Editor’s Note: Before reading this review, we highly recommend checking out our review for Episode One: The Order of the Stone, Episode 2: Assembly Required,Episode 3: The Last Place You Look, Episode 4: A Block and a Hard Place, Episode 5: Order Up!, and Episode 6: A Portal to Mystery as there are spoilers ahead.
From the last episode featuring a plethora of YouTube stars that specialize in Minecraft videos, the Order of the Stone team has moved on and entered through a different portal. The gang is now stuck in a world that is completely controlled by a thinking machine only known as PAMA who has enslaved people to only be used usefully and efficiently. This is the second episode featured in the Adventure Pack (purchased separately from the base game) and while it offers something different from the first five episodes of the series, it doesn't manage to make the push that would consider it a great episode. The episode offers a more science fiction feel to it with the addition of this AI type character and her creator, (voiced by Yvette Nicole of Community). Unfortunately here is nothing about this episode that offers anything to the series as a whole and, in fact, only really adds as a standalone story instead of something that is part of a whole.
Of course, that's the purpose of the Adventure Pass, but this episode really makes it seem as though more episode will come to give The Order of the Stone something to fight for in order to continue their reign as the heroes of the Overworld. This time, the threat is in the form of a computer that is controlling its citizens through a strange, redstone powered transmitter into only doing things that are useful and efficient. To top it all off, PAMA, the computer, is displayed on a large screen overlooking the world using only emojis as its form of communication. Aside from PAMA and her creator, there isn't much in terms of new characters or any real development with the story but there are many pop culture references to basically anything that has to do with 'technology gone wrong' scenarios. They reference games like Portal and System Shock and the episode is ended the same way that any film of the same genre would end. With that being said, the references were what really made the episode as opposed to the episode as a whole.
There isn't much in the way of new gameplay mechanics or scenarios as the quick time events and dialogue choices are relatively the same as previous episodes. However, the real difference this time around is that the basic things that you do in every episode, like puzzle solving and crafting, is very limited if not unpleasantly brief. It seemed that while the episode tinged with great story moments and a handful of interesting character portrayals, there was a rush to finish the episode so that they can start working on the next. If anything, the episode seemed to have been made to add to the Order's backlog of stories instead of leading up to some kid of great event in the next episode, the final in the Adventure Pack. With that being said, that doesn't mean that PAMA was at all a bad character and, in fact, was extremely well written and gave the episode more meaning than the previous one did. You saw the loneliness that PAMA suffers from as a result of her actions as a single character instead of several different characters all fighting for screen time.
While she is very well an antagonist for the Order on paper, controlling her people and deciding what it is that is considered useful while maintaining a dry persona, she is much more three-dimensional, a development in character that hasn't been seen since maybe Episode 4. Unfortunately, the episode clocked in at just a little less than an hour, making it among the shorter episodes and definitely one of the quickest ones to pass through, ending PAMA's story for good as the team moves on to the next standalone episode. Hopefully, PAMA can be brought back at another time as a protagonist that joins the team as opposed to an antagonist but with the direction that Telltale wants to take what was once a standalone series, there's no telling what they'll do.
Closing Comments:
This episode is a step up from the previous one, starting up the halfway point of the Adventure Pass on a much higher note, but it falls short in longevity, proving that a character can be developed and well liked if focused on and given more tie as opposed to adding several characters that don't necessarily add to the story. What we really took away from the experience was the rushed feeling of the episode and how it felt like it had to be done rather than wanted to be done to make way for development of the eighth episode. Hopefully, this episode will pave the way for the Adventure Pass finale as a highly character-developed and relatively lengthy story, but we'll just have to wait and see when it finally releases.