It was an odd choice to have the previous episode of Minecraft: Story Mode close out the Wither Storm story arc with the finale looming. Here we are though, about to embark on episode five, without knowing where the adventure will take us next. What we do know, is that Telltale Games are expanding the series with three additional adventures. Can ‘Order Up!’ follow on from the enjoyment experienced previously in order to set up the, hopefully, exciting tales to come?
Episode four wasn’t just about the demise of the Wither Storm, but also the original Order of the Stone. It turns out they were a bunch of frauds for the most part and surprisingly, bad guy Ivor was the one who wanted to uncover the truth by unleashing the monster in the first place, showing that they’re nothing without the Command Block. I’m not sure he went the right way about it, however he did make amends.
Now Jesse leads the new Order of the Stone with his closest pals, leaving Ivor in a sort of advisory role position to the group. With great power, comes great jealousy and they soon realise that for as many people that treat them as the heroes they are, there’ll always be a band of bitter enemies lurking around the next corner. This time there’s an issue with former Ocelot member Aiden, who has his own crew to boss around. Jesse notices Aiden’s newly found aggressive nature, but can the ‘Blaze Rods’ really be a threat to our heroes, and if so what are they going to do?
A new story arc generally means new faces to interact with, and whilst there are a few, none are truly remarkable nor will we probably see them again. Fortunately, Jesse’s gang have a great dynamic which helps each of the characters personality’s bounce off one another to bring decent and interesting dialogue. The star of the piece is undoubtedly Ivor, the part time villain, whom is not only eccentric but provides the much needed laughter, often unintentionally. He’s really come out of his shell and offers far more to the group than the likes of Olivia, so who cares if he nearly destroyed the world.
Whilst most of the characters are familiar, it is the environments which are left to freshen up proceedings and we’re treated to a handful of new locations. The stand out place of the episode is Sky City, a city in the sky (shock!), where the whole design is beautifully sculptured in gold, purple and white colours; making it look rather elegant. Other locations are alright, but pale into insignificance when put side by side with Sky City.
There are very few occasions that’ll put your mind to task, but those moments that try to do this are very basic in comparison to previous offerings. One such ‘puzzle’ involves pulling levers in the correct order, and with there only being three levers present, it’s over rather swiftly. The other memorable problem to overcome just involved wandering around a room to search for a lever… it’s all a bit lacking in creativity.
You either love quick time events or hate them, and whilst it depends on the usage, I’m not against them for the most part. QTEs allow an action sequence to play out at the same time as keeping the gamer engaged by pressing the necessary buttons. I enjoyed the action featured here, especially the frequency of it, however it needs an extra layer to prevent staleness such as two button presses from time to time or a combo to input; even the younger audience can manage that.
‘Order Up!’ was nothing like the supposed final episode should be, but now we know there’s more to come it doesn’t matter so much. Although it faltered on the puzzling side and the QTEs are becoming repetitive, I still managed to enjoy the wit and fun within the writing. The story itself was pretty self-contained, with the main narrative concluding by the end of the episode and in truth it played out really well, offering an interesting insight into the Sky City way of life. Overall episode five ‘Order Up!” slipped in quality from the momentum it had gained previously, but that’s not to say it wasn’t a good experience.
Where does the adventure go next? We’ll have to find out next time as the new Order of the Stone come up against a new foe or problem to overcome.
