Minecraft Dungeons opens beta signups and introduces its plot
Wizard done it
What ever could cause the gentle builders and farmers of Minecraft to beat their ploughshares into swords and go on a murderous quest? Apparently Minecraft Dungeons does have a story to explain this, according to the game's opening cinematic, as shown during MineCon over the weekend. Perhaps more relevantly to people who wanna murder mobs with their pals and yoink loot, Mojang have also opened signups for closed beta testing. First, that plot-pushing intro.
I would've just said "Oh yeah, a wizard conjured monsters." Gets weird when a fella from a culture (or species?) thought to be evil is rejected by his people, then gets rejected by goodies because they think he looks a wrong'un, then he goes on to want to do murders after all. Mate, a wizard did it. Job done. Go home for the day. The cinematics team will thank you for drastically reducing the length of the opening too. Everyone gets the afternoon off.
I say that about most fantasy plots, mind. Wizard done it. Wizards will do anything for a laugh, the potion-drunk idiots.
That's just the dressing on bashing baddies to bits, mind. Mojang call it a action-adventure game "inspired by classic dungeon-crawlers," sending up to four players (in local or online co-op) out to mash monsters and nab loot, getting neat new powers along the way. Given the Minecraft origins, I assume it'll be quite gentle. The actual game will look more like this:
Minecraft Dungeons is expected to launch in spring 2020. Before then, you can now sign up for a chance to play in the closed beta.
As for regular old Minecraft, Mojang also announced the Nether Update during MineCon. It'll make the Nether a play to stay, not just pass through, with new biomes and NPCs.
Maybe a wizard made that evil orb. Ah, that must be what's going on. Who else would make such a terrible object? Wizard done it.