Galactic Café went a step further with their Stanley Parable demo, creating new content not just for the free demo on steam, but for various venues that showcased the game. While all offered a short bit of meta-commentary on the nature of demos (pretty much the only way you could convey the core concept of the game without spoiling it), each was tailored to a specific scenario. The demo at PAX took some lighthearted jabs at Octodad (which was just across from it in the Indie Megabooth), and at one point made the player stand stardew Valley mods up and apologize to the audience for playing the demo so poorly. A special version made for Game Grumps addressed Danny and Ross by name. In this case, the demos were an unbridled success, building enough hype for the small indie game to garner 100,000 sales in 3 days.
We’re all familiar with the standard demo format: you play a section of a game (almost always the tutorial up until just before the first boss), and then everything comes to an abrupt halt while a screen either asks you to unlock the full game to continue, or tells you when it’s coming out. If you’re very lucky (as in the case of most Devil May Cry demos) you’ll get to play through a level and fight a boss out of context. This might convince you to get the full game, or tide you over until a game you’ve been waiting for has been released, but either way, it’s almost always stuff you’ll have to redo once the game proper begins.
The episode in itself offers a lot of promise for the rest of the announced episode, but it also cuts them short. The next slew of episodes will be adding new story arcs to the new Order of the Stone as they go on new adventures to build up their legacy. That being said, in the two hours it took to finish the episode to its completion, it made the entire premise feel very unimportant. So much had happened and so much story and character development was involved that Telltale could have made the entire plot itself into a single season if they wanted to. Some characters could have definitely used some development to give the story a little more depth and the entirety of Sky City itself has so much more that could have been explored. It’s a little bit of a shame that what could have become a great season based on the new Order of the Stone’s adventures was downgraded into a single episode that takes place over the course of about two days.
The problem is that VR is such an incredibly tempting target that it’s nearly impossible to not experiment with applying it to the FPS experience. (For the sake of argument, lets call any first-person game you move around in an FPS experience, even if no shooting is involved.) The incredible presence is still wonderful even after repeated exposure, and who wouldn’t want to feel the full sense of scale of the world they’re gaming inside? VR Minecraft? After the hundreds of hours I’ve put into that game it sounds like the best idea ever, except for the small issue outlined in the previous paragraph. On the plus side, Microsoft and Mojang haven’t ignored the problem, and while one viewing mode is self-defeating and another a guaranteed ticket to quick nausea, the recommended VR controls actually work. It’s awkward and jerky, but actually allows the game to be played with no discomfort.
The episode in itself offers a lot of promise for the rest of the announced episode, but it also cuts them short. The next slew of episodes will be adding new story arcs to the new Order of the Stone as they go on new adventures to build up their legacy. That being said, in the two hours it took to finish the episode to its completion, it made the entire premise feel very unimportant. SO much had happened and so much story and character development was involved that Telltale could have made the entire plot itself into a single season if they wanted to. The entirety of Sky City itself has so much more that could have been explored and so many more characters could have been introduced, but the story was limited to a couple of hours of gameplay. It creates a new kind of gameplay that forces you to pay attention and actually play the game rather than just putting your controller down and making a decision every once in a while.
Minecraft: Story Mode has managed to surprise fans of episodic games with every episode released. While the second episode might not have proven that, both Episode 1, Episode 3 and now Episode 4 have not disappointed. Probably the best episode yet in both content and character development, Minecraft: Story Mode – Episode 4: A Block and a Hard Place will leave you emotionally defeated. Lasting a little bit over two hours, the episode gives closure to the events that Jessie and his friends are facing in saving the world from the Witherstorm. It begins right where you left off last, either Ellegard or Magnus having died (according to the decision that you make) and Gabriel having been rescued but with no recollection of what has happened (a side effect from having Wither Sickness). You all run from the storm only to find safety in a cave, still within the storm’s range.