I will go ahead and assume you have read/played Episode 1 from this point onwards, so if you have not, beware of spoilers. This episode, titled Giant Consequences, picks up immediately where the previous one left off. After main hero Jesse and his/her (as per usual, Jesse's gender is up to you to decide) Friends return from their latest adventure and first ever run in with the Admin (the primary antagonist for this season), they inadvertently unleash the Admin's Wrath right in the heart of Beacon Town in the form of a Godzilla-sized Prismarine Colossus.
Which leads to an exciting, but surprisingly short David-vs-Goliath style showdown between Jesse and Friends and the Admin's Colossus. And while most of it was a quick-time event, it was still exciting and fun. And I know some folks will be annoyed by the heavy reliance of quick-time events in this series but I never had a problem with quick-time events, at least Minecraft Story Mode's quick-time events. But still, the fact that Jesse and friends managed to take down the Admin's Colossus in just under 15 minutes is rather impressive, especially when one realizes that the Admin is for all intents and purposes, a literal god.
But that victory was short-lived. Literally everything up to this point was only an elaborate test to see if Jesse or any of his/her friends have what it takes to ascend to godhood and join the Admin as his partner in metaphysical crime. After being defeated rather swiftly as a Colossus, the Admin takes the form of a British snowman (pictured above!), mostly to mess with Jesse and Friends. It's at this point he gives Jesse and Friends one more challenge and the main objective for this episode. Using a magic clock, the Admin traps Beacon Town in a never ending plague of nighttime and snowstorms. Said clock is hidden inside a giant fortress of ice and snow. The Admin's challenge here is that Jesse and Friends must find a way to track down the Ice fortress, retrieve the clock, and use it to save Beacon Town from what the Admin likes to call, "A diamond-class wave of death and destruction".
So Jesse and his/her friends set off on another adventure to complete the Admin's challenge and (hopefully) put a stop to him for good. Oh, and they (reluctantly) bring along Stella, mostly because her sense of grandeur and irrational obsession with becoming Jesse's rival would probably get her killed if our heroes don't keep an eye or two on her. Oh, and her Joker Syndrome for Jesse is turned up to eleven, to the point where she comes across more as a lovestruck stalker (even if you're playing as Female!Jesse) than as a wannabe-rival. Anyway, two more new characters (Radar and Vos) join the team. Well, I say they are NEW characters, but they both made minor appearances in the previous episode. Radar, voiced by Yuri Lowenthal (one of my personal favorite voice actors ever!), is literally Jesse's secretary. Amidst all the action and drama, it's easy to forget that Jesse still has his/her responsibilities as a glorified mayor to deal with. Anyway, Radar is a surprisingly likable character because of his shy and timid nature (and the fact he's voiced by Yuri Lowenthal) combined with his desire to prove himself make him compelling and somewhat relatable. Vos, on the other hand, is an old friend of Jack the Chuck Norris-esque adventurer-turned-tour guide. Vos was rescued by Jesse and Friends during the events of the previous episode, but he doesn't appear all that grateful, making off-handed stealth insults to Radar and Lukas (THE NERVE!!!) and repeatedly encouraging the rest of the gang to leave Lukas and Radar behind. Of course, there's a reason for Vos's negativity, but I won't spoil it here. And last but definitely not least, fan favorite Lukas is returning. Instant awesome points.
My first praise goes to the Admin himself. My favorite kind of villains are the ones who are so charismatic and entertaining to watch, that you can't help but love to hate them. He behaves like some kind of unholy lovechild of the Q from Star Trek: Next Generation and DC Comics' the Joker. He manages to be charming, threatening, and actually kind of cool (geddit?) all at the same time. He also delivers some really memorable lines throughout both this episode and the one before (and probably the one after), and regularly switches from speaking in formal/regal, grammatically correct English befitting a god, and using almost Valley Girl levels of modern slang.
Anyway, this episode in particular has a rather obvious winter theme. And it's rather funny, because I remember speculating (read: creating a mental wishlist) of things we might see (read: Things I personally want to see) this season shortly after it was announced and one of the first things that came to my mind was a icy/snowy location (the other things being a nod to *Orespawn, some kind of outer space adventure, and Jesse and Friends poking fun at some of the MANY games that have taken inspiration from Minecraft like Terraria or Roblox).
I'm not sure if Male!Jesse's left glove is supposed to
look like a fingerless glove or if the texture is glitched
in this picture, but at least the rest of the outfit looks cool.
This episode's gameplay and presentation is almost identical to the previous episode, but that's to be expected. You still have to choose branching dialogue, make moral choices that permanently alter the story (how drastic the alteration is depends on the choice you made), perform Quick Time Events when things start getting hectic, solve puzzles in a classic Point-and-Click Adventure style, and engage in 1v1 (sometimes 1v3) sword-based combat. Later on you can play two minigames while inside the Admin's fortress, the first being a Minecraft themed escape room and the second being a Duck Hunt style shoot-em-up. I like both of these minigames (and the boss battles that follow after them!), as they break up the tried and true formula and breathe some new life into the franchise.
As for the presentation, the set pieces are rather impressive, and the music is also top-NOTCH (geddit? Because the creator of Minecraft is frequently called Notch!), namely the song that plays when you first encounter Stella (due to how whimsical and lighthearted it is). and the main theme, which sounds like a wordless, slower, more serene version of the main theme from The Lion King. In fact, most of this episode's soundtrack has a near universal serenity to it. Which is fitting, given the notable winter theme this episode runs with. And if you played the original Minecraft, you know that the Snow Biomes (such as Snow Forest and Snow Mountain) are arguably the most peaceful and serene areas in the game. Giant Consequences also introduces some rather creative creatures to test Jesse and Friends while they are inside the fortress, all of which have designs so well made, that you wish they were in Minecraft proper. And as per usual, the voice acting is spot on, although admittedly there are plenty of lines that I feel Female!Jesse delivered better than Male!Jesse (and vice versa).
I thoroughly enjoyed Giant Consequences. It gave us a proper introduction to Minecraft Story Mode's best villain yet, and I love the winter theme throughout the episode. It also had some nice surprises that I honestly didn't see coming on my first playthrough and a cliffhanger ending so shocking it left me speechless. It also gave me a bit of jumpscare thanks to a post credit scene teasing the premise of the next episode. That said, it was rather short, even by Minecraft Story Mode standards (most episodes are about 3-4 hours long, this episode was about 1.5-2 hours long). I give Minecraft Story Mode Season 2: Giant Consequences an 8/10.
*- Orespawn is a popular and rather well-known fan made mod for the PC version of Minecraft that, when installed, adds dozens of enemies, blocks, biomes, weapons, armor, bosses, and dungeon types that are not currently in Minecraft officially. An argument can be made that most of Orespawn's content deserves to be in the official version of Minecraft, especially since this mod, among other things, is the primary reason why the majority of players prefer the PC version (I prefer the PS4 version myself, mostly because I find using a keyboard and mouse for gaming to be rather awkward and clumsy). Here's hoping that one of the perks of the Better Together Update planned for Minecraft proper makes it so home console folks like me have access to this mod. At which point some folks will (hopefully) migrate to home consoles.
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