Minecraft: Story Mode Season Two - Episode 4: Below the Bedrock

 PlayStation 4
Metascore
tbd

No score yet - based on 3 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. Push Square
    Nov 11, 2017
    70
    Below the Bedrock is a rock solid penultimate episode for what’s been a very under-par Season Two so far for Telltale’s Minecraft Story Mode. With a well-balanced structure and a steadily paced plot progression that is intriguing throughout, Episode 4 has pulled off what the first three episodes failed to do: setting up firm foundations for future episodes. It’s a real shame that Below the Bedrock didn’t come earlier on in the season.
  2. GameSpew
    Nov 7, 2017
    70
    This penultimate episode doesn’t reach the dizzying heights of the season’s opening salvo, but it’s a solid, satisfying outing. Minecraft Story Mode Season 2: Episode 4 – Below the Bedrock neatly balances action and dialogue, advancing the plot just enough to whet your appetite for what promises to be a killer finale.
  3. Game Informer
    Nov 10, 2017
    65
    While the final shot does give me a sense of intrigue about the finale, the rest of the episode does very little to excite me. Telltale addressed its main issues with the last episode by doubling down on action and providing more meaningful interactions, but with such a detour from the main conflict right before the final episode, much of the tension was let out of the balloon. I'm still curious to see how this all plays out, but Below the Bedrock did little to fuel my interest.

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User Score
7.0

Mixed or average reviews- based on 9 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 9
  3. Negative: 2 out of 9
  1. InducedRhino438
    Nov 16, 2017
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view. Minecraft Story Mode Season 2 Episode 4 continues this series at a fairly strong pace along with a lot of new factors that both impressed me and disappointed me. Firstly lets start with the setting. As the title suggests 'Below the Bedrock', Jesse and his friends, have just escaped the Sunshine Institute where there only escape route is to venture even deeper underground beneath the bedrock to which we all thought was a vast world or darkness and emptiness. This episode has made us believe that the world of Minecraft Story Mode features an entirely different and forgotten world underneath the Bedrock where the Admin (Romeo) is the one responsible for concealing it and forcing everyone to believe that its empty. This setting like the Sunshine Institute does not stay subtle with the dark themes and yet adds some spookiness right at the start. Yet again we are introduced to a unique nightmarish mob; a giant Enderman. This mob made me feel as if it is there to not only try and kill us but also to annoy us as seen when we encounter it the second time. In the previous episode we met a character initially referred to as 'Prisoner X' and named Xara, where she is revealed to be a former Admin being the reason to why she seemed to know a lot about Romeo the real Admin and the escape route of the prison. While at first a very eerie character who was very reluctant on meeting Jesse, it seems that now all of a sudden she now thoroughly trusts us. Maybe this is just because of her previous personality before being imprisoned and having her friend and former admin Fred killed and still remains distraught but I cannot help thinking of this two-faced personality that Telltale abruptly created. The episode clearly shows her 'aggresive' emotions towards the loss of Fred but does it feel like we're friends all of a sudden? However during my two playthroughs of this episode where I made the opposite choices in the previous episodes as well as this one, I noticed that depending on one of the choices you make in regards to Xara she will either help you fight the mobs who try to impede your escape along with the giant enderman or she will ditch you like Jesse did before. To think that that final choice was completely useless, I guess not. Other new things that was featured in this episode included a trivia test. This is something I have always wanted since my first Telltale game (the Wolf Among Us) because despite being completely irrelevant to the storyline of most games, is something I always fabricated based off the 4 choice point and click style dialogue choices referencing the choice answers or a multiple-choice question. I was happy to see it in this episode but disappointed by the fairly lazy and indifferent way it was implemented into the game. This was a test based of supposed facts about Fred, the fallen leader of the community we were tasked to venture to and the former third Admin. In my first playthrough I did like how you need to free roam the town to learn and study some 'Fred facts' and thought that you need to do this to win the test and progress through the game where other free roam events in previous episodes you can just bypass. During my second playthrough I found out that I was wrong. Whether you pass the test or not, you still progress through the story in finding the weapon to defeating Romeo making the free roaming once again useless to the story. Or you could just wing the test as you have a 1 in 3 chance of getting the question right due to the dialogue choices given to you. How does Jesse even know these without even been given the options. Thankfully the trivia also featured a building contest through the newly introduced building mechanic which was a nice way to implement it into the episode and a lot better than that of the previous episode, but even with that whether you build from absolutely nothing to the coolest thing in the world, the round will end in a draw. So if you spend 2 hours on the episode just on the build, than that's just a waste of time. This episode actually managed to add a second build later on in the episode when you reach the town 'Romeosburg' which again is useless and not worth noting. What is worth noting however is the boss battle we get to do. In the last episode we were able to fight a unique creation of a ghast 'a three headed ghast', this time it was a giant magma golem. Not only was this an awesome design but a really cool and detailed way of defeating it involving water, mining and explosions (just see for yourself, you won't be disappointed). And yet again we are encountered with another battle with the giant enderman just before escaping via a portal and another difficult choice mainly involving which character(s) you will be with in the next episode. Overall, while not the most impressive entry in the series it still managed to keep me intrigued to the story and excited for what is to be a big and thrilling ending to this series. I just don't wanna 2 months again!… Full Review »
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