progress, encounter an exceptionally powerful elite enemy, or find villagers and golems who need your help. There’s a great deal of flexibility, the world is utterly gorgeous, and the freedom on offer is a significant step forward that I think many players will appreciate.
You can also explore the dungeons you discover throughout the world, which open up once found. The same goes for rifts, which take you briefly into the Sift. Each of these excursions is a linear mission that culminates in a powerful boss fight. Defeating them earns you better loot, new enchantments and more crystals. They’re all optional, of course, but I’d recommend trying each one: they’re brilliantly designed and incredibly addictive.
The Sift
Before I move on to the gear and ability improvements, I want to spend a little time on the Sift. I could easily make a video about this realm on its own, but it’s important to share a few thoughts and give you an idea of how it works. You gain access to the full realm after progressing through the story, and it offers a substantial look at its new NPCs, mobs and environmental differences compared with the Overworld and the Nether.
I don’t want to spoil anything, but it looks gorgeous, the new mobs are interesting and can be very challenging, and it’s probably my favourite realm in Minecraft right now. Mojang deserves plenty of credit for this addition. You can access the Sift earlier through the rifts I mentioned, if you want a taste of it, but I’d recommend finishing the story if you want to experience the realm in all its glory.
Massive Gear and Ability Upgrades
This time around, Dungeons 2 has significantly expanded how you can customise your hero, and the range of potential builds is remarkable. It’s a major leap from the first game, where you chose a weapon, bow and armour piece alongside three artefacts. In Dungeons 2, you now select individual armour pieces, each with its own perks, bonuses and enhancement slots.
One change to the enchantment system is that you can only apply one enchantment to an individual item. That’s a departure from the three enchantments available in the first Dungeons, but you now have more pieces of gear to customise, so it feels like a reasonable trade-off overall. You can upgrade the equipment you enjoy using at the blacksmith, while the Enchantsmith lets you apply and improve enchantments. If you haven’t found the weapons or armour you want, there’s also a merchant who can offer better equipment as his level increases.
Dungeons 2 also lets you upgrade these vendors using shards, which you find throughout the world while defending against enemies. As you progress, you can improve your vendors to gain access to higher-level weapons and enhancements.
Difficulty and Co-op
Whether you prefer co-op or solo play, you’ll be pleased to hear that it’s now much easier to choose the kind of experience you want. Joining friends or random players is also far more seamless.
You can choose to play with an online hero or switch to offline mode, depending on your preference. I chose online, since you can simply close your party to stop anyone joining, and the world doesn’t scale according to the number of players in your group. Instead, enemy difficulty is based on your hero’s power level, so a level 10 player can keep up with someone like me, who is at level 60. It makes for a great experience and doesn’t penalise anyone joining friends who have already completed the game.
The best part is that you can play the entire game solo, with no significant disadvantage. I will say that the game is more difficult this time around, and some enemies and bosses can be challenging if you haven’t planned your build carefully. That can make solo play frustrating at times, particularly because you can’t be revived, but I never felt overwhelmed or disappointed by the way the difficulty scales.
The one thing I really disliked about the online and offline options is that your character can’t be transferred between the two modes. If you want to play offline, you have to start a completely new game with a new hero, and I don’t understand why developers are doing this. If I want to play offline, I should be able to transfer my character. Having that option blocked feels needlessly restrictive. I hope the developers change this in the future, because it’s a significant grievance I have with Dungeons 2 right now.
Endgame Content
Once you’ve completed the main quests, you’re free to explore the world and take on any remaining dungeons, side content and rifts. The game effectively lets you loose to mop up whatever you still want to complete.
One activity introduced after finishing the main story is Soul Storms. These are live events that appear randomly across the map, giving you the chance to earn better loot and upgrade your hero even further.
The difficulty increases as you destroy more generators, with three to find in each storm. If you manage to complete all three, you’re guaranteed more epic items. It’s a welcome way to add endgame content for players who want to spend more time with the game.
Beyond that, if you’ve completed all the side missions, the endgame still feels somewhat lacking. I was expecting a little more to do, although I imagine that will come with future DLC. There’s still plenty to take on, and you can replay boss fights, but it’s a more substantial endgame than the first Minecraft Dungeons had at launch.
Some Teething Issues
As I mentioned earlier, Dungeons 2 does have some issues, particularly because the open-world format introduces problems that weren’t present in the previous game. I’ll address them directly, as they can cause some frustration.
The map can sometimes be confusing to navigate because the layered landscapes can throw you off. There were moments when an item appeared to be beneath me, but I was three levels above it and couldn’t work out how to reach it. It can be irritating, but it isn’t egregious; it just takes some getting used to.
The same can happen with enemies, who are sometimes highlighted through walls to indicate their position. In one mission, I was six stories above an ambush and a long way away, but the outlines were showing enemies who weren’t even part of that arena and were nowhere near me. It can get annoying, and I hope the developers can patch it in the future.
There are bugs here, and I’m not going to lie: there were a few too many for me to ignore. On several occasions, I became stuck in the environment and couldn’t move, forcing me to reload a checkpoint. There were also times when I fell without dying and had to restart, or when items became trapped in the environment and were impossible to collect. These issues happen far too frequently, and I suspect the move to an open world needs further refinement to prevent them affecting players.
The Final Verdict
Overall, I absolutely enjoyed my time with Dungeons 2, and it’s a substantial improvement over the original. I’m usually sceptical when a linear game moves into an open-world format, but Mojang has nailed it. Once I started playing, I couldn’t put it down.
The world is fascinating to explore, there’s a wealth of content to get stuck into, particularly in the endgame, and the increased difficulty makes the experience more engaging. I love that I had to think carefully about my builds when fighting bosses and even regular mobs, and I enjoyed how the world scaled alongside me. It encouraged me to return to vendors and tailor my build in all sorts of different ways. The team has made the experience more complex while keeping it approachable for newcomers to the genre.
There are issues with enemy outlines during combat, bugs in the open world and the fact that you can’t use one hero in both online and offline modes. But those problems don’t overshadow how much this game has improved. For me, it easily earns an 8.5 out of 10, and I’m excited to dive into the DLC when it arrives.
Minecraft Dungeons 2 Review – A Huge Step Forward?
+ What works
- A gorgeous, rewarding world to explore
- Excellent new realm with memorable enemies
- Deep hero customisation and build variety
- Flexible solo and co-op difficulty scaling
− What holds it back
- Frequent bugs can interrupt your progress
- Map navigation and enemy outlines can be confusing
- Online and offline characters can’t be shared
- Available on
- Xbox Series X|S · Xbox PC · Windows PC · Cloud Gaming
- Developer
- Mojang/Microsoft Studios
- Publisher
- Xbox Game Studios
- Release date
- 29 September 0026
- Age rating
- PEGI 7
- Price
- £24.99 / Available with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate & PC
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