Minecraft Dungeons II review

Reviews went live on the morning of Sept 28, the day before launch, so there’s no aggregate score yet and we show the first individual verdicts instead. The sequel swaps the first game’s mission select for an interconnected world, adds a jump (which brings verticality and even parkour), splits armor into four slots and introduces the Sift, which GamingBolt’s preview called Minecraft’s first new dimension in more than 14 years.

IGN (6/10) found a brief, shallow ARPG: a roughly seven-hour story, samey hack-and-slash and a thin endgame (Soul Storms) for now. It welcomes the jump, more customisable gear and the Sift, “one of the few ways in which it branches out,” and concludes it’s a fine way to spend a mindless night or two with friends. Its subhead: “This shallow sequel provides some peaceful button mashing, but does little to stand out.”

GamingBolt, playing on PC, rated it “Average”. It praised the good looks, environmental variety, decent combat and solid optimisation, but criticised stingy Unique drops, crafting reduced to upgrades and rerolls, a single timed endgame activity, no stash or dungeon overlay map, and features missing from the original.

The previews were warmer. GamesRadar+ called it “a real breath of fresh air” for its pick-up-and-play simplicity, and PCGamesN said it smartly fills a gap as a more casual dungeon crawler. Mojang has said more endgame content is planned after launch, and the first paid DLC is due later this year.