Minecraft

We Sit Down And Review Minecraft: Story Mode — Order Up. This Is The Fifth Episode Of Telltale's Take On Mojang's Famed Franchise. Here's Our Review On How They Did

Normally this would be the final end-cap on the season for Minecraft: Story Mode but as it turns out we still have three more episodes to go before season one officially ends. Yes, Telltale Games is taking this whole story into an eight part thing instead of the traditional five. I guess there is a lot to tell for Mojang's title that has never had a story before. Thankfully though we had a chance to give this new episode a play to see just how well it all carries on with the Minecraft lore. Here's our review of the latest episode of Minecraft: Story Mode.

Story

The crew has defeated the Witherstorm, gained some new allies, and lost some friends in the process. The Order of the Stone has been reformed with Jesse and company in charge and most everyone is okay with this. Enter in the minor antagonists from the first episode to muck everything up because the Jelly Monster has hit them. It's hit them so hard that they have mucked up a different world that Jesse and crew need to help save and set things right. All while trying to find the mythic Eversource in the process. How will they do?

Hated

If episode four truly felt like the end of the story then episode five here truly feels like the start of a whole new one for Minecraft: Story Mode. So new to the point that it hits every storytelling mechanic to make it feel like this should be the start of a Season Two for the franchise. The story never picked up right where we left off as has been the case before and that left an odd "taste in my mouth" for the whole thing. It felt more like poor planning on Telltale's side than truly feeling like the story was just rolling on. I could never shake it and that led to a bit of a disappointment for me.

It was also a bit jarring, based on what has already been established in Minecraft: Story Mode, that there were quite a few liberties taken in the story just to make it all "work." We were blindly forced into situations that other characters would have been placed in but as we were the player it only counted toward our experience and no one else. The big case in point would be where the latest portal dropped everyone off. A location that required law breaking to move forward but only we had to do that as NPCs were "magically moved" without explanation to anyone; even when there was only a few seconds of time delay.

This kind of storytelling errs on the lazy said and leaves out a few fun things that could have been put into place. I know I was left confused when only mere minutes had passed yet the antagonists were able to move across a planet, without aide, and embed themselves deeper into the political game of the new world than even Tyrion Lannister could ever dream to be. Why did we skip over all of that without good cause?

Loved

One of the aspects of Minecraft: Story Mode I have loved since day one has been the mixed in combat for the game. Not only does this episode put us to work right away so we are not just "along for the ride" but it keeps it all up throughout the whole episode. I like having more than just a basic interactive story where only the narrative can be played with and we can only look around the game world slightly. Telltale Games delivered hard and well on this in the episode and I hope it keeps coming as we get into the future episodes of the game.

Even though I had issues with the delivery of the story here I will admit that it is nice to have things mostly wrapped up by the end of the episode. Other episodic titles have done this and it worked out well and now we have it here for Minecraft. There is another cliffhanger at the end of things to entice us all back but this is the first episode in this franchise that hasn't required to be linked into everything so far. Yes it adds a bit of a bonus but one could pick this episode up, watch the recaps, play it, and then set it down feeling like they had a full experience. Please keep that up.

Lastly, I finally felt like choices mattered in this game with this episode. Leading up to now it really never gave us that feeling, at least to me, but some of the story branches and dialog selections felt like they had impact or will have impact soon. This is one of the key features of all of their titles and even though it seemed to take a while it is now solidified in for me. Let's hopefully keep it that way as we head into the sixth episode of the season here soon. At least I'm hoping soon.

Overall

Even though it feels like there are parts of the story missed or dropped for weird reasons I do have to say this has to have been the best episode of Minecraft: Story Mode so far. It doesn't truly force you to have had to play the first four if you wanted to jump in and if it isn't your cup of tea it doesn't leave you wondering too much at the end. Of course there are bonuses to having experienced it all (and going forward) but if you want a great slice this has to be the episode to try. Even though it feels more like the start of a season two than part of a season one.

Minecraft: Story Mode — Order Up was developed by Telltale Games and Mojang. Minecraft: Story Mode — Order Up was published by Telltale Games for the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC on March 29^th 2016. A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for reviewing purposes.