Minecraft: Story Mode Episode 1 “The Order of the Stone” Review

Minecraft: Story Mode

Episode 1 “The Order of the Stone”

Almost since Minecraft was released as an alpha version way back in 2009, people have been creating mods for it (well, for the PC version at least). These have ranged from flying machines to nuclear reactors, but some of the most popular have been narrative stories. Some of these user created adventures have been virtual games within games and have proven insanely popular with the game’s massive following. It came as little surprise then when Minecraft: Story Mode was announced; an official story based in one of the most popular games of recent times.

Minecraft: Story Mode sees you take control of a would be ‘loser’ come hero as you try to save the world from a rather nasty monster. If that sounds vague, it’s because I don’t want to spoil the story for you. And it is a pretty good story, with heroes, villains and a pig called Reuben. This is only the first chapter in the series of five, and isn’t exactly huge (an hour or two to work through) but at a little over a fiver in price, this shouldn’t sting too much. The story was gripping enough that I definitely can’t wait to get my hands on the next chapter, and for any story that is a good sign.

“And it is a pretty good story, with heroes, villains

and a pig called Reuben.”

The graphics are what you get with regular Minecraft, i.e. the blocky, pixelated, cartoony goodness we have come to cherish. What this game brings to the table over the original game is voice acting from some fairly famous folks (Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn and Martha Plimpton and Corey Feldman of Goonies fame) and more advanced animations for characters, including, moving faces! Really speaking though, with being a story mode version of the game, these are little touches that should be standard anyway.

The game progresses really quite slowly and everything is a dialogue choice or a quick time event. This is where this game varies hugely from the original. There is absolutely no free-building in the story. None whatsoever. The only thing you do have to do is craft specific items at certain points in the story. I realise with a narrative, the story has to be driven forward and too much freedom could cause problems, but I can’t help thinking Minecraft fans will be really disappointed with this fact. The original game, after all, is all about building things. There are not even a huge amount of points where the player is allowed to wander around on their own. You are very much led through the story with a handful of very small ‘explorable’ areas (and I mean very small) with limited scope for interaction. Your choices do seem to affect the story, although the overall outcome of each decision seems to be largely the same.

“Your choices to seem to affect the story, although

the overall outcome of each decision seems to be

largely the same.”

In terms of what you hear in the Minecraft: Story Mode, there are the usual Minecraft sound effects, coupled with some new music in certain sections. It works well and does help to keep you reminded you are playing a Minecraft game whilst also changing it up just enough. I found the voice acting to be very good, although much of the writing is fairly simple, clearly catering for the youngest of players as well as us older ones. It’s like a bit like an interactive cartoon really.

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