Minecraft: Story Mode Season Two - Episode 3: Jailhouse Block (Xbox One) Review

After the events of the previous episode, where the Admin revealed his true identity, Jesse is stripped of the gauntlet and is then thrown into the Sunshine Institute prison with the rest of the gang. The initial exploration of the prison reveals the ghoulish horrors that wander the prison complex in order to prevent any escapees. After the opening title sequence, and the group's failure at escaping, they are thrown into a prison room, where the food is scarce, save for a large Mush Room pit that breeds plenty of fights amongst the inmates over the food.

Another room in the complex, which is down in the lower-levels, heightens the horror of the Admin's imagination, where inmates are exposed to merciless "zombies," which are the prisoner's only source of "food." While these moments of discovery paint the Admin in such an evil light, and puts no limit on just how dark and grim he really is, these moments are unfortunately off-set by the fact that this prison is reserved for people that the Admin just does not like. It's hard to think of the Admin as this all-too-powerful evil, when he is constantly acting like a petulant child.

Fortunately, for Jesse and the gang, the mysterious Prisoner X holds the key to their escape from the Institute, but reaching them bears a great weight of consequence, as well. In the first true moment of heart-wrenching dilemmas, this episode's climax throws a curveball in terms of how the rest of the group will progress. Nothing in this adventure will be hunky-dory, and this episode does a great job in establishing that, while again showing the true darkness of the Admin.

Unfortunately, the pacing of the story is quite slow at times, and the dialogue sequences can sometimes be frustrating to get through. While the context of the story presents an immediate danger to Beacontown, the required sense of urgency does not apply down in the Sunshine Institute. It seems like Jesse and the gang have forever to escape the complex, and the various diversions that the prison tosses up seem like a waste of time, in retrospect. The ensuing chase scenes are thrilling moments, hampered by the occasional frame-rate stutters, while audio cues drop out or abruptly end as most Telltale games have up to this point.