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Minecraft: Story Mode: Season Two: Episode 4 - Below the Bedrock
Score: 87%
Publisher: Telltale Games
Developer: Telltale Games
Media: Download/1
Players: 1; 2 - 12 (Crowd Play)
Genre: Adventure

Previously on Minecraft: Story Mode:

Minecraft: Story Mode: Season Two: Episode 4 - Below the Bedrock puts Jesse and friends in a strange new environment that will once again test their survival skills, but hopefully in the process, they will find a secret weapon to stop the Admin in his tracks.

Jesse, Petra, Radar, Jack and, depending on your choices, either Nurm or Lluna, have escaped the Admin's escape-proof prison with the help of Xara, a former admin who was once friends with Romeo (the Admin). She has brought the party to a world underneath the bedrock, the place that Xara, Romeo, and Fred, the third original admin, first built before it was sealed off and the world above was created. Xara has promised Jesse and friends that Fred had developed a weapon to remove Romeo's powers, but Fred didn't get a chance to use it before being killed. Now it's up to them to discover what that weapon was and use it on Romeo in order to bring his violent reign to an end.


The World Below:

Minecraft: Story Mode: Season Two: Episode 4 - Below the Bedrock's new world, the Underneath, is made up of three areas, one for each of the admins. Xara's city, The Oasis, was once a thriving, self-sustained population filled with redstone-powered creations that took care of many of its citizens' needs. Fred's Keep is an island of people who value knowledge and learning, while Romeoburg appears to be a fortress that stresses strength and power as the highest virtues.

Unfortunately, none of these places are what they used to be. The Oasis is in ruins. Those people still around are scavengers, and the city itself is filled with fire and mobs rather than citizens. Fred's Keep appears to be the most well-functioning of the societies. Between its isolated island nature and the glowing fungus that keeps mobs from spawning, the people of Fred's Keep live in relative safety, it's just a shame that they can't leave their island without fear of being killed by the Underneath's strange creatures. As for Romeoburg, while the fortress walls are still holding strong and you can clearly hear a massive army clamoring to get out, it quickly becomes apparent that not everything is as it appears and even the Admin's own former creation is suffering from his absence.


New Challenges:

Minecraft: Story Mode: Season Two: Episode 4 - Below the Bedrock will have Jesse and friends test both their wits and fighting skills. In one location, Jesse will have to gather information in an attempt to win a trivia contest, and if that doesn't work out, then Jesse will have to put his/ her sneaking skills to a test. That being said, the contest itself isn't all that hard as long as you talk to all of the inhabitants of Fred's Keep that you can and you get the information you need out of them.

Unfortunately, regardless of how Jesse gains entrance into Fred's old house, it will be quickly apparent that this isn't where the former admin has kept his secret weapon, and all signs point to the heart of Romeoburg. Here, Jesse and friends will find themselves facing a challenge by fire. The game will switch to its Minecreaft-styled fighting system in order to meet the dangers ahead, but if your team can make it past Romeo's arena, then Jesse might finally learn the secret that Fred was keeping.


Next Time on Minecraft: Story Mode:

Minecraft: Story Mode: Season Two: Episode 4 - Below the Bedrock doesn't have a lot in the way of big choices, but there are a couple towards the end that can change how the next episode, Above and Beyond, starts off. Like many Telltale games in the past, Jesse has a choice to make that involves letting a friend sacrifice himself, or stopping that from happening and to The Nether with the consequences.

Once Jesse and whatever people following him/ her make it back to the surface, they will find that Beacontown has changed. It seems that Romeo didn't spend his time impersonating Jesse idly and has made a mess of things. Before Episode 5 ends, Jesse will need to figure out how to use Fred's weapon and stop Romeo once and for all.

So far, Minecraft: Story Mode: Season Two has had fairly consistent gameplay and mixes its standard Telltale story progression nicely with fighting to make the game feel a bit more action-oriented than most of the studio's titles. It will be interesting to see how this adventure plays out, and hopefully it will keep that balance on point.


-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications
AKA Chris Meyer

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