Episodic Popcorn Joy – Minecraft: Story Mode Episode 3 Review

<p class&equals;"western">Wow&comma; that was quick&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">I blinked&comma; and suddenly three episodes have appeared in just over a month&period; Since the prior review I had begun to think about episodes 1 and 2&comma; which I had a bad time with before&comma; trying to further analyse the more subtle problems that just felt off to me&period; Considering I had previously enjoyed <em>Telltale&&num;8217&semi;s<&sol;em> various little narrative journeys &lpar;even <em>Game of Thrones<&sol;em> had its moments&rpar;&comma; something must have happened to just have an altogether a non-enjoyable time&period; Now with episode 3 out so quickly&comma; I expected it to be another situation of the same rushed problems rearing its head like an abomination from the depths&period; Fortunately&comma; while still not as good as <em>Telltale&&num;8217&semi;s<&sol;em> previous attempts&comma; it looks like they&&num;8217&semi;re getting back into the flow&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western"><strong>&lbrack;There will not be any spoilers of <em>Minecraft Story Mode – Episode 3&colon; The Last Place You Look<&sol;em>&comma; but I may end up discussing<em> Minecraft Story Mode – Episode 1&colon; the Order of the Stone<&sol;em> and<em> Episode 2&colon; Assembly Required<&sol;em> as well as the review of both &lpar;which you can find&comma; respectively&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;minecraft-story-mode-episode-1-order-stone&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">here<&sol;a> and <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;story-without-soul-minecraft-story-mode-episode-2-review&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">here<&sol;a>&rpar;&period; Although the rating at the bottom will be spoiler-free if you wish to skip there&period;&rsqb;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Considering its been about two weeks since the prior episode&comma; I don&&num;8217&semi;t think I need to go into too much narrative depth to remind people what happened last time&period; You went to track down the last member of the Order of the Stone &lpar;the builder&comma; who can hopefully build a mega-bomb to blow up the big-bad eldritch nightmare with&rpar; at his fortress&period; After being unable to find him you got locked in a room by Ivor&comma; who resembles a metal fan doing a shift at the library as a favour to his grand parents&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Then there is also that weird zombie-bite subplot&comma; as an infection has begun to take hold of the character you rescued in episode 1&period; It continues to work in a dramatic sense and is made to fit within the setting&comma; but yet it feels weird in a similar way that a Disney interpretation of <em>Cannibal Holocaust<&sol;em> would &lpar;although it wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t be the first time a Disney film showed animal cruelty&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">While the narrative and humour continues down the family friendly road which feels unfocused&comma; as if trying to please everyone and not doing too great of a job&comma; it is fortunately better than Episode 1 and 2&period; This is especially true in the drama area&comma; as the game cranks the tension up a tiny bit to create some tense dramatic moments and even some tragedy that is definitely earned &lpar;although it comes with some fridge horror&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;95725" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-95725" 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;11&sol;04105557&sol;MinecraftEp3Pic1&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"wp-image-95725 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;11&sol;04105557&sol;MinecraftEp3Pic1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Minecraft Story Mode Episode 3 " width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"720" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-95725" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Minecraft&colon; Story Mode Episode 3&comma; Telltale&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">The is only one part that did bug me about the narrative&period; It seems to have fallen into an awkward situation of convenience&comma; as too many things work out in the way most suitable to the story&period; One such example is the final scene which ends with a convenient error that manages to continue to drag the story out longer &lpar;at least besides the zombie bite subplot that still is progressing along nicely&rpar;&period; Another instance is the talisman will randomly decide to work when it feels like telling you someone is near&period; A third such moment is lucky timing of a creeper blowing up a trap moments before every part of you is crushed to a thin paste&period; Maybe one coincidence would have not phased me&comma; but a bundle of them instead feels like something more narratively critical players will begin to lose their patience with&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">The humour has also somewhat picked up a bit I think&comma; either that or I&&num;8217&semi;ve gone numb to the inoffensive lukewarm jokes&period; However&comma; seemingly taking inspiration from Seth MacFarlane&comma; it does seem to have one joke it loved to roll out&period; A lot&period; To the point where it almost feels like it is trying to traverse into the awkward anti-humour headspace where by beating a joke into the ground it becomes funny again&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Although there is one problem that this episode suffers with&colon; Voice acting&period; I kept finding myself wondering why some lines are done with barely any emotion or a slightly awkward delivery&period; There isn&&num;8217&semi;t a single major incident&comma; but rather instead enough of these moments occur that it dawns on you gently&period; I think maybe a few more draft runs of lines really could have helped out&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">There is also one other part that I should talk about&colon; Choices&period; Compared to most Telltale games&comma; there aren&&num;8217&semi;t as many choices as normal&period; However&comma; I believe in this case it is mostly okay&period; <em>Minecraft Story Mode<&sol;em> honestly feels less like a game designed for you to forge out a tale &lpar;akin to The Walking Dead&comma; The Wolf Among Us and Game of Thrones&rpar; and more an adventure for you to experience&period; Also&comma; despite the PEGI classification worry I still somewhat have&comma; I think there could have been a risk of swarming younger audiences with too many narrative choices if they went with the usual system&period; So I think the fewer choice approach functions in this case&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;95726" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-95726" 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;11&sol;04105544&sol;MinecraftEp3Pic2&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"wp-image-95726 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;11&sol;04105544&sol;MinecraftEp3Pic2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Minecraft Story Mode Episode 3 " width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"720" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-95726" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Minecraft&colon; Story Mode Episode 3&comma; Telltale&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">The final score of <em>Minecraft Story Mode Episode 3<&sol;em> is a 7 out of 10&period; It is easily the best episode so far&comma; but still lags behind the standard left by Telltale&&num;8217&semi;s previous games&period; While it does manage to execute on drama successfully&comma; better than the previous episode with its plot holes&comma; the humour side feels like its trying to cater to everyone&period; I believe it seems like the series is shaping up to be designed for those who want something easy going&comma; the episodic equivalent of comfort food&colon; Nothing too engaging or serious&comma; but rather light hearted and easy-going&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Unless if it takes a bizarre quality turn&comma; it looks like <em>Minecraft Story Mode<&sol;em> may shape up to be popcorn in a game form&colon; An empty tasting game that is just easy to consume casually&period; Not that there is anything wrong with such a game&comma; just it may hide in the shadows created by more dominating serious games of <em>Telltale&&num;8217&semi;s<&sol;em> past&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em><strong>a PC review code for Minecraft&colon; Story Mode Episode 3 was provided by Telltale for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">&NewLine;