Minecraft: Story Mode Episode 3 – The Last Place You Look Review

Picking up right where the second episode left off, The Last Place You Look sees our unlikely band of heroes in a strange place. After the hope and optimism that was at the heart of much of the previous episode, it’s all rapidly come falling down, and this one starts to see divisions rise as the gang keep exploring an increasingly unusual underground complex.

Any early sense of making progress you might have had quickly goes away when you discover the true purpose of where you’ve found yourself. It heads straight into another stylish title sequence, as the action kicks off around you and the credits appear in the world. Cannily, Telltale have tried to blend this into a QTE action sequence, full of battling traditional Minecraft enemies and trying to make sure the entire group makes it through alright. They even managed to throw in a couple of minor decision points, for a bit of variety.

It’s actually a rather action heavy episode on the whole – too action heavy at times – whether it’s swordplay, guiding Jesse forward through an environment or a bit of button mashing, and even the calmer moments during the second act tend to have an undercurrent of tension to them. You’re exploring the unknown here, and one that’s chock full of Ender Men, with more than a few nods to these particularly unsettling creatures for Minecraft fans.

After a total absence during the second episode, it’s also quite nice to see the return of the crafting table and some minor puzzle elements. They won’t test your Minecraft knowledge too much – so as to be playable by those unfamiliar with what it takes to create certain items, such as myself – but they’re nice to see, and again, nicely woven into the fabric of the game.

However, this is really meant to be a human drama, and there are some oddities to the relationships at play. The sudden division between Jesse and Lukas is unexpected, to say the least, particularly because I’d constantly been doing my best to make him feel included and part of the team. It comes about rather suddenly, but while his clear anxiety and pessimism come to the fore, as he struggles to take the lead at times, there is actually a underlying reason to his actions. Even so, that friction adds something to the virtuous friendships between characters elsewhere, and makes the odd moments of slapstick humour involving Lukas all the more satisfying.

The quest to reunite The Order of the Stone remains at the fore here, as you continue to hunt for Soren within his vast complex. Having sealed himself off from the world for years, he’s understandably gone a little loopy, as he indulges in pet project after pet project. Yet he’s not quite as barmy and unusual as you might expect, especially with John Hodgeman lending his voice the role. It’s a fairly understated character which comes down firmly on the side of charming but reclusive eccentricity, rather than out and out craziness.

That’s not to say that his creations and experiments aren’t completely out there. There’s certain some unusual sights to see, and the continual presence of the Ender Men is certainly quite intentional, despite the obvious risks. Would you believe it, but that kind of backfires at just the worst possible moment? He might as well have built an amusement park on a tropical island and filled it with genetically engineered dinosaurs!

Yet with Soren and his inventions at your side, it finally feels like you have the upper hand in the fight against the Nether Storm, even with all of the other evils that besiege you. It all comes to a head in a rather satisfying sequence with a degree of finality to it, as it blends several of the different moments of gameplay together. This being the midpoint of the season, there’s a nagging expectation of some twists and turns in the dying moments, and while a little formulaic, it definitely delivers on that front.

Thankfully, it seems as though Telltale are sticking to a monthly release schedule for Minecraft: Story Mode, so it probably won’t be too long before the next instalment. That schedule comes at the cost of a little polish, and there were also a handful of animation and audio sync hiccups, which have cropped up on occasion throughout the series when playing on PC, and a strange moment where my analogue stick input seemed to be reversed. There is also a trade off in each episode’s length, but where the second barely made it past the hour mark, the third saw me take closer to 80 minutes.

That’s somewhat immaterial if you’re having fun, though, and Story Mode continues to be an imaginative and inventive exploration of a Minecraft universe that younger fans in particular ought to enjoy.