Game Reviews Volume 2

Minecraft Story Mode Episodes 5-8 (PS4, Xbox One, PC, PS3, X360, Mobile)

The first four episodes of Minecraft Story Mode tell the tale ofJesse, Axel, Olivia, Petra and Lukas as they attempt to reunite thelegendary heroes, Gabriel the Warrior, Magnus the Rogue, Ellegaardthe Engineer and Soren the Architect; formerly known as the Order ofthe Stone. When one of the Order's former members, Ivor, unleashes aWither Storm on the world in an attempt at revenge on the members ofthe Order.

But with that story having ended in episode 4, where would episode 5and the following three episodes take us, and would it be just asgrand as the adventure from the first four episodes?

Episode 5 kicks off with our New Order of the Stone, comprised ofJesse, Axel, Olivia, Petra, Lukas and Ivor, soaking in the limelightof being celebrities, even if the masses haven't quite warmed to Ivorjust yet.

The group begin to learn of a new treasure they can search for andadd to their ever growing collection, but when rivals the Blaze Rods(formerly Lukas' Ocelots) led by Aiden learn of this treasure itbecomes a race to obtain it first. This takes the team on a journeythat will see them using trans-dimensional portals to visit variousdifferent alternate worlds and realities in an attempt to return totheir own.

Each episode takes place in a different world. This means that eachepisode sets a completely different tone to the previous one andallows the Minecraft universe to be expanded in directions that ithas never seen before, outside of it's traditional fantasy outlook onthings; including sci-fi and horror among others.

That is of course a very good thing, but the trade-off for this isthat the overarching story that connects the episodes is prettyflimsy and in the background for the vast majority of the time. A lotof the most interesting characters from episodes 1-4 are alsocompletely absent, and yes whilst there are some equally interesting(and some more-so) characters in episodes 5-8 it just seems a shamethat people we have already shared so much with are not evenmentioned in these adventures.

Episode 6 was a particular low point for me and I think it's simplybecause I'm not up on my Minecraft YouTube Celebrities. The majorityof the cast for this episode is voiced by Youtubers and theirMinecraft characters are the ones you interact with including thelikes of StampyCat and Captain Sparklez (the only two I recognised inthe episode).

This episode does occasionally give the feeling of needing to knowwho these people are in real life to get the humour and theirconnections to each other, it also becomes quite clear how unsuitedto being professional voice actors these people are with some verywooden delivery.

Episode 8 too had some technical problems involving lines of dialoguebeing cut short when being spoken. Luckily I play with subtitles onso I could read the dialogue before it would cut the audio out, butthis happened so often that it began to become quite annoying.

But as a whole, episodes 5-8 retain that high production value that Ipraised so highly in the first 4 episodes. Keeping that awesomeMinecraft look and sound with some great voice acting (save forepisode 6). It also keeps up the trend of having some A-list voiceactors on board such as Melissa Hutchinson & Ashly Burch joiningthe cast, as well as many more.

So how do episode 5-8 stack up against the first 4 episodes? Well Ido not think they are as good, but they are a great continuation ofthe Minecraft Story Mode experience. Hopefully Telltale return totheir beautifully crafted Minecraft world for another season in thecoming years, but for now episode 8 provides a solid conclusion tothe Telltale Minecraft story.

I have to say I have enjoyed my time with Jesse & co. much morethan I thought I would have done, the prefect introduction toTelltale games for younger children and families!

MinecraftStory Mode

Episodes5-8 – 7/10

+EachEpisode Provides A Unique Adventure

+ContinuedHigh Production Values

+Episode7's Brilliant Villain

-OverarchingStory Is Put On The Back Burner

-Episode6's 'All-Star' Voice Acting

-StillToo Easy!