The final project from Telltale Games, a Netflix version of 2015’s episodic Minecraft: Story Mode, started on the digital telly service yesterday. “Not with a bang but a whimper” and all that. Netflix subscribers can now play the first three episodes of season 1 on their personal computers, or pocket telephones, or digital slates, or strange television boxes, or what have you, with the final two due on December 5th. Ah sure, Telltale’s stuck-in-the-middle The Walking Dead: The Final Season will be finished after their closure but by another company, so this is final actual Telltale launch.

As you might expect, the game plays quite differently on a streaming video service. It’s turned into an interactive movie, not having us control our character’s movement or mashing QTEs, and focuses more on the decisions. Which is fine, really, as it was never a serious challenge for reflexes or an intricate puzzler. Now it’s properly just a silly adventure with a few key decisions.

I didn’t play Minecraft: Story Mode standalone on PC because it seemed for kids, but ah gwan I’ll take a look if it’s covered by our Netflix subscription. But I’m pointing this out mostly for those of you who have some responsibility for children and might wanna plonk ’em in front of this.



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This Netflix version is the project Telltale kept a small team on for after laying off most the studio (though that skeleton crew was also unceremoniously cut). So this is it, the end.

The Walking Dead: The Final season, which stalled after two of its four episodes, will be finished by Skybound Games, part of the company founded by the original comic book’s creator. Skybound said last week that they had resumed development with “many” of the game’s original team working on it, though they’re not sure how long.