Plot Whiplash – Minecraft: Story Mode Episode 4 Review

<p class&equals;"western">The most common complaint that I&&num;8217&semi;ve had with a few episodic series&&num;8217&semi; final entries is how rushed it can feel&period; Not so much that they ran out of development time&comma; but rather by episode five they have so many plot points that they either fail to wrap them up&comma; or rush to fit it all in within two hours&period; In the case of <em>Life is Strange<&sol;em>&comma; it was both&period;<em> Minecraft&colon; Story Mode<&sol;em> has now come along&comma; cocksure it can avoid this last minute scavenge hunt for loose ends&comma; and has now left the series in a peculiar position&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western"><strong>&lbrack;There will not be any spoilers of Minecraft Story Mode – Episode 4&colon; A Block and a Hard Place&comma; but I may end up discussing Minecraft Story Mode – Episode 1&colon; the Order of the Stone&comma; Episode 2&colon; Assembly Required and Episode 3&colon; The Last Place You Look as well as the review of all three &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> and <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>&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;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">If you need the short hand of what&&num;8217&semi;s happened since last time&colon; You tried to bomb the Lovecraftian abomination that is currently sucking every block into itself with the most powerful bomb known &lpar;fortunately not nuclear or season two could have been Minecraft&colon; Fallout&rpar;&period; However&comma; while dealing a blow strong enough to break most of the shell&comma; the bomb didn&&num;8217&semi;t destroy the core of the beast&comma; so it regenerated&period; Although it wasn&&num;8217&semi;t all doom and gloom&comma; as you refound a buddy from Episode 1&&num;8230&semi; Who can&&num;8217&semi;t remember who they are&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Episode 4 picks right up and&comma; I have to admit&comma; a lot fortunately happens&period; It seems to briefly put aside most of the humour to fit all of the drama the episode holds in the tight 1 ¾ playtime&period; This includes one or two tragic moments that seem to bring out the Telltale Classic of making you feel bad about what has happened&comma; akin to the end of <em>The Walking Dead<&sol;em>&period; It likely hit especially well as <em>Minecraft&colon; Story Mode<&sol;em> has tonally&comma; up to this episode&comma; felt like a game for those who want something light&comma; so &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The Event” comes completely from left-field&period; Even during it&comma; I didn&&num;8217&semi;t think Telltale had the guts to see it through&comma; which they fortunately did&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;97490" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-97490" style&equals;"width&colon; 1280px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-97490 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;01&sol;04092027&sol;MinecraftEp4Pic1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"MinecraftEp4Pic1" width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"720" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-97490" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Minecraft&colon; Story Mode Episode 4&comma; Telltale Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">The only complaint I have with the tone is that it can&&num;8217&semi;t seem to ever resist making a<em> Minecraft<&sol;em> reference during a grim moment&comma; which did harm the moment a little bit&period; However&comma; even with the awkward hat-tip to the source material&comma; the drama is delivered superbly for the series&comma; which up to this point&comma; has come across as favouring a light-hearted family comedy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">In addition&comma; the music has continued to be fantastic at creating mood when the game is shuffling its feet at trying to invoke emotion&period; However&comma; speaking of continuing&comma; the series has become significantly worse at offering choice&period; At this point there appears to be a very singular&comma; narrow plot line with no chance to veer in one direction or the other&comma; even in a cosmetic manner like something typical to a Telltale series&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Despite this&comma; Telltale has managed to do what I&&num;8217&semi;ve never seen them ever manage to accomplish&colon; Write themselves into a corner&period; Oddly&comma; the corner they&&num;8217&semi;ve created is made out of the remains of the plot&comma; as everything has been resolved&period; Every single plot thread has been tied up&comma; and now it feels like Episode 5 will be less of a climax and more of an awkward side-plot akin to watching a janitor sweep the stage after a theatrical performance&period; It now seems like Episode 5 will exist less because it should&comma; and more because it&&num;8217&semi;s an obligation to those who bought a five-episode season pass expecting five episodes&period; Although at this point&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s more suspenseful thinking about what Telltale is going to do &lpar;which I hope isn&&num;8217&semi;t just going to be to present a one-episode plot arc&rpar; after the current episode ended the way it did&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;97491" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-97491" style&equals;"width&colon; 1280px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-97491 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;01&sol;04092013&sol;MinecraftEp4Pic2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"MinecraftEp4Pic2" width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"720" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-97491" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Minecraft&colon; Story Mode Episode 4&comma; Telltale Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">The style the over-arching plot got tied up in may also upset people&period; Those taking <em>Minecraft&colon; Story Mode<&sol;em> as a light-hearted time may not get too hung up on it&comma; but the resolution of plot threads tends to take the form of MacGuffins that have suddenly made an appearance&period; Then again&comma; this seems to follow the <em>Minecraft&colon; Story Mode<&sol;em> trend of relying on convenience to either drag the story out longer&comma; or point it in a way that allows a resolution to be remotely possible&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">The final score for <em>Minecraft&colon; Story Mode – Episode 4&colon; A Block and a Hard Place<&sol;em> is a 6&sol;10&period; It delivers much needed escalation of drama and tragedy&comma; but sadly it has gotten so overboard with setting up the finale &&num;8212&semi; So much so that they went ahead and did the finale in Episode 4&comma; like an impatient story teller&period; The dramatic music persists like a faint clear breeze&comma; but so does the fatalistic approach to choice&comma; like an acrid after-taste&period; If it wasn&&num;8217&semi;t for an audience likely intended for younger<em> Minecraft<&sol;em> fans &lpar;though the PEGI classification rating still makes me raise an eyebrow&rpar;&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;d really wonder why this couldn&&num;8217&semi;t have been wrapped up in three episodes rather than five&comma; considering episode length and how Episode 4 has ended&period; While I found it somewhat enjoyable&comma; I don&&num;8217&semi;t like the direction this episodic train seems to be going&colon; Likely into a brick wall&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western" style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em><strong>A PC copy of Minecraft Story Mode Episode 4&colon; A Block and a Hard Place was provided by Telltale Games for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;