Review: Minecraft: Story Mode — Episode 2: Assembly Required

So if you accept that the Wii U is Nintendo’s system for the foreseeable future, and that the system itself is not going to make any major changes, you considerably narrow down the list of problems that Nintendo can conceivably address in order to improve their console market standing.

This colorful romp by Dekovir is described as a blend of Dungeon Keeper , Terraria , and Dwarf Fortress , which comes through given the versatility in the building and survival features. Craft the World offers tons of rewarding gameplay as players command a band of dwarves to craft, build, and fend off the things that go bump in the ni

While that could serve as the intro to any number of creepy fan fiction tales, my thoughts were much more earnest, yet still slightly troubling. Specifically, they were about how the blue hedgehog and vertically gifted plumber were real oddballs as far as company mascots go, in that they weren’t really dreamed up by a PR team or advertising firm, but rather by the products themselves.

Pathea Games’ My Time at Portia is a cute take on Minecraft and The Sims, with some RPG elements tossed in for good measure. One wouldn’t know it from the whimsical themes, but the game takes place following the collapse of civilization, from which point, emerging from the (literal) underground, players must rebu

Another issue that impacted the episode as a whole were the amount of times that the members of the Order backtracked into flashbacks that told of the argument that disbanded them. While I understand that it’s crucial to the story, it took away completely from the decision making and the story that revolves around Jessie and the Wither Storm. The characters, minus a scene with Petra, receive almost no depth and leave it to the environments and the little bit of dialogue to develop them. With the environments being the main reason to play the episode, the lack of exploration doesn’t help its case. For a game that is meant to develop according to character choices, there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of decision-making going to develop the story further. Hopefully, the cliffhanger ending will pose as an entryway to further Jessie and his friend’s role in all of this instead of being focused on the Order.

While Mojang may in fact be too busy at the moment to make that a reality, let’s be very clear about something. If Nintendo had really wanted Minecraft Maps on the Wii U, it would be in the works or out already. That’s not to say it would be easy to make happen, but ultimately they are the kind of company that can make something like that a reality if they really wanted to.

Each level grants a purple gem/swirly-thing and these are used to buy equipment abilities. Once committed there’s no taking the gems back until trashing the item, at which point they’re refunded in full. Level one is one gem, two is usually two gems, etc, but there are also rare powerful abilities that get more expensive. I held on to the Harp Bow longer than practical thanks to it not only shooting five arrows per shot but also having a chance of an arrow dividing into another five on hit, despite how expensive it was to power up. That kind of crowd control is worth saving up for, after all, but there’s always going to be more loot later that will finally make swapping out an irresistible prospect.

They’re unwilling to go out of their way to adapt major third party releases. They are painfully slow to adopt an indie market that could actually make good use of the Wii U’s unique capabilities. They seem, at times, to be woefully oblivious to the current state of the game industry, and determined to turn the Wii U into a time machine that will make it 1987 again. They seemingly have a hero complex that drives them to be the only ones who make a game that turns it all around.

If you haven’t already boarded the hype train for Minecraft: Story Mode , the newest episode from Telltale Games might not convince you. The review that was done for the first episode ended with the hope that the following episode would be just as wonderful and expansive. Unfortunately, it didn’t meet the standard appointed to it for a variety of reasons. This new episode taps into the lore, one that you would normally have had to guess playing the original game, delving into the world that Mojang had created for us. Depending on which member of the Order of the Stone you decided to pursue in the previous episode, you either begin the episode with Olivia (if you’re pursuing Ellegaard the Redstone Engineer) or Axel (if you’re pursuing Magnus the Griefer). While which character you begin with doesn’t necessarily matter at the beginning, the stories begin to change as you near the middle of the episode, causing you to have to play it twice in order to get a full understanding.

Now, Minecraft and No Man’s Sky ‘s core gameplay are not especially similar, and they largely focus on different things. The former is defined by its creative crafting; conversely, the latter focuses more on exploration, although crafting is still a major part of the overall package. Still, fans of one game are likely to get a kick out of the ot