Minecraft: Story Mode - A Block and a Hard Place - Review

We are here, the fourth episode of the five-part series actually wraps up the end of the main story that kicked off in the first episode and while it does provide some closure, it also proceeds at quite an odd pace.

When we left off, the Wither storm was destroyed, but then came back to life, with some of the people it had taken returned to the world, Gabriel being among them, but not all was well as Gabriel had no idea who he was, nor what was going on. But before anything can be discussed, everyone needs to get out of the path of the Wither storm, which leads to a cool sequence upon horses. Once everyone gets out of there, it is time to take stock of how everyone is thinking and going, with some feeling it really bad, Petra is still sick and others feeling the need to venture back outside to undertake some tasks.

It is here that Ivor makes another appearance, but this time his motives are simple, to stop the Wither storm, which you can either believe or reject. Though when he arrives, a plan is put in place to take control and defeat the Wither Storm, but it requires a long and dangerous journey to the Far Lands. This is where the credits role introducing the episode and while they are funny at times, it really sucks the danger out of the journey when most of it is a cutscene. When you do get control before the Far Lands are reached, there is a nice sequence with a witches’ hut in a swamp, which might be new for a lot of players who play on consoles. From there, the story moves way to fast to come to a proper ending, while the gameplay slows things down with some interesting puzzles and cool things to look at, the ending to the story comes so quickly after the plan is formulated, that it is hard not to feel like things have been skipped.

The game still looks great, matching the visual style set by the main game, there were a few issues with pop in and out and character clipping, but nothing that would break from the game to much. The music was once again on point, with the Far Lands being an excellent piece and showcases for the artists behind it all.

The fourth episode wrapped up the main story, but it took a few giant leaps forward to get there, making the entire experience feel rushed. With the ending that we got, episode 5 needs to be something truly fun to explain its existence.

Thanks to Telltale Games for supplying the game for review.