Minecraft: Story Mode Episode Five: Order Up
Developer : Telltale Games
Publisher: Telltale Games
Release Date: March 29, 2016
Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Xbox One (reviewed), Xbox 360, Wii U, Microsoft Windows, OSX, iOS, Android
This is a tough one everyone. Here’s the deal. Order Up is one of the better episodes in the first season of Minecraft: Story Mode. Except there’s one problem: by all accounts, this should be Episode One of Season Two. In Episode 4: A Block and a Hard Place, the Wither Storm saga came to a seemingly premature close. In my review, I expressed concern that the final episode would be completely disjointed from the first four. Here we are, three months later, and Episode Five: Order Up is completely disjointed from the first four episodes. Not even a “previously on Minecraft: Story Mode” to kick things off.
Jesse and Friends find themselves on a new adventure. They are experienced adventurers and through a QTE-filled opening credits, we learn our heroes are more confident and capable than ever. Order Up introduces a trio of wonderful new characters – well, really two new characters but we’re reintroduced to an old friend in a new way – including a genuinely sympathetic antagonist. The gameplay is comprised of the usual balance of puzzles, crafting, conversations, and diverse locations to keep things fairly interesting. Tension rises and falls just like any previous episodes but, by now, I know the formula and it induces narcolepsy. Let me be clear, I had to reach for a caffeinated beverage to keep my eyes open throughout the 90-minute affair.
When presented with dialogue choices, the conversations don’t feel fluid. Instead, Jesse mostly waits for the character to finish his or her statement before awkwardly changing the subject – or worse – jumping back a few places in the cue to a previously-discussed topic, then dropping it to move onto something else. And even if you aren’t confronted with a time-sensitive decision, a hasty countdown persists and feels out-of-sync with the non-urgent choices. It’s a shoehorned mechanic that needs tweaking in order to enhance this conversational series.
It feels odd to mention this but the subtitles don’t always match the dialogue. Sometimes sentences are cut short which would be fine (I guess), but other times entire sentences were swapped. It’s a strange lapse in attention to detail and I simply don’t get the same overwhelming sense of TLC being applied to Minecraft: Story Mode as I do with other series Telltale Games.
Final Verdict
A couple things I’ve mentioned in the past still apply: “Minecraft: Story Mode is not pushing the genre forward in any way, shape, or form.” or “…feels mailed in…”
New characters, conflicts, and ambitions give Order Up the outer shell of an original experience but at it’s core, this is the same old thing we’ve come to know from Minecraft: Story Mode. The ending is entirely predictable and shamelessly lays the groundwork for future (potentially endless) DLC episodes.
Minecraft: Story Mode Season One is four episodes (though Episode 2 should have been blended into Episode 3) capped by this teaser to attract future sales. The cash-grab model is all-too-apparent and it’s a huge turn-off.
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