Editor’s Note: Before reading this review, we highly recommend checking out our review for Episode One: The Order of the Stone , Episode 2: Assembly Required , and Episode 3: The Last Place You Look as there are spoilers ahead.
Still, it is the girl that Nintendo has brought to the dance. As such, it's highly unlikely they will be replacing it with an entirely new console anytime soon. After all, they're not a company on the verge of bankruptcy whose entire future relies on the Wii U becoming click through the up coming website page dominant selling system. Not to mention that the 3DS is actually doing quite well, giving them a hardware buoy should they need it.
Daggers, for instance, are fast but weak, while a halberd is noticeably slower but better for slicing enemies at range. The Spelunker armor comes with a pet bat that flies out to attack enemies for you, but the hunter's armor gets a bonus ten arrows per pickup. Equipment also comes with a number of abilities, further complicating the selection. Abilities such as weaken enemies or lightning strike are only rarely pre-equipped, but rather must be chosen. A sickle might have two ability slots with three options each, but once you've chosen one the other two go away. There's a hard choice to be made between "move faster for five seconds after dodge roll" and "heal allies in small radius" and it can take a surprising amount of thought to pull the trigger. Each ability also can be upgraded twice and this is where character leveling comes in.
The lore also does not seem to be empty at all. In some games, you walk away feeling like you could have lived your whole life not needing to know anything about what just happened. This game, and specifically this episode, doesn't feel that way and makes sure to utilize all the time in the episode to prove that. Nothing goes unnoticed and everything is important whether it be information that pertains to this game specifically or the base game. Battles are not too long-winded and conversations don't make you want to skip them. Everything feels as though they are timed just right and you almost forget that you are sitting in front of your television for so long. You don't really think about what could have happened if you did or said something differently and only look forward to seeing what comes of the decision you've just made, which is odd for a game that is meant to be replayed in order to make different decisions. Besides, there are some things that you wouldn't want to see happen again and are better off just forgetting all of the decisions that you didn't make.
The episode relies prettily on QTE (Quick Time Events) and gives you something next to decision making to worry about. While a lot of the QTE are really to avoid taking damage, some are just used for the sake of being there, like to build things, but they also add to your situation and count as something else to watch out for. You are given a set of ten hearts to have throughout the episode (and most likely throughout the series) and damage gets taken away every time you are either attacked by an enemy or fail to do a QTE. The QTE also acts as its own decision as some events can change how a person sees you. It isn't as effective as a regular decision, but something like which group of people you want to run with or how long it takes you to do something might have a much more of an impact in the future.
It takes a while to build up a full arsenal, especially due to how many gems are required to level up equipment skills, but once you've got a foothold the game opens up into a fun combat romp. Minecraft Dungeons is designed with younger players in mind, so on standard difficulty it's too easy for any kind of seasoned player, but after a few levels you can crank it up to the hardest and eventually get a decent challenge that can actually run the risk of killing you. Enemies attack in large numbers, whether they be familiar Minecraft creatures like zombies, spiders and skeleton-archers or newer threats such as the corrupted Illagers (like villagers but ill) or zombie-summoning sorcerers. Combat is initially a simple matter of holding down the attack button and letting the combo animation play out, broken up occasionally by needing to shoot archers that don't want to hang out in melee range. The final levels do a nice job of putting all your abilities to the test, though, requiring regular use of magic, support pets, keeping an eye out for traps in the environment and giving the bow a good workout.
Between each level is a brief stop back at base camp, which is a fairly empty area that honestly feels like it's missing content. The shops let you spend the green gems found throughout the levels on a random piece of equipment or accessory, and...that's it. There's a map on a table to choose the next level or you can just hit the Select button to do the same thing. Sometimes there's a random chest somewhere in the scenery if you wander about. It's a good amount of space, nicely decorated, with little in it.