Minecraft Story Mode – Episode 5: Order Up Review

<p class&equals;"western">I try&comma; I really do try&comma; to go into games with neutral expectations&period; In the weeks leading up to the release&comma; just everything about the idea of Episode 5 rubbed me up the wrong way&colon; That the main over-arching plot finished an episode back&comma; that this would be the final episode in the 5-episode chunk and the three more episodes being sold would still count as Season 1 &lpar;and therefore had to connect seamlessly&rpar;&period; Within the circumstances&comma; Telltale pulls it off&comma; but I find myself mumbling to myself a familiar phrase&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;What happened to the Telltale I once knew&quest;”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western"><strong>&lbrack;There will not be any spoilers of Minecraft Story Mode – Episode 5&colon; Order Up &comma; but I may end up discussing Minecraft Story Mode – Episode 1&colon; the Order of the Stone&comma; Episode 2&colon; Assembly Required&comma; Episode 3&colon; The Last Place You Look and Episode 4&colon; A Block and a Hard Place as well as the review of all four &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>&comma; <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>&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;minecraft-story-mode-episode-3-review&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">here<&sol;a> and <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;plot-whiplash-minecraft-story-mode-episode-4-review&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">here<&sol;a>&rpar;&period; However&comma; 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">As the introduction mentioned&comma; we&&num;8217&semi;re simultaneously on the final episode of Telltale&&num;8217&semi;s walk-n-prod series <em>Minecraft&colon; Story Mode<&sol;em>&semi; and yet we&&num;8217&semi;re not&period; I believe I should explain in greater depth than what the introduction offers &lpar;don&&num;8217&semi;t worry&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll see why&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Originally the series was billed to run the standard five episodes&comma; however after four episodes they seemed to run out of steam and concluded the story&period; I recall pondering on my previous review that Episode 5 could be the plot equivalent of the janitor on clean up duty after the credits had rolled since the over-arching plot &lpar;big evil storm&comma; gobbler of worlds&comma; was killed&rpar; had been resolved&period; Unexpectedly&comma; Telltale would pop its head out half way through the longest time period between Minecraft&colon; Story Mode episodes to announce an extra three episodes to season one of the series&semi; and you&&num;8217&semi;d have to pay for it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;104027" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-104027" style&equals;"width&colon; 1280px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-104027 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;04&sol;03195752&sol;MinecraftEp5Pic3&period;jpg" alt&equals;"MinecraftEp5Pic3" width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"720" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-104027" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Minecraft&colon; Story Mode&comma; TellTale Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">This left a peculiar situation&colon; They would have to cater to those unwilling to pay extra money out by offering some form of closure&comma; as well as open the plot in case you did&comma; while creating a new adventure since the old one was dead in the floor&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">In this regard&comma; surprisingly&comma; Episode 5&colon; Order Up succeeds at creating coherency and a hook for future adventuring&period; The main plot of Order Up begins&comma; has an arc and ends with a neat little bow on top&period; You discover that Lukas&&num;8217&semi;s old team &lpar;The Ocelots&rpar; need to have the stupid beaten out of them and so you keep back-handing Aiden until you&&num;8217&semi;ve harvested enough stupid to fuel far-right wing politics for the next hundred years&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">In addition&comma; without spoiling it&comma; a revelation occurs revolving around an artefact you stumble upon early on that sets up the three episodes to come&period; My main problem with the final reveal&comma; while still dancing around what it is&comma; is it sadly renders the entire episode adventure as inconsequential as the story seems closed enough to never reappear again&period; Despite this&comma; plot wise&comma; the narrative generally works in a no-thrills acceptable light-hearted state besides some really nice brief nods to Reuben where it takes an interesting dramatic turn&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;104024" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-104024" style&equals;"width&colon; 1280px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-104024 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;04&sol;03195827&sol;MinecraftEp5Pic1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"MinecraftEp5Pic1" width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"720" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-104024" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Minecraft&colon; Story Mode&comma; TellTale Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">The characterisation is where the episode appears to succeed and falter the most in a bizarre one-step-forward-one-step-back interpretive dance&period; It starts off with good intentions&comma; hoping to shine additional light on the lesser characters of the series&colon; Lukas&comma; Ivor and Petra&period; In this regard it works&comma; especially with Ivor&&num;8217&semi;s voice acting nailing an irritable scientific mind that has no shame laughing and singing about scientific discoveries&comma; which finally adds dimension to what was just an arrogant grump&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Where it trips and collides its forehead into the corner of a step is&comma; well&comma; every other piece of characterisation&period; The antagonist &lpar;Aiden&comma; pre-slapped&rpar; is built up with the most basic of reasons to hate you&comma; jealousy&comma; which comes from nowhere so hard that even the cast is confused&period; Everyone else you meet &lpar;new characters&rpar; are two-dimensional&comma; never able to elevate themselves from an archetype or a plot-purpose into having meaning or being memorable&period; This inability to garner any form of sympathy in anyone besides your little gang renders all the choices as obvious&comma; since you have no reason to care about anyone else&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">There is also a surprising lack of humour&period; While previously I&&num;8217&semi;d offer a smirk to the occasional joke &lpar;or maybe during a touching moment even feel the cold dead pulsing beat that I think is an inner-youth&rpar;&comma; I strode through the entire episode with straight-faced contentment&period; There were sadly few jokes&comma; and all the ones that did exist weren&&num;8217&semi;t born from writing but rather from Paul Reuben&&num;8217&semi;s &lpar;yes&comma; Pee-Wee Herman&rpar; voice acting as Ivor breathed unexpected life into someone who was a minor antagonist&period; I had just expected more humorous gags considering prior episodes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;104026" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-104026" style&equals;"width&colon; 1280px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-104026 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;04&sol;03195810&sol;MinecraftEp5Pic2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"MinecraftEp5Pic2" width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"720" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-104026" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Minecraft&colon; Story Mode&comma; TellTale Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">The final score for Minecraft Story Mode – Episode 5&colon; Order Up is a 5&period;5&sol;10&period; The best way I can sum up Order Up is the term &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;functional”&period; It technically closes up the series while opening it up for the next three episodes&period; It technically offers some humour&comma; a plot to be into and an antagonist to want to bring down&period; It technically allows you to have an okay time&comma; while never going beyond that point&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">In the end&comma; like a squashed McDonalds burger to end a night spent drinking heavily&comma; the plot&&num;8217&semi;s shaggy-dog story just serves to encourage that feeling of dread of just how pointless it all feels&period; Maybe there was something better you could have done&quest; Maybe you should have instead spent the money and time on a family trip out&quest; Maybe there was a sportsball game you could have gone to&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">I remember when TellTale used to inspire investment in a project that obviously has a lot of care and attention&comma; but now it feels as cold and distant as a print-by-the-numbers profit-printing machine&period; Maybe this is worth a gander&comma; in the same way you might throw on a cartoon for the kids on a rainy day or flick through channels at 4am&comma; but it isn&&num;8217&semi;t something to feel excitement for&period; Instead&comma; it is something to remind you of better days&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;