Minecraft: Story Mode Season Two - Episode 5: Above and Beyond (Xbox One) Review

Jesse and company sneak into Beacontown, with a new power glove in-hand with the power to strip Romeo of his Admin powers. With some returning faces from Episode 1 making their way back into the fold, this episode does a terrific job of tying together all the story threads, and joining them up into an epic season finale. Although the eventual battle with Jesse and Romeo is the carrot on the stick, the build-up is suitable, if not a little dragging. Prior to chasing down Romeo, Jesse and the group have to plan out a fireworks show in order to sneak Jesse to the primary terminal.

Fortunately, not a lot of time is spent dealing with this distraction and the episode then reaches the pinnacle of the season. The ensuing boss fight between Jesse and Romeo is brilliant and wages across different stages and worlds, with the Admin disguised as different characters. It is a rather fitting end that throws up an important decision at the end, which has the capacity to shape future episodes in subsequent Telltale Minecraft seasons. Of course, many other decisions that were previously made get some sort of pay-offs, although retrospectively it waters down those decisions in a way that shows how the season was always going to end, regardless of the earlier choices.

Due to how short the episode is, it is the most compact and better-paced episode of the season. With a great mixture of QTE events, fight sequences, dialogue exposition scenes, and the ending sequence to wrap up, no sequence feels like it has gone on for too long. While there is one puzzle towards the end that could have provided better "signs" to solve an otherwise difficult-to-work-out sequence, the pacing rarely stutters at all. Telltale's animation issues and choppy audio cuts still make their way in, which is unfortunate, though, and is another sign that its own gaming engine needs a bit of a redesign or overhaul to ensure these issues do not persist in subsequent releases.

All the characters reach some sort of resolution to their arcs, although some make more sense than others. Radar's is by the far the best and most enjoyable arc to follow, from his timid beginnings into his confidence and battle-hardened present. Petra's arc unfortunately does not seem to reach any sort of resolution, and she ends the season the same as how she began it, while Jesse has one ending that makes sense, while the other just creates more questions than answers.