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

SURPRISE!!! They came out with Minecraft Story Mode Episode 3: The Last Place You Look. Which is a pretty ominous title if you ask me. Oh and just like all the other reviews of Minecraft Story Mode. THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!!! If you want to know my opinion of the episode scroll all the way to the bottom unless you already know how the episode ends or want to be spoiled anyway.



Let's get this out right away. This is THE best episode so far. Unless Episode 4, A Block and a Hard Place, or Episode 5, Order Up!, can top this episode of course.


Episode 3 picks up right where episode 2 left off.
Ivor (center) used a magic potion that makes everything 
move in slow motion to escape our intrepid heroes. And
then locks them in a underground library.

Now the seeds of drama are really sown in as, SPOILER ALERT!, Petra/Gabriel's Wither Sickness worsens. Oh and who gets the Wither Sickness depends on who Jesse, the main hero, chooses to save first back in Episode 1. Petra will get Withered if you save her first, while Gabriel will get it if you save him first. I should mention that you will be super-confused if you have no idea what is going on. So go read my reviews on episodes 1 and 2!


Lucas, Jesse's friend/rival, is the only 
one that notices that Petra/Gabriel is sick.

I also like how the first thing Jesse and friends do to escape the Library breaks the NUMBER 1 RULE OF MINECRAFT (digging a hole straight down). Though you got to give them credit, since the floor is made of stone brick, and Jesse and friends are digging a hole through WITH THEIR BARE HANDS. Normally in Minecraft breaking stone with your hands is a terrible idea because one, that has to be painful, and two, it takes forever.


Jesse free falling through a Mob Grinder.

After a short dig, the gang (for the millionth time, not mobster gang, team gang!) find something that is a bit of a love letter to vanilla Minecraft. A giant Mob Grinder. In case you don't know, A Mob Grinder is a fan made idea of building a giant machine that spawns in enemies and then crushes them, and finally, it gathers up the loot and stores it elsewhere. Mob Grinders can be as simple as a tower that has a river inside that pushes the enemies into a hole and they die from the fall damage to more complicated, like Soren's giant Mob Grinder, which is the biggest grinder I have ever seen in my life



After fighting their way through the mob grinder, Jesse and friends retreat to the End, which would have been a terrible idea if the Ender Dragon was alive but as seen in the beginning of Episode 1, a group of heroes known as the Order of the Stone managed to kill the Ender Dragon. But it's still dangerous since the always creepy Endermen live here. But else lives in the End? The final member of the Oder of the Stone; Soren the Architect!


from left to right: Ellegaard the Inventor, Magnus
the Rogue, Gabriel the Warrior, and Soren the 
Architect. The original Order of the Stone!

Soren is easily my favorite member of the Order. He's a crazy wild-haired hermit who really misses home and can't have a normal conversation without saying the most hilariously strange stuff (Soren: "You seem like the guy who likes cool stuff that is cool for no reason at all." Jesse: "Thanks?" Soren: "Throw that lever behind you! And hold on to your socks!" *spawns a army of Iron Golems that easily kill a horde of zombies* Soren: See? I wouldn't lie to you! Oh wait... I would lie to you... I DIDN'T lie to you, that's what I meant!).


Soren has lived in the End for so long that he
built a replica of his old home out of wool.

I also like how Soren's goal in life is to teach Endermen how to build structures. After all, they are the only entity besides player characters that can pick up and place down blocks. Only problem is that they are Endermen. Endermen will attack you if you provoke them. And looking an Enderman in the eyes is enough to provoke them. So what does Soren do? He dyes some leather armor black, duck tapes stilts to the gloves and boots to make him look taller and skinnier, and pretends to be a REAL Enderman to learn more about Endermen. GG Soren! GG!

You remember how in episode 2 how they said that Soren had a Formidi-Bomb stronger and more explosive than anything else in the world? Well Soren never actually made it. To be fair, Soren later explained that the Formidi-Bomb will begin the countdown to detonation AS SOON AS YOU CRAFT IT. Giving the person doing the crafting roughly 30 seconds to get to a safe distance.


For the First time in Minecraft Story Mode,
Jesse wears some battle armor. Granted, he borrows
a spare from either Ellegaard or Magnus.

I must admit, I was not expecting the gang (team gang, not mobster gang!) to take on (and kill!) the Wither Storm so early in the series. I was expecting them to save the big battle for the finale but NOPE! Although, a nasty surprise awaits you in the belly of the beast. >:-)

The only thing I don't like about this episode is the fact that it feels like Lucas has been written by a completely different team since he's acting like a completely different person. Seriously he acts like a jerk in this episode. Lucas and Jesse fighting over Gabriel's amulet feels awkward and out of character.

Overall, this is the best episode in the series so far. The intro music is the most epic music I have ever heard. Oh and that moment... At the end... The feels. The Feels. THE FEELS! Seriously, I was not expecting to have the feels.

I give this Episode a 9/10. I'm sorry, but the complete change of character in Lucas is enough to make me not want to give it a perfect 10. They should have not rewrote the character like that.

Oh and this blog post came out on November 26! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Trove!!!

I just discovered a really cool game that combines the block-y build/craft/mine stuff of Minecraft with the epic quest system, class based combat, and dungeon raiding of World of Warcraft/Star Wars the Old Republic/Cartoon Network's now closed Fusionfall game/Wizard 101/any MMO game you can think of.



Trove is an awesome game where you play as one of 12 (yes. TWELVE!!!! :O) classes ranging from Candy Barbarians (barbarians that duel wield candy themed weapons) to Dracolytes (wizards with dragon powers).

First thing to note is that this game is FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! The only time you have to spend real money is when you want to change class but even then they give you the option of using the in-game currency instead of real money (after initial purchase, with both real and fake money, every class change past that is FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!). Using real money to switch classes is not a good idea but it's there for those of you who are too impatient to farm the in game currency, which I believe is called Glim.


There are ride-able dragons in the game! But one of the
classes can transform into a dragon anyway, so...

The first thing to note is that this is a MMO game, meaning you'll have to deal with other players. Speaking of which only a few people could play the game on Day 1. The reason why? As best said by the Joker...



So Yeah. BONUS: I laughed so hard at this "everybody loses their minds" picture that I couldn't breathe. Briefly of course.

Anyway, They have fixed the Trove servers since then, so no more server crashing pre regularly.

So let's get started with the game shall we?

Keep in mind that every class has a regular generic attack and three special moves To keep people from spamming special moves, they added a Energy Gauge that governs your special usage. Want to rain ice cream from the sky? If you don't have enough energy, TOO BAD!


You can customize your character with masks, rings,
hats, and costumes.

The first thing to do is decide your first class (remember you can change classes provided to purchase the secondary classes with either real money or the fictional Glim). So here is a brief overview of some of my favorites. Note: As the game keeps coming out with free updates, they may nerf some of the stronger classes while buffing the weaker ones, or adding brand new classes altogether.

CANDY BARBARIAN! 



The Candy Barbarian is one of the newer classes. Candy Barbarians duel wield candy themed weapons and everything they do has something to do with candy. Everyone who has played the game says they are arguably the most over-powered class in the game, since Candy Barbarians can heal themselves by eating ice cream (the ice cream also damages enemies!).


Get to the Chocolate!

KNIGHT!



Want to go King Arthur style on some baddies? Then the Knight is for you. The Knight is the class that everyone says is best "best beginner's class" because it is the most straightforward. Slap the bad guys with your big heavy sword until they die! Oh, are you taking some serious damage? BOOM! Summon a shield that gradually heals you over time AND blocks incoming attacks!

NEON NINJA!



What happens when you give Tron the powers of a ninja? You get this guy! Neon Ninjas are basically faster versions of the knight with the added bonus of have both a LAZOR beam AND the power to paralyze enemies. And they can turn invisible. The only downside is that their defenses are nonexistent so if they get hit, it will HURT!!! To help tell the difference between Neon Ninjas and Knights, Neon Ninjas hold their sword in reverse grip (a.k.a. upside down).

GUNSLINGER!



Do you love cowboys? How about GRAVITY DEFINING cowboys? If either of these sound cool to you then this is the obvious choice. Gunslingers get to duel wield a pair of six shooters and for a very long time had the longest reach in the entire game (only to be dethroned by the super sniper that is the Shadow Hunter). Plus they can use the recoil from shooting straight down to rocket jump high into the air.

DRACOLYTE!!!



The Dracolyte is the resident fire based fighter. He can use his staff as a flame thrower, and throw dragon egg shaped bombs. The Dracolyte puts whole new meaning to the phrase "burn baby burn" (Disco Inferno! Burn Baby Burn! I cant remember the rest of the song!). Oh, and this isn't even his final form...


now he's in his final form! (note the 
color scheme of the dragon form changes
to match the costume you are currently 
wearing)

PIRATE CAPTAIN!



Yarr Harr, This be a Pirate Captain that looks like Han Solo if ye give him a peg leg! Ye Pirate Captain is armed with his trust Flintlock pistol that will blast those annoying landlubbers right off the shores! And ye parrot can take flight and build a cannon for extra fire power! All ye need is to get a stable supply of Doubloons to fuel ye onslaught! It be a Pirate's Life for me!*gets arrested for abusing the pirate vocabulary* Anyway, The Pirate Captain's main gimmick is that he does not have a energy gauge but he has to grab Doubloons (little gold coins) that enemies drop when they take damage to use some of his attacks.

ICE SAGE!



The Ice sage is Blizzard + Elma + Ice King (congrats if you know who these three characters are) all rolled into one. The Ice Sage is the opposite of the Dracolyte and instead of burning everything, the Ice Sage freezes everything (she also comes with a passive perk that makes it so her generic attack has a 30% chance of freezing the target solid). Also she has a frost shield ability (not as reliable as the Knight's shield as it can only take 10% of the Ice Sage's health before breaking). Plus, she can float! Automatic win.

Those are just some examples but I have a link to the Trove wiki that can explain how ALL twelve classes work in detail.

http://trove.wikia.com/wiki/Trove_Wiki

Have Fun!


I believe I can Fly!

On to another interesting thing, which is of course the fact that just like Minecraft, Trove lets you build structures and statues by placing them in block by block. However, as this is a MMO game, you only have so much building room for cornerstones (which are plots you can build in). If you want to build something truly large you will need a CLUB. Clubs are basically guilds/teams of players you can join or create yourself. Clubs get an ENTIRE WORLD to themselves. And in case you are REALLY land greedy, you can create a Club and have nobody join it simply so no one can interfere with your projects. Which is probably what I am going to do LOL!


One of the most important activities in the game
is simply exploring the beautiful, randomly
generated wilderness.

Another important activity, and this is the one where you will get some of the best gear in the game, is of course raiding a dungeon.


Dungeons have a chance of generating in the wilderness
but if there is a bright red X above it that means
someone else has already collected the loot
inside.


A really nice looking dungeon.

Something I like is how almost all the dungeons have parkour sections inside them. It make it more exciting, in my opinion. Of course you could pull a Minecraft and cheat by building a easy stair case but most people try to do it legit.

The Last thing I would like to talk about is that some of the weapons, armor, and even bosses were made by everyday people. All you need is a voxel editor and submit your creation to Reddit.

For more info on this game go to the wiki (there is a link way above).