What everyone will tell you when it comes to playing Minecraft is that there is no story -- the goal of the game is to build and craft whatever you want with some occasional defending. So it was weird for me initially to hear that Minecraft was getting the Telltale Games treatment with a full fledged story set in the Minecraft universe. I was skeptical at first, but after playing the first chapter, The Order of the Stone, they’ve managed to make the concept work. It’s a bit more linear than other Telltale games, but the story and characters in the first chapter are intriguing enough to make the first chapter an enjoyable experience.

The story follows Jesse (who can either be male or female), his/her pet pig Reuben, and other assorted friends as they enter a building competition. Due to sabotaginge, they end up losing, but not before Reuben runs away to a forest due to one of their rivals setting their statue on fire. Jesse manages to find Reuben and lead him to safety, but is attacked by a number of unfriendly mobs. Petra, a rival member of another building team, manages to save him and tells him of an interesting trade that would secure her a diamond. It’s from that point on, the first chapter becomes a story of heroism and jealousy among the Order of the Stone, a group of heroes who are renown for slaying the EnderDragon years prior. I enjoyed the character’s interactions through the chapter, and the voice acting was top notch. The actors really grasped what their characters were all about, and really played well into getting myself intrigued in the story.

Presentation wise, the game remains faithful to the source material. The world Jesse and pals explore is shaped exactly like the original Minecraft game. There’s the various animals in the series, well known items and materials, and even the enemies are the same ones you’ll come across in other Minecraft games. There’s even parts of the game where you’ll craft your own items, though it’s far more linear than the game it’s based on. With that said, the graphics aren’t all that, but Minecraft was never known for it’s graphical capabilities anyway. I also liked the music of the game, as it carried itself really well and hit the right notes when it came to the situations and emotions of the story.

If you have played previous Telltale Games’ before, then you’ll be familiar with how this game plays. You go through a number of dialogue choices that your characters will remember in future episodes, eventually leading to parts where you’re free to roam around and either talk to people or solve a puzzle that will lead you to the next part of the game. I will have to say that the gameplay is far more linear than in previous games, such as the Walking Dead series. There are less puzzles to figure out, and they’re rather easy to sort out after a few minutes of walking around and interacting with objects. It’s a chapter very much driven by the narrative, which I enjoyed, but after two hours of gameplay time I wished there was a bit more to chew on.

The first chapter of Minecraft: Story Mode is a fun start to a five episode series. The characters and story is easy to get into, and the chapter hangs on an interesting note that sets the basis for the rest of the chapters. The voice acting is really well done, and is very faithful to the source material. It’s a bit easier than other Telltale games out there and rather quick to finish, but the experience I’ve had with the game so far is a very enjoyable one.