Minecraft Dungeons II Is Out Today — Critics Call It a Real Step Up, and It's on Game Pass

At a Glance

Minecraft Dungeons II launches today, September 29, 2026 — six years after the original Minecraft Dungeons shipped in May 2020. Developed by Mojang Studios and Double Eleven, the sequel is available on PC (Steam and Xbox), PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2, and it is included with Xbox Game Pass from day one.

The embargo lifted September 28. Reviews are broadly positive: Destructoid awarded it a "hallmark of excellence," Polygon called it "junior Diablo done right," and GamesRadar called it "one of the best-made loot-based dungeon crawlers you can buy right now."

At $29.99, it is cheaper than most comparable ARPGs — and free for Game Pass subscribers.

Sources: Xbox Wire · Destructoid review · Steam store page

Key Details

What Critics Are Saying

Reviews went live September 28. No Metacritic aggregate is finalized yet as of launch day, but the individual outlet scores tell a consistent story.

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"Expanding and improving on the original game in most conceivable ways, Minecraft Dungeons 2 is an excellent advancement in this ARPG spin-off for one of gaming's most beloved and iconic franchises. And a genuine bargain at $30." — Destructoid, Scott Duwe

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"Based on five or six hours' play in couch co-op with my 10- and 7-year-old kids, I would say that Minecraft Dungeons 2's co-developers, Mojang and Double Eleven, have nailed it." — Polygon, Oli Welsh

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"Bigger, better, yet impressively streamlined for younger players to get started, Minecraft Dungeons 2 is one of the best-made loot-based dungeon crawlers you can buy." — GamesRadar, Justin Towell

The critics' split is familiar: those focused on combat depth and replayability scored it highest, while the handful of less enthusiastic notes flagged it as more of the same. Given the context — a $29.99 family dungeon crawler designed to be approachable — "more of the same, but noticeably better" reads as a compliment.

How It Differs From the Original

The original Minecraft Dungeons (2020) was a short, compact dungeon crawler — story finished in around six hours, with missions selected from a fixed home base. It worked as an entry point into the genre, but it felt thin.

Dungeons II rebuilds the skeleton:

The move to an open, connected Overworld is the single biggest design shift. You explore on foot, discover procedurally generated dungeons scattered across the map, and build up the village of Bravehaven as your story hub — rather than just picking a level from a menu.

The Sift — A New Dimension, Here First

The standout moment in Dungeons II is The Sift: a brand-new dimension in the Minecraft universe that debuts here before coming to Minecraft Java and Bedrock Edition in 2027. It is only the fourth official Minecraft dimension, following the Overworld, the Nether, and the End — and the first new one in over 14 years.

The Sift is built around souls. Visually it looks nothing like the blocky familiarity of the Overworld: the color palette leans fluorescent, the geometry gets strange, and the enemies are entirely new. Destructoid described it as "a unique new area for the franchise, filled with unknown new creatures and a somewhat fluorescent color scheme that shines with the game's Unreal Engine 5 overhaul."

For longtime Minecraft fans, there is an added layer of intrigue: you get to walk through The Sift here, months before it arrives in the base game.

Co-op — Built for Families and Friend Groups

Co-op was the design priority for the sequel. The original Dungeons offered local co-op only — a sore point for a game aimed at a younger, broadly distributed audience. Dungeons II fixes it:

The mixed co-op is the headlining change: if you are playing couch co-op with one person and have an open slot, you can now pull in an online friend without everyone having to switch modes. The team also improved revive mechanics — multiple players reviving simultaneously speeds up the process.

Polygon's reviewer, who played the game with their 10- and 7-year-old children in couch co-op, summarized it as "the perfect action-RPG for families, or for any group of friends who fancy a simple, but not mindless, bit of hack-and-slash."

Platform and Pricing

Game Pass subscribers get Dungeons II at no extra cost on both PC and Xbox. The Xbox Play Anywhere designation means a single purchase covers both platforms. At $29.99, it is roughly half the price of a standard AAA release — a point that came up in multiple reviews.

Is It Worth It?

For the target audience — families, casual co-op groups, or Minecraft fans curious about the dungeon-crawler spin-off — the answer is straightforwardly yes. The $29.99 price and Game Pass inclusion make the stakes low. The reviews confirm it is a genuine improvement over Dungeons 1 in nearly every respect.

For players who bounced off the original because it felt thin or repetitive, Dungeons II addresses most of those complaints: the story is twice as long, the world is open and explorable, the endgame has real content, and the co-op works the way it always should have.

For players looking for the depth of Diablo 4 or Path of Exile, GamesRadar's caveat applies: "if you're looking for something with the complexity of those games, you probably won't find it here." Dungeons II is still designed first for a broad, cross-generational audience. That is a feature, not a bug, depending on who you are playing with.

Official Trailer

Sources

• ▶Steam — Minecraft Dungeons II
• ▶Destructoid — "A diamond in the rift, and even more in the Sift"
• ▶Polygon — "Goes from Good Baby Diablo to Great Junior Diablo"
• ▶GamesRadar — Review
• ▶Xbox Wire — Launch feature
• ▶Minecraft.net — Date announcement