Family-Friendly Comedy Tedium – Minecraft: Story Mode Episode 1 Review

<p class&equals;"western">Alas&comma; the Telltale Heart&comma; each beat thudding to remind me of its existence&period; I turned away&comma; fearful of what would lie if I was to dig it up&period; I had a jolly time with Telltale in the past&comma; but recent actions left me with dread of what they had become&period; It wasn&&num;8217&semi;t as though <em>Tales from the Borderlands<&sol;em> was bad&comma; it was excellent&comma; but their other series<em> Game of Thrones<&sol;em> had been Telltale&&num;8217&semi;s Mr Hyde&colon; A drunken mess of a being without soul&comma; heart or emotion&period; So thus&comma; my worry of if the heart still beats or if it was my troubled mind creating phantom pulses only increased with the announcement of <em>Minecraft&colon; Story Mode&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">The heart&comma; it beats&excl; I swear on it&excl; Faintly&comma; but it beats still lest my eyes deceive me&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western"><em><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;telltalegames&period;com&sol;minecraftstorymode&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer"><strong>Minecraft&colon; Story Mode<&sol;strong><&sol;a><&sol;em> by <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;telltalegames&period;com&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">Telltale Games<&sol;a> is a walk-n-prod game where you stumble from one scene to the next poking things and choosing conversation options to continue the narrative&period; This brings the obvious question to the observant&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;But <em>Minecraft<&sol;em> doesn&&num;8217&semi;t have a story to speak of&excl; How can Telltale create a story that doesn&&num;8217&semi;t feel disconnected to the source material&comma; when said source material is without narrative&quest;&excl;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">The first way&comma; and this is where the writing is at its strongest&comma; is what is called &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;ludonarrative” or &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;narrative from gameplay&period;” This is where something is inferred in terms of story by the gameplay you experience&period; To use <em>Call of Duty<&sol;em> as an example&comma; the gameplay being murdering down hundreds and hundreds of unremarkable goons could infer to the player that the character you play as is a god-damn psychopath&period; Someone who sees all opposition as less human beings and more just an obstacle in the way of victory&period; So&comma; applied to <em>Minecraft<&sol;em>&comma; notice how you start off with very few materials and slowly build your way up to better equipment&comma; grander buildings&comma; and more complex devices&quest; That indicates a zero-to-hero adventure through the progression&comma; and <em>Minecraft&colon; Story Mode<&sol;em> embraces this by using the Hero&&num;8217&semi;s Journey story structure as its core&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">However&comma; naturally&comma; you can not build a tale based purely on the monomyth structure&period; Even <em>Lord of the Rings<&sol;em>&comma; the classic example&comma; also bred a fantastical layer of paint on top&period; As such&comma; the game uses a thick dose of <em>Minecraft<&sol;em> references which&comma; while appropriate to the source material&comma; will likely lead to those unaware of the original game bamboozled in what is going on &&num;8212&semi; Like stepping into a cinematic showing half way through a film&period; Although&comma; I believe that is okay&comma; since <em>Minecraft&colon; Story Mode<&sol;em> is meant to be a tribute to the source material rather than something to lure in the unaware and unsold from the outside with a curling bony finger&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;94167" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-94167" style&equals;"width&colon; 1280px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;10&sol;04120715&sol;Minecraft-Ep1-1&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"wp-image-94167 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;10&sol;04120715&sol;Minecraft-Ep1-1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Minecraft Ep1 1" width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"720" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-94167" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Minecraft&colon; Story Mode&comma; Telltale Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">What isn&&num;8217&semi;t okay is&comma; pretty much&comma; everything else concerning the narrative&period; Rather than the Telltale classic of easing the player into the history of the land through conversations and environment&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;re instead subjected to an exposition dump akin to being waterboarded as you&&num;8217&semi;re flat out told what led up to the current situation&period; This in itself isn&&num;8217&semi;t necessarily bad&comma; especially as the introduction is presented like hearing a myth from a time long ago in front of a roaring fire by a relative with a head of grey and a sagely voice&period; However&comma; I believe it does lead to a huge problem arising relatively quickly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Part of being shown rather than just being told&comma; I feel&comma; is giving you a reason for investment&period; You learn not just the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;what&comma;” but also the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;why&comma;” and the general perceptions of what occurred&period; It also allows the viewer to not just learn the backstory but get to know the people inhabiting the land as well&period; I guess the reason I mention this is that beyond simplistic motivations I noticed like &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;wanting to see the next sun-rise” and &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;close friendships with a long history&comma;” I do not understand the motivation for a lot of the characters&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Beyond your character&&num;8217&semi;s two closest friends &lpar;and Rueben the pig&comma; who has eyebrows for some reason&rpar;&comma; I still can not work out why anyone else likes you&comma; helps you&comma; or depends on you at all&period; If <em>Minecraft&colon; Story Mode<&sol;em> felt like it had an edge to it or a nefarious sort of intelligence &lpar;setting up the infamous cartoon moment where you look down and notice you&&num;8217&semi;re running on air before falling&rpar;&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;d even suspect this is done with a twist or betrayal coming up&period; Instead&comma; it feels like being spoon-fed lore when I should have been learning about the important cast members in the episode&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;94168" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-94168" style&equals;"width&colon; 1280px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;10&sol;04120701&sol;Minecraft-Story-Mode-Ep1-2&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"wp-image-94168 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;10&sol;04120701&sol;Minecraft-Story-Mode-Ep1-2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Minecraft Story Mode Ep1 2" width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"720" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-94168" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Minecraft&colon; Story Mode&comma; Telltale Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Although&comma; stepping away from the story at hand&comma; the gameplay is where the episode shines the brightest&period; I guess it is with a half-smug tone that I usually describe Telltale titles as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;walk-n-prod” games&comma; as gameplay tends to be as passive as occasionally banging the VCR player on the side to unpause the film&period; However <em>Minecraft&colon; Story Mode<&sol;em> features crafting items using the <em>Minecraft<&sol;em> work bench&comma; which can open up different solutions to the same problem&period; This is in addition to various puzzles to solve&comma; and a simplistic form of combat beyond just QTEs that feels almost like fencing as you walk back and forth hitting monsters with your sword&period; While I&&num;8217&semi;d imagine those who can only feel alive hearing the death rattle of the opposition will still feel agitated and restless&comma; more than ever there is the sensation of playing a game rather than just an interactive story&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">The more I think on what the game currently symbolizes&comma; especially in the context of previous Telltale games&comma; the more I find myself reaching to cinema for the perfect metaphor&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">The writing style&comma; the brand of jokes &lpar;which tends to be family-friendly low-hanging fruit&rpar;&comma; all of the various narrative mistakes &&num;8212&semi; These feel less born from a videogame equivalent of memorable modern comedies like <em>Shaun of the Dead<&sol;em>&comma; <em>The Avengers<&sol;em>&comma; or <em>21 Jump Street<&sol;em> &lpar;okay&comma; so I only found SotD funny out of that list&rpar;&period; It feels more like <em>The Intern<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Pixels&comma;<&sol;em> or <em>Unfinished Business<&sol;em> where it is inoffensive enough to sit through but by the week&&num;8217&semi;s end someone has to remind you what it even was&comma; and you&&num;8217&semi;ll be lucky to remember much of what went on let alone the jokes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;vip&period;telltalegames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;gallery&sol;minecraft-screenshots-ep-1&sol;MCSM-Pigman&lowbar;Ghast&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Minecraft&colon; Story Mode&comma; Telltale Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western"><em>Minecraft&colon; Story Mode<&sol;em> <em>Episode 1<&sol;em> does its job and wasn&&num;8217&semi;t boring&comma; but it doesn&&num;8217&semi;t have the comedic writing ability of <em>Sam &amp&semi; Max<&sol;em> or <em>Tales from the Borderlands<&sol;em> that&&num;8217&semi;ll make the series memorable beyond the week&period; I struggle to imagine anyone not familiar with <em>Minecraft<&sol;em> remotely enjoying it&comma; or anyone seeing the series as anything more than a simple time killer&period; Who knows&comma; though&quest; It is Episode 1&comma; and maybe with the set-up now done&comma; the writing team can flex their narrative muscles to present something more than just a <em>Minecraft<&sol;em> tribute band&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western" style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong><em>A PC code for Minecraft Story mode was provided by Telltale Games for the purpose of this review<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;