Minecraft Dungeons II
Mojang Studios · RPG, ARPG, Action
Overview
Drop the pickaxe, grab a sword, and charge into a new adventure in Minecraft Dungeons II. Pre-order today and get 2 hero skins, the Twisted cape, and the Twisted chicken pet!
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Drop the pickaxe, grab a sword, and charge into a thrilling new adventure in Minecraft Dungeons II. Journey through unexplored lands and mysterious locations, in a quest to stop a new evil from causing chaos in not one, but two worlds! Clash with menacing foes in explosive encounters and fight your way through hordes of mobs that will do everything in their power to stop you!
Fight against a new, challenging threat that puts your combat skills to the test like never before
Experience an all-new chapter in the Minecraft Dungeons saga that takes you across the Overworld... and beyond
Craft the perfect hero with legendary gear, including a wide range of weapons, armor, and artifacts
Team up with new and old friends in a party of up to four players and smash your foes with the power of teamwork
From the game's Steam store page.
THE GAMEQ VERDICT5,235 reviews analyzed
What players are actually saying
1. Summary
Most reviewers recommend Minecraft Dungeons II, though the launch went badly for a sizeable minority. What they like is how it plays from moment to moment: combat hits harder, the new jump and jump attacks open up hidden chests and platforming, and a connected open world with side quests replaces the first game's mission-select table, a change many fans of the original point to. Reviewers also like the effects, the Sift dimension, the new gear slots and talismans, and playing in co-op or on the couch with family. Roughly 30% of reviews measure it against Minecraft Dungeons. Many of those call it a clear improvement, while others say it lost the enchantment combos, item stats, mission structure and art style that made the original special.
Some of the frustrations are about design. PC players still move by clicking, with movement, attack and interact on the same button, and among complaints about how the game plays (as opposed to bugs and launch trouble) this comes up most. The story ends in 5 to 12 hours, the endgame is thin, and gear and enchanting feel shallower than before. The rest are technical. On launch day the game would not start on Linux or Steam Deck and Microsoft account linking failed for many players, and that day's reviews were 60% positive. Reviewers report that Linux and Steam Deck support arrived within days, and those complaints faded, but bugs, the split between online and offline characters, and server lag in solo online play remained. Recommendations stayed at 67% in the week after the Linux fix, and by then reviews talked more about controls and depth than about getting the game to start.
2. What keeps coming up
What players praise
Combat and jumping feel goodHigh
Asked why the game is fun, reviewers usually point at combat and the new jump. Jump attacks, rolling that does not slow you down, regenerating arrows that make bows viable, and satisfying hit effects are the details they name. Jumping changes exploration as much as combat: one player who finished the main quest wrote, "I kind of underestimated just how big of a deal jumping was going to be." A smaller group finds fights shallow or attritional, with one detailed review arguing "Enemies effectively have infinite poise," and plenty of players who like the combat still complain about the mouse controls (see below).
The open world beats the old mission tableHigh
About 13% of reviews talk about the open world or exploration. Players like that dungeons, caves and side quests sit inside one connected map with fast travel, that optional quests show their rewards up front, and that secrets reward poking around. Several call it the structure the first game should have had. Others feel the "dungeons" in the title got diluted: they miss the tight, replayable missions of the original, dislike the walking between objectives, or find the overworld empty and the dungeons samey.
Effects, the Sift and the soundMedium
Visual effects, lighting and the Sift dimension get steady praise, often alongside the music and the sound each item makes. Players running it on capable PCs report high, stable frame rates on Ultra. The pastel art direction itself is contested (see below).
Co-op, crossplay and couch playMedium
Roughly 9% of reviews mention friends, co-op, partners or kids, and the tone is mostly warm. Couch co-op, playing with a partner, and parents playing with children come up again and again, and several reviewers say it is better with others than solo. The complaints here are practical: loot is not shared, cutscenes show duplicate copies of other players, party members sometimes miss quest rewards, and joining depends on invite codes and the online character type.
Where players are split
Better or worse than Minecraft DungeonsHigh
About 30% of reviews compare the game to the first one. Fans call it "dungeons 1 but better in every way," citing the open world, jumping, four armour slots, talismans and enchanting without random rolls, and one wrote that it "felt a lot more polished on day 1 launch than Dungeons I still feels years after launch." Critics list what was removed: multiple enchantments per item, visible stats, the mission select, potion and arrow pickups, an endless tower-style mode, and artifacts that worked without souls. Reviewers who say they have hundreds of hours in the first game turn up on both sides, which suggests the split is over what people wanted from a sequel rather than between newcomers and veterans.
Loot, enchanting and build depthMedium
Enchanting draws both praise and criticism. Supporters like choosing a known enchantment at an enchanter instead of gambling, collecting enchant books from dungeons, rerolling and upgrading gear at the blacksmith, and building around talismans. Critics say one enchantment per item and a smaller pool make builds thinner: "Removing most of the enchantment system in favour of specific boosts that gear gives feels like it would make the game more grindy instead of more customisable." Related complaints recur in smaller numbers: uniques that feel like stat bonuses, no armour set bonuses despite four slots, gear outgrown too quickly to care about, and every artifact costing souls.
Difficulty and level scalingMedium
Players disagree about how hard the game is. Some say hard mode is "surprisingly easy," the final boss falls quickly, and builds around items like the warding chimes make you close to invincible. Others hit one-shot attacks, poison, swarms and a difficult witch fight. A recurring irritation on both sides is milestone-based scaling: enemies rise with you, so returning to early zones gives no sense of power. One reviewer put it as "you cant even 3 hit them.. THE FIRST ZOMBIE OF THE FIRST ZONE." Another wrote, "There's no point to getting XP if leveling up doesn't do anything."
Price, editions and planned DLCMedium
Price comes up in about 7% of reviews, and those saying the game is not worth the money or worth waiting for a sale outnumber those calling it worth the price. Some see the $30 reviewers cite as fair value for a polished sequel. Others weigh it against a 5 to 12 hour story and the launch problems, and a few compare the Deluxe Edition unfavourably with the first game's Ultimate Edition. Reviewers also argue over the announced DLC. Some expect it to fill out the game the way DLC did for the first one; others see a short campaign that ends on a cliffhanger with one villain left for paid content.
The storyMedium
Players who mention the story often call it short, including some who enjoyed it. Some like the narrator, the cutscenes and the humour; others call it thin, say it ignores the first game's ending, or dislike quests that are walls of unvoiced dialogue. The open ending with a villain still at large reads as a DLC setup to several reviewers.
Art styleLow
The brighter, pastel look divides fans of the first game. Some think it is charming and a clear step up; others find it washed out, plasticky or less characterful than the darker original, and a few say it grew on them after an hour.
What frustrates players
Click-to-move controls on mouse and keyboardHigh
About 13% of reviews bring up the mouse-driven movement or ask for WASD, and the complaint comes from players who recommend the game as well as from those who don't. Movement, attack and interact share the left mouse button, so trying to step away from an enemy often makes your character attack it, clicks snap to chests or large bosses, and pathfinding stumbles around pillars and ledges. Reviewers say jumping and platforming make the old scheme feel worse than it did in the first game: "It feels horrible, like you are guiding the game to move you somewhere rather than just letting the player move where they want." Several note that WASD existed in development builds, and one wrote, "WASD controls were present in the dev builds but now require mods to enable." Some reviews written as negative say they will stay that way until WASD arrives. The usual workaround is a controller, and several mouse users say switching made the game playable, though some report 8-direction stick snapping, awkward bow aiming and jump sharing a button with interact there too.
Bugs and unpolished systemsHigh
About 16% of reviews mention bugs, glitches or getting stuck. The recurring ones are specific: artifacts that stop working until re-equipped, rubber-banding or hanging in the air when dropping off ledges, falling out of the world, softlocked quests, party members missing quest rewards, a revive sound or other audio stuck on a loop, enemies stuck in walls or spawning out of bounds, and the guide trail pointing through walls. Players who like the game still list these, and one summed it up as "The game's great, for a beta. For a full-release, it needs more polishing."
Linux and Steam Deck did not work at launchHigh
About 11% of reviews mention Linux or the Steam Deck, almost all of them about launch week. Reviewers explain that the game required Xbox Gaming Services, which would not run under Proton, so it crashed or refused to start on Steam Deck and Linux even though the first game ran there. On launch day 22% of reviews raised it; by the week of October 5 it was under 3%. By then, reviewers say, a patch had added Linux and Steam Deck support, and some of them changed their reviews to positive. A few report account linking still failing on Linux after the fix.
Account linking, login errors and crashesMedium
On launch day 13% of reviews raised Microsoft account linking or login errors, falling to about 2% from October 5. Players hit errors 0064, 0059 and 0029, "unable to verify game ownership," a Link button that did nothing, and forced installs of Gaming Services, and some lost access to preorder capes until it worked. Crashes on startup, in cutscenes or when entering water appear in about 5% of reviews, and a game process that keeps running after closing shows up in smaller numbers. Some positive reviews describe launch trouble that a restart, reinstall or relink cleared up.
Short campaign and thin endgameMedium
About 9% of reviews raise length, replayability or the endgame, and this theme grew as players finished: 4% of launch-day reviews, about 10% afterwards. Players report finishing the story in 5 to 12 hours and reaching full completion in around 12 to 24, after which, they say, timed soul storms, a level cap of 100 and a power cap offer little reason to continue. One review sums it up as "Great gameplay but simply no replayability," another as "The Post/Endgame is just boring and uninteractive." Players who want more ask for an endless tower or repeatable challenge mode like the first game's.
Online and offline characters are separate, and solo online lagsMedium
About 6% of reviews mention the offline split. Each character is locked to online or offline, so playing alone without internet means starting a new hero. Reviewers say online characters run through Mojang's servers even in solo play, which brings queues (even in local couch co-op, one complains), lag, rubber-banding, disconnects and, for a few, lost progress, and solo online play cannot be paused. One launch-day warning put it plainly: "this game actually makes you choose between playing offline and playing with friends per CHARACTER, not per session." A reviewer who played the whole campaign solo for that reason was blunter: "Online play SUCKS."
Repetitive quests and encountersMedium
A steady group finds the loop repetitive: fetch quests in the opening hours, predictable ambushes, enemy packs respawning as soon as they leave the screen, dungeons that blend together, and reused monstrosity bosses. One reviewer found the dungeon layouts "boring and predictable after just two or three runs."
Hidden item stats and vague descriptionsLow
Around 3% of reviews complain that items show only a power level and passives, with no damage or armour numbers to compare: "It doesn't clearly tell you how much protection your armor gives you or how much damage your weapon actually does." Flavour text in place of mechanical descriptions on items and enchantments adds to it.
Currency caps and inventory limitsLow
Players building up resources hit caps: 100 echo shards when some upgrades cost 60, escalating reroll costs, an 80-item inventory with no storage chest, no loadouts and no gifting. The emerald cap drew complaints ("Emeralds being capped at 9,999 (given that some item can cost 5,000)") until, reviewers report, a patch raised it to 99,999.
Cutscenes and image qualityLow
About 4% of reviews mention cutscenes, mostly that they run at 24fps or look low resolution, with duplicated players in co-op. A smaller group finds the whole image blurry, grainy or smeared because of forced upscaling and temporal anti-aliasing with no resolution setting, and a few share an engine.ini fix.
Map and navigationLow
Reviewers miss the first game's transparent map overlay, find the world map hard to read, and want markers and a local dungeon map.
3. The player conversation
Reviewers on both sides hedge. Some negative reviews say the game underneath is fun, and many positive reviews carry a caveat, often a request for WASD or a complaint about the mouse controls. The two camps also answer each other: some positive reviews dismiss the launch-day complaints about Linux and account linking as review bombing, and some negative reviews say they will change once WASD is added or the bugs are fixed.
What reviewers talk about shifted after launch. On launch day (September 29) reviews were 60% positive and dominated by players who could not start or sign in, many with only minutes of play. Over the next five days recommendations rose to 70% as Linux support arrived and login errors faded, and in the week of October 5 they settled at 67%. The later reviews come more often from players who had finished the campaign, and they talk less about launching and more about length, endgame, enchanting depth, difficulty and repetition.
Among reviews written with under an hour played, 42% are about Linux, Steam Deck, sign-in errors or crashes, and the controls come next. Among reviews from players with 10 or more hours, 21% raise length, replayability or the endgame. Long-time fans of the first game drive the comparison debate and the complaints about enchantments, stats and uniques. Completionists who reached level 100 raise the endgame, currency caps and scaling. Families and couch co-op groups mostly write about playing together, and the movement complaints come mostly from mouse users, several of whom say a controller fixed the problem for them.
4. What the developers could do
- Add direct keyboard movement and separate move from attack. Mouse-driven movement is the gameplay complaint reviewers raise most outside bugs and launch problems, including players who recommend the game, and several point out that WASD existed in development builds.
- Fix the recurring gameplay bugs. Artifacts that stop working, ledge rubber-banding, softlocked quests, missing party quest rewards and looping audio appear across many independent reviews, including positive ones.
- Let characters move between online and offline play, and allow pausing solo. Reviewers blame the per-character lock and server-hosted solo sessions for lag, queues and lost progress, and warn other buyers about them in strong terms.
- Build a repeatable endgame mode. Players finishing in 5 to 12 hours ask for a tower or challenge mode like the first game's, and say soul storms and the level cap give them no reason to continue.
- Show item stats and clear mechanical descriptions. Reviewers cannot compare damage or armour and say flavour text hides what items and enchantments do.
- Keep account linking and Linux support reliable. Launch-day reviews were 60% positive and dominated by login errors and Gaming Services blocking Linux and Steam Deck, and a few report linking still failing after the Linux fix.
- Raise currency and inventory caps and add storage and loadouts. The echo shard cap, 80-item inventory and missing storage frustrate the players who invest the most time, and reviewers report that the emerald cap has already been raised.
- Render cutscenes at full frame rate and add image-quality options. 24fps cutscenes and forced upscaling blur are a steady irritation, and players are patching config files to work around them.
