Review: Minecraft: Story Mode - Episode 5: Order Up!

Minecraft: Story Mode has managed to surprise fans of episodic games with every episode released. While the second episode might not have proven that, both Episode 1, Episode 3 and now Episode 4 have not disappointed. Probably the best episode yet in both content and character development, Minecraft: Story Mode - Episode 4: A Block and a Hard Place will leave you emotionally defeated. Lasting a little bit over two hours, the episode gives closure to the events that Jessie and his friends are facing in saving the world from the Witherstorm. It begins right where you left off last, either Ellegard or Magnus having died (according to the decision that you make) and Gabriel having been rescued but with no recollection of what has happened (a side effect from having Wither Sickness). You all run from the storm only to find safety in a cave, still within the storm's range.

Editor’s Note: Before reading this review, we highly recommend checking out our review for Episode One: The Order of the Stone , Episode 2: Assembly Required , Episode 3: The Last Place You Look and Episode 4: A Block and a Hard Place as there are spoilers ahead.

If you haven’t already boarded the hype train for Minecraft: Story Mode , the newest episode from Telltale Games might not convince you. The review that was done for the first episode ended with the hope that the following episode would be just as wonderful and expansive. Unfortunately, it didn't meet the standard appointed to it for a variety of reasons. This new episode taps into the lore, one that you would normally have had to guess playing the original game, delving into the world that Mojang had created for us. Depending on which member of the Order of the Stone you decided to pursue in the previous episode, you either begin the episode with Olivia (if you’re pursuing Ellegaard the Redstone Engineer) or Axel (if you’re pursuing Magnus the Griefer). While which character you begin with doesn’t necessarily matter at the beginning, the stories begin to change as you near the middle of the episode, causing you to have to play it twice in order to get a full understanding.
Now Minecraft has no overarching objective, so it instantly challenges McGonigal’s claim that a goal is required in a game. But actually, Minecraft ’s main goal is composed of multiple smaller goals. It doesn’t have a "grand" objective, but it has smaller objectives, little bite-size incentives that replace each other over time and take the role of a larger objective. First you collect resources, then you build a house, then you survive the night, then you wake up and continue, but each with steadier and steadier increases in scope and scale. Even better, there’s no one direction to go. Being able to explore in multiple regions and build whatever you feel is satisfactory is open-ended. You are given tools and no direction, yet you are still creating. You’re making the direction. This is a massive undertaking, one that changes everything that anyone knew about videogames before, and it’s a bigger embodiment of the "sandbox" mentality than Grand Theft Auto has even been.


Rather than going for an evil wizard's castle, however, why not instead create a lava blade house, which looks like a sword stuck into the ground? That's the path AtrixStd went for in their build, which also has a tutorial available on their YouTube chan

The episode also alludes to death; a lot. Considering the fact that both Olivia and Axel are completely omitted from the episode save for the prologue, there is basically no comic relief. Not that you should play a game simply for its humor, Minecraft: Story Mode has a reputation for having humor and making friendship stand above all else. While this episode does focus on friendship and how rare is a chicken jockey In minecraft your decisions can shape the future, death always seems to be around the corner and everyone you come in contact with seems to want you to die, or at last Aiden openly expresses it. It also doesn't help that Aiden and the Blaze Rods were basically considered obsolete until now, so it's difficult to really believe that he would want to do this to the citizens of Sky City just because he's jealous. Had this episode focused on why they are being brought back rather than throwing them into a whole new story, the episode would have made a little more sense.

Minecraft: Story Mode - Episode 5: Order Up! shapes up to be an incredible introduction to the Order of the Stone's newest adventures, but still manages to fall a little short. Telltale introduces new concepts, characters and worlds, but their biggest mistake was shoving it all into a single episode. Had they created a separate season talking about the events of Sky City and expanding a little bit more on the environments and characters, this episode would have been much more successful. That being said, however, this episode does deviate from previous installments as being much more adult and changes the characters as once being small time builders to being full-fledged heroes risking their lives to save common folk. Hopefully Telltale will continue to capitalize on that aspect of the characters and convey it in the following episodes.