I said in my review for the first episode, that essentially, Story Mode doesn’t really need to exist. Episode two has done nothing to change that assessment itself, but it does set up some things that have bought the series some time, before I fully expand my analysis like I had promised.
So episode two, title of the title, continues right where we left off; on the search for members of the Order of the Stone. Whoever you chose to go after last time, doesn’t really matter, as recruiting them takes only a couple of minutes and an ultra simple puzzle.
From there, we’re back at camp, where the gang unites and goes to find another member; the illusive Soren. After some minor trouble getting there, the group gets a bit lost in the castle and runs into an old enemy.
That’s really all that happens. It comes and goes with little of note. The episode really feels like it needed something extra, but it’s light on ideas. However, it feels like the meat of the adventure might finally be getting started and, with some members of the Order in tow, there’s room for interesting ideas based on their unique talents.
It’s just a shame they were introduced in a quite underwhelming manner. The Telltale formula just doesn’t seem to fit a concept for kids. When it’s this simplified, Telltale’s skill at developing strong character moments or subtle nuances can’t be properly utilised, or at least they haven’t figured out how yet.
Because of this, they have to lean on extremely stilted action set pieces and have painfully obvious dialogue choices, neither of which are compelling for an older player. I’d be amazed if kids preferred this over regular Minecraft too. The most mature this episode gets is a really stupid “F-bomb” joke, that seems desperate to give the grown ups something to laugh at.
Even when the poor QTE action sequences raise the bar to become average, the music doesn’t really fit, with only a couple of flourishes in the score to match the moment.
The best thing about this series then, continues to be the imaginative ways they use existing Minecraft items. There are giant robots held together with slime blocks and pistons, cow cannons, and tons of little nods to things that would be awesome additions to the source game.
Summary
Episode two is a bland entry to a so-far uninspiring series. It’s short, with little to think about or do, aside from some awesome ideas that’d be more fun in the real Minecraft. I’m hoping episode three is a drastic improvement, or else I’m really not going to have anything nice to say. That’s sad.
Dean was a regular ICXM contributor between 2015–2017, publishing 39 articles across game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news. Their work focused on hands-on reviews, platform commentary, and breaking-news reporting during the Xbox One X launch year and Microsoft’s wider Play Anywhere / UWP gaming initiative. They post on X as @SpookyWomble.