Published on October 9th, 2023 | by Chris O'Connor
Minecraft Dungeons & Dragons DLC Review
Summary: The world of Dungeons & Dragons comes to Minecraft in an impressive DLC package.
4.4
Roleplay Roleplaying
When I was a young man… probably mid to late teens, I asked for and received a gift of a Dungeons & Dragons board game, the classic dark cover with the dragon and everything. I’m sure it would have been a lot of fun… had I been brave enough to see if any of my friends would have been interested in playing.
So… decades later when a DLC for Minecraft is announced that offers to bring players into the world of Dungeons and Dragons… of course I wanted to explore.
The game actually starts in what appears to be a college students bedroom/loft. The game board is set up, snacks are in place and everything looks set for a great session of D&Ding. You then get to select from a few options for your character, race, skills etc. Then you are transported into the game world.
Within Minecraft! I mean there are some impressive worlds that people have built in Minecraft… some fantastic experiences. But for someone with a soft spot for Dungeons & Dragons and RPG’s… the way this DLC starts is impressive. Setting you not as a character in the Dungeons & Dragons world but as someone playing a game of Dungeons & Dragons is a really nice touch and tugged those nostalgia heart strings (well… sort of… as mentioned, I never actually had this experience per se).
As you get in to the game… you find that you can indeed level up your character, invest your points into the usual traits, Strength, Intelligence etc. Certain events will see you roll a dice and your abilities will either help or hinder you depending on the situation.
I undertook my quest with my son in a multiplayer session and though the game does say it is for 1 to 4 players… we did manage to soft lock it at point in which my son was talking to someone and I was elsewhere. I headed out of an area and triggered a cutscene for the location which ended up messing up the dialogue my son was having and prevented him being able to gain the quest he was trying to (as the character was then stuck in the floor of the building and unable to be spoken to). Fortunately the developers were very responsive and provided some possible solutions or at least a work around. So it’s nice to know that if issues pop up… the team behind the DLC are there to help.
I should also note that it’s quite a big download… over 300Meg… now that isn’t too much for many modern connections… but we found it was a very slow download and I’m not sure if that was us having some network issues at the time (though other things seemed to be running fine) or if it’s Minecraft’s storage servers not really being set up to deal with such large files… either way… once it was down it was all fine.
The bottom line here is… if you are a fan of Dungeons & Dragons… if you are a fan of Minecraft… then this is the merging for you! It is really quite impressive what they have managed to work into the mechanics of Minecraft and that introduction… lovely touch.
Really strongly recommended for fans of RPG’s and the classic D & D worlds!