Minecraft: Story Mode - Episode 5 - Order Up!
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Minecraft: Story Mode - Episode 5 - Order Up! Media
Critic Reviews for Minecraft: Story Mode - Episode 5 - Order Up!
It’s fun to see the continuation of Jesse’s tale, but the storyline in this episode feels rushed
It's business as usual in terms of the moment-to-moment happenings, but it benefits from the altered structure that eschews multi-episode arcs in favor of singular experiences. For the first time in the series, I'm looking forward to continuing onward, if only a little.
With three episodes left, Telltale is considering Episode 5 a sort of bridge between the end of the Witherstorm finale and post-season tales. While I’m looking forward to Episode 6 more than I was before, Order Up! greatly benefits from being self-contained. Aiden makes for a solid adversary and The Founder is a terrific character I hope to see more of. There’s not really a lot of new depth to cast regulars like Lukas, Elizabeth, or Axel, but Ivor really comes into his own. His enthusiasm to obtain The Eversource is infectious. (Petra has a nice moment of faux memory, a fun callback to Episode 4.) This is the first Telltale episode in ages that I look forward to replaying.
Though Minecraft: Story Mode really hasn’t pushed the graphic adventure genre to new heights, it’s another example of just how adaptable Telltale are when it comes to creating stories for other properties. Though Minecraft really doesn’t have a story, that fact simply gave them free reign to create a world and characters of their own, and the fifth episode’s standalone adventure is just another example of that, with more adventures yet to come.
With the series having seemingly ended one episode early, Minecraft: Story Mode Episode 5 picks things up extremely well, launching a new adventure while paying homage to the old. Many issues with the series have been touched up and fixed, though some still linger. Ultimately, this episode succeeds in telling its own story, while pushing things forward for what is to come.
Order Up is the funniest episode to date and while it isn't the conclusion some people will be expecting, it does a good job of creating a fun and entertaining story as well as laying the groundwork for future adventures.
Minecraft: Story Mode settles into a new identity and story with “Order Up!,” one that isn’t beholden to past mistakes.
Minecraft: Story Mode - Episode 5: Order Up! is the strongest individual episode in this series thus far. We say individual, because this is essentially a soft reboot of the season. Telltale's typical chapter-based story format just didn't work this time out, so an extended series of self-contained narratives may be the change that this spin-off needs. If these individual stories can maintain the level of intrigue in this instalment and build upon it, then we're interested to see what lies ahead. Until then, however, we remain sceptical – after all, the track record of this series isn't exactly on Telltale's side.
