You know something's not right with the storytelling when the best character is a pig with no dialogue.

Update: 3/29/16 "Episodes 6,7,8 coming soon!" Oh my... well, screw that! My review still stands I will not play the other episodes because they have 0 to do with the main plot of the game that was advertised since day 1, so gg.

The game is finished! Wait, there is still another episode? And it has (basically) NOTHING to do with the plot in the first 4 episodes? Well then I won't review it. I will be making NO spoilers.

Basically, if this game has taught me anything its that, Telltale will sure pump out episodes of something that they know will make more money then their other games and it shows. When I say pump out I mean in a month or less between episodes, and while that sounds cool it is ultimatley it's biggest flaw. To put it bluntly, this game pisses me off in a way few games can hope to.

There are some good things
some jokes (little that do) hit well and do make me chuckle.
The game runs well, it doesn't work well, but it runs well. I never dropped below 60 FPS on my PC which is a lot then what I can say for other games.
The final chapter (of the 24total chapters) is really interesting and is probaly the best of some of Telltale's entire library.
The introduction to Episode 3 is great, action packed and really fun to watch unfold.

The absolute biggest fault that Minecraft: Story Mode has is the pacing. It is god awful. Episode 1 is paced well, Episode 2 is 50 minutes of nothing. Episode 3 is better in pacing, but still has serious pacing issues in the 2nd half. Episode 4 finally, starts off way too fast, slows down way too hard, and ends off steadily luckily. Some times it goes absolutly at lightning speed through a story important segment, then focuses on something that has little to do with the main serious plot just to have "Character development" which is basically the 3 bullet points that are repeated over and over again.

The choices don't matter. There are choices, and while some of them "do change the game" (by that I mean some small dialogue changes and only ONCE does it take you elsewhere, only to end up where both choices meet up) they don't change it enough to really matter, or really care.

The writing is dreadful.
Jokes, even with the little ones that hit, are bad. Some jokes have great potental, but then they feel that they need to point out EVERY. SINGLE. LITTLE. INSTANCE. OF. THAT. JOKE. Which kills the joke. They also think that they need to tell you when to laugh, when Jesse (Your character) just smirks as if you were laughing, every, time, they, make, a, joke.)

Multiple times, especially in the last episode, there are just constant exposition dumps which are really lazy. Instead of woving in the past of the Order of the Stone well, they instead opt to tell you a story then basically quiz you over it covered up by a "puzzle" which is just a quiz.

The characters are cookie cut outs; The everyman, smart boy, popular guy with a good heart, the fat guy, they all are here and it really hurts me WANTING to like the characters. They are attempted to be fleshed out, however it is extremley cookie cutter progression that leaves the player bored.

The plot is ok, but there obveously was either too much or too little so the writing glosses over things that should have been expanded upon, however they never were. The major problem with the plot is even with the glossing over segments, the whole danger of the Wither Storm doesn't feel like Danger. Its like a game shows a monster consistantly and says its doing a lot but you never really see anything first hand. It also doesn't help that the Mineraft world is practically endless, even stated in this game so there is no reason why we shouldn't believe that the Wither Storm isn't going to mess up the world ever after seeing how its done almost nothing visual for us.

Glitches are everywhere
The game runs well, however it does look well. There are graphical glitches everyone (character models clipping through themselves, and each other. Some blocks are stuck into each other which has a weird clipping effect. And one character, Ivor's, beard has that same effect (at least for Episodes 1-3) which is distracting and kills the imersion in some cases. you fight a Witch at one point with arrows, and the arrows "stick" to the witch, and I swear I could make a more convincing looking sticking arrow animation in Source Filmmaker in 5 minutes then this multiman team did in 1 month.

Multiple times (especially in Episode 2) characters cut eachother off mid sentence in a very "didn't mean to do that" manner. Which makes it appear as a glitch (if it wasn't trying to be one)

Not Very Kid Friendly
People constantly say that this game is for little kids, so cut it a break. Well no. I will not. This game is rated E10 for ages 10 and older, not only that but they also curse multiple times in this game (I have no problem with this, however a game that is aimed at little kids that curses is not really in parents best interests.) They say "What the hell" 3 times, "Damn" once, "freaking" (bad depending on what you think) multiple times, and they call characters "tools" once. There are probaly other instances but it really isn't great for a game aimed at little kids.

Gameplay is really bad (when it tries to be action packed)
The "combat" is awful. You are required to fight enemies at least once, what it delves down to is you holding the key to move right and spam clicking your mouse, which could be argued that it was like that in regular Minecraft, however this is a new style of bad combat. You do nothing.

The Music is mediocre
Sometimes it fits, other times it sounds like it was trying to replicate the Minecraft style of music but missed the biggest point, pianos. You see, Minecraft Story Mode's soundtrack recycles itself to an annoying point throughout the 6 hour campaign. The official Minecraft soundtrack is great (atleast the Volume Alpha and the Nether Tracks from the Volume Beta album) however, it seems that the composers (no beef with them) did not know what made Minecraft's iconic soundtrack iconic and instead went for an attempted replication that makes it sound souless and not in the least bit listenable for anything else then what the listener is fored to.

Overall Minecraft: Story Mode is a cash crab that tries at some points, but fails on most others. From the dull plot, poor writing, not very kid friendly vibe, awful combat, and glitches galore it is clear that Telltale either wanted money quickly, or knew that this was a mistake and rushed out everything as fast as possible. I recomend a pass and don't play this game.
3.5/10

Episode 1: 7/10
Episode 2: 2.3/10 (No joke)
Episode 3: 4.8/10
Episode 4: 5.3/10

I'm going to start this review by telling you guys how happy I am that this game was SO much better than what I expected.

Lot of people gave this game sh*t because it was way different from what we've gotten used to seeing from Telltale Games, and simply because it was based on Minecraft.

For whatever reason, people assume Minecraft is a game for young audiences who have very little understanding about videogames. But I beg to differ, I personally think Minecraft is suitable for all ages. For anyone who wants to have a game where they can explore a world full of mysteries, where they can put their creativity to work.

You guys have no idea how many messages I got from people saying like "ehhrmageerrdd you're playing Minecraft what are you, 10 years old???" as I was playing this game..
The point I'm trying to make is that, people tend to have misconceptions about Minecraft itself just because it's known for having somewhat cancerous fanbase filled with immature kids. It's kind of sad that this is why people aren't interested in it because Minecraft: Story Mode is a fantastic and fresh experience from Telltale Games.

So many people were sh*tting on this game before the first episode had even launched just for the sake of it being a Minecraft game. And you know what? I thank those people for giving me the wrong idea of this game, because of that my expections were low and oh man was I blown away with what I got.

I'm very biased when it comes to Telltale Games but don't worry, I'm not going to try and say this game was flawless.
I think I've been rambling long enough now, time to actually review the bloody game.


- Voice-acting
- Action sequences
- Atmospheric Soundtrack
- Choices do actually MATTER
- It stays true to the Minecraft world
- Characters are all very likeable in my opinion
- Animations have improved and look lot smoother than in previous Telltale titles
- Opening credit scenes are very well done and highly entertaining for each episode
- Emotionally very touching even if it is lot more toned down from the previous Telltale titles like "The Walking Dead"

- Not as many puzzles as you might expect
- Ambiance constantly switching from funny to depressing
- The game's filled with clichés and so are the characters. But you know what, it actually isn't that bad.
( The characters are all unique compared to each other and likeable in their own ways. )

- Quite a lot of bugs ( especially in Episode 2 which was honestly borderline unplayable. )
- Some actions of the main / side characters feel very off and it feels like they've become completely different characters
- Episode 2 was extremely short and honestly a total mess when it came to the dialogue and overall script
- Dialogue is bit awkward and cringey at some points
- Certain scenes felt very rushed but this is honestly with every narrative Telltale game I've played
- Many people have lost their save files including myself but this is not necessarily to blame the game itself for it

Overall it's the most light hearted Telltale title there is, with some depressing moments but mostly it's just your stereotypical comedy slash adventure tale about a group of friends trying to save the world,
set in the world of Minecraft of course.

Honestly, if you've already played Minecraft and you know there's nothing appealing for you about it, you might want to skip this one. This also applies if you absolutely cannot stand clichés,
generic characters or generic storylines for that matter.

The story isn't among its strongest features but the characters, the dialogue, the overall gameplay are.

I really enjoyed it. I'm very easy to please though, all I need is that the game touches me emotionally and manages to make me actually care for the characters and about what happens to them. I've never cried for a pig before.

It was a thrilling ride, throughout the game I smiled, I laughed,
I shed some tears and I was angry.
This is exactly what I want from a videogame. Nothing more. So if you're looking for that too,
this certainly is the game for you.

10/10 would fall on top of Lukas again.
..You'll get the reference if you already played the game.

Never thought I could be so emotional about a pig 10/10

I'm very dissappointed. First of all, I haven't played episode four. Not gonna play it anyway, so I don't care anymore. At first I was hopeful about this game. I knew it wouldn't have the dark tone of the other telltale games but still I looked forward to it, and just now, I realize I was wrong. I won't even bother to mention the language problems with it. If you're not an english speaker, don't even bother to get this game. If you choose another language that's not english, the game will choose another language which is not the one you chose.

Now that I got that off my chest, I'll say my real problem with this game. I don't care about any of the characters, the only character that grew into me sightly is Ivor and he's not even that of a major character. All of them are plain and stereothyped in my opinion, and you know what? maybe I'm wrong, but that's what I feel. Why am I supposed to care about all these people?

The story is just... nothing. It's cliche, I can't tell how many times I've seen a story like this in movies, books and other games. I know this game is supposed to be for all ages, so the story can't be dark, but I don't ask for a dark story, I ask for an interesting one. Don't get me wrong, a story can contain cliches, but it also needs original stuff to make it something different, and this is what Minecraft: SM doesn't have. It gives nothing new to the industry nor the players.

Choices may matter a bit, yeah, but at what cost? If the story is bad, I don't care if the choices matter or not. I'm dissappointed, and I was wrong when I was hopeful about this game. I mean no offense to the people who liked it, but I didn't. It doesn't have a good story, it doesn't have interesting characters, the graphics are bad, the gameplay is non existant. And yes, I know Telltale games have non existant gameplay, but at the same time, those telltale games at least have an interesting story, so the lack of gameplay isn't noticeable. In MCSM it is noticeable because the story is awful. If it doesn't have a good story, at least it should have something else to like. What am I supposed to like about this game?