Minecraft is an intellectual property that has literally changed notonly video games, but the world. When it officially launched in 2011,the game already had an install-base of millions and has since goneon to sell in excess of 106 million copies across almost everyplatform this generation and last, making it the second best sellinggame of all time behind Tetris!
Unfortunately with that level of success and the easy to market imageof the game, Minecraft merchandise creates rivers in the streets.Toys, clothes, books and more from such a simple sandbox survivalgame. It even has it's own Lego sets; If you ask me that kind ofdefeats the object of the game in the first place!
But in their similar route to world domination, Telltale Games landedthe opportunity build an epic story set in the Minecraft universe.This could have very easily been a cash grab that would have requiredlittle effort on behalf of Telltale whilst they worked on their otherproperties. But what we are presented with is a game that, thoughdoesn't meet the standards set by their best works, is still a veryenjoyable and family friendly Telltale experience.
Minecraft Story Mode puts you in the shoes of Jesse, a male or femaledependant on your choice. You begin by preparing for an upcomingbuilding contest with your friends, Axel and Olivia. The grand prizeof the contest is a meet and greet with celebrity Gabriel theWarrior, from the world famous group of heroes known as the Order ofthe Stone.
However when the group get caught up in a deal gone sour betweentheir friend Petra and a mysterious stranger, the trio, Petra and ahandful of others must work together to save the world from amonstrous Wither Storm.
Their journey will take them through forest, desert, frozen tundra,ancient ruins, the Nether, the End, to the edge of the world andfurther; in an attempt to reunite the heroes from the dismantledOrder of the Stone and destroy the Wither Storm.
It's a pretty epic tale and the best part is, is that it works reallyreally well as a Minecraft story. Though it is grandiose, it neverfeels too far fetched for Minecraft, in fact it actually feelssomewhat grounded in reality from my experience of public multiplayerservers in Minecraft. Where bitter rivalries and disagreements cometo a head and have a significant impact on the citizens of theserver, which they must all work together to try and repair thesituation.
The characters of Axel, Olivia, Petra, Lukas and the members of theOrder of the Stone are all well fleshed out and likeable. They neverfeel too cliché and each member of the team brings something uniqueto the table that will always keep the story moving in a directionyou didn't necessarily expect it to go down.
Each episode is particularly well paced too, with impressive actionsequences frequently punctuating simple puzzles and well writtendialogue. Each episode is fairly consistent in quality and tone too,with the exception of episode 2 which falls well below the standardof the rest of the episodes in the series, as well as the rest ofTelltale's episodes from other series. This is due to a pitifullyshort length, lack of progress in the story and some vastly out ofcharacter behaviour from a couple of the characters with noexplanation as to why this is.
Minecraft Story Mode plays like any other Telltale game. Plenty ofdialogue to sift through, a large helping of QTE sequences and somesimple logic puzzles. Also expect to do some simple crafting andbuilding, this is Minecraft after all.
One thing I did notice though was that it was very difficult to get agame over. In other Telltale games such as The Walking Dead, a failedQTE will absolutely result in your characters death. In Minecrafthowever, no matter how much of the QTE you miss, you're unlikely tofail. It is possible to fail combat sequences, yet your health bar isso large that you needn't worry about failure as it's so unlikely tohappen. Puzzles are also much, much simpler than before and all ofthis comes as a bit of a shock as Telltale games are not exactlydifficult anyway. It seems odd to dumb down games that are easyenough anyway, for the sake of kids. If the target audience isMinecraft players, people who are having to survive in harshenvironments, manage resources and plan for multiple eventualitiesconstantly, why are you making the game this easy? They aren't dumbplayers and would find very little challenge in a standard Telltalegame as it is.
As for how it performs though, Minecraft Story Mode exceeds thequality of any Telltale game that has come before it. The frame rateis consistently smooth with very few instances where it dropped aftera camera change, or loading into a new scene. The background visualsappear to have been captured in Minecraft itself, or otherwise havebeen designed so perfectly similar that you can't tell thedifference. Any characters and or moving parts appear to have beendone in a similar style to high end Minecraft machinima's; yet nextto the backdrop this doesn't look out of place.
Voice talent in this game is extremely high, with all of the maincast providing great performances. It even has some really big namesin there from the likes of Patton Oswalt, Dave Fenoy, Ashley Johnsonand Billy West! The soundtrack too feels like it belongs in aMinecraft game, though none of it exists in the base game, and it'snot even composed by the same musicians, it really does feel like itbelongs.
It's evident that Telltale really sunk their money into making thisgame address the issues that fans have had for years, whilst alsopresenting a top quality cast in a game that looks accurate to it'ssource material.
So on the whole the first half of Tellltale's Minecraft Story Mode isactually pretty good. It's not their greatest achievement to date,but it provides a great family friendly adventure story, wrapped upin what could be Telltale's most polished game to date.
It certainly has it's shortcomings, but Minecraft Story Mode shouldabsolutely not be written off as a simple cash grab of one of thebiggest IP's this century.
MinecraftStory Mode
Episodes1-4 – 7/10
+FastPaced & Thrilling Adventure Story
+FixesPrevious Technical Problems
+GreatVisual Style
+BrilliantVoice Cast
-Episode2
-FarToo Easy
-OccasionallyCringy Dialogue
YOU ARE READING
Game Reviews Volume 2
RandomWhen Wattpad tells me there are too many parts to my Game Reviews I laughed in their faces! ...well no I didn't actually, I just made this 2nd volume. You can also find my reviews and other gaming related articles at www.squigglygamers.com! Can't fi...
