On the plus side, once you're in the Minecraft world the sense of scale is truly fantastic. Everything seems bigger somehow, more immediate and solid. A pit in a cave that would be little more than a hazard to plop a staircase onto is all of a sudden an ominous presence waiting to see you fall into its depths. Hills are more imposing, cliffs shoot dangerously into the sky and canyons are massive rifts in the earth, and the oceans go down forever. Even the standard block has a sense of mass, with its one meter cube transformed into a substantial chunk of scenery. Another side effect of the new sense of scale is that combat has become a little easier because the strike distance is so obvious. The move to VR has done a great job of freshening up an experience I've been done with for several years now, which is an impressive feat. While I'm still not completely sold on the viewing solution, it's something that works for now until a better idea is implemented.

(eyes widen and laughs) I was a big fan of The Sims and also did terrible things to them. (We go off on a tangent discussing the terrible atrocities we committed on our Sims, none of which is fit to print here)

Yes there will be boss battles. There are four different worlds in Dragon Quest Builders and each one will have a boss battle. There will also be many sub quests and side quests that will also feature boss battles. Each stage will have a strategy and that will play into the boss fight. Going against a boss with brute force alone is not recommended, and building will play a role in success against a boss. This may include building traps, or in the case of an aerial boss you will need to build a powerful bow to use against it.

The are two reasons getting this right is important, and both reasons are the same but viewed from different perspectives- Minecraft is still the biggest game in the world. The official VR mode is exclusive to the Rift, so you can bet that Microsoft/Mojang and Oculus worked together to make sure the experience is as inviting as possible. Getting this right is a major deal for both companies. This ties in to the other perspective, which is consumer-side. For a lot of people Minecraft will be a premier game for VR, and how rare is a chicken jockey accessible it is will become the baseline expectation of the experience. Make it nice and maybe it becomes the VR gateway drug, and at the moment the experience is acceptable. The default starting view may be the same Minecraft as always on an in-game screen, and Classic Control has high nausea potential, but the jerky VR Control is the kind of thing you learn to tolerate simply because it's effective.

The story development in this episode brings out its appeal to older audiences. It's fast paced and doesn't leave a whole lot of room to think where it would be important to. Quick time events (QTEs) are important in the episode, as they have been in the previous three, making it known that you have to be ready for anything. When you aren't interacting in a QTE, you are trying to solve a series of puzzles that can only be done so by following a set of clues. The previous episodes also had puzzles the solve but they were as easy as flipping a few switches and moving on. This episode stresses your ability to listen in order to solve the puzzles and makes it a little easier to screw up and start over again. The episode also follows in the footsteps of the previous as exploration continues to be an important aspect. Since these puzzles are a little bit more difficult, every room has more information and lore about the world that Telltale has created as you search for clues.

The action from the first episode hasn't left at all and if anything, managed to speed itself enough where you practically have to do a second playthrough just to catch it again. There are plenty of moments that could have been explained more and it's upsetting that they weren't in the short time it took to finish the episode. Things like Olivia's disappointment in finally meeting her hero and Lukas' role in Jessie's group of friends could have been touched upon a little bit more but the fact that they weren't makes me fear for future episodes. It leaves you with a, "oh, that was it?" feeling that should never be felt while playing any game, especially right when you begin getting into the action and quickness of it all. Hopefully, the third episode will capitalize on a few more important moments within the main character’s development and slow down a little in order to give everyone the attention that they deserve.

The pace of the game is dictated entirely by how the player wants to approach the game. If someone only cares about completing the main story, it is possible to rush through the game and complete it in approximately ten hours, but because of the volume of optional quests and activities it can extend well beyond one hundred hours. It is possible to build anywhere in the world, the player is not restricted to only having construction done in the base camp area. This will not effect the camp growth or progress the story but should the player desire it is possible to cover every square inch of land with construction. The scope of world is huge, and exploring to the end of it will give the player more things to build with nearly limitless potential. There are four different stages, all are unique from each other with different challenges and unique things to do.