The game received mixed reviews; many deemed the game fun and charming, with praise for its visuals and music. The game includes a four-player local and online multiplayer.
Minecraft Dungeons is set in the same fictional world as Minecraft, known as the "Overworld", consisting of rough 3D objects—mainly cubes and fluids, and commonly called "blocks"—representing various materials, and inhabited by both peaceful and hostile mobs. Unlike Minecraft, the game features a linear, story-driven campaign, and cutscenes.
The opening cutscene tells the story of an Illager named Archie, who was driven away by his people. Players assume the role of heroes who embark on a quest to defeat the Arch-Illager, while liberating oppressed villages, fighting monsters, and completing various quests. Ultimately, the players face the Arch-Illager in his castle and destroy the Orb of Dominance, freeing Archie from its influence. As the players and Archie depart, the Orb is shown to be rebuilding itself. In the game, after defeating Archie, the player will unlock new difficulties that make the game more challenging but provide better rewards.
There are several expansion packs that continue the story of the game. Four of the six expansions follow the same format: a shard of the Orb of Dominance travels to a different region of the Overworld and corrupts the nearby land, creating monsters for the players to face. In Jungle Awakens, the location is a jungle overgrown with corruption; in Creeping Winter, an island trapped in an eternal winter; in Howling Peaks, the windswept peaks of a mountain; in Hidden Depths, the murky bottom of a deep ocean; in Echoing Void, the ending of the Orb of Dominance which takes place in the End. At the end of each expansion, the players defeat a boss and destroy the Orb’s shard, liberating the location and all its inhabitants from the shard’s corruption.
The fifth expansion, Flames of the Nether, takes place in the Nether and is the only expansion that features no narration or boss, due to the lack of a shard of the Orb of Dominance.
