Back again for ‘3 out of 10’ and this time round with the second episode ‘Foundation 101’. MKAU have been fortunate to review the whole quirky episodic title by Terrible Posture Games and you can read my thoughts on episode 1 at the link below.

LINK: https://www.mkaugaming.com/all-review-list/3-out-of-10-ep-1-welcome-to-shovelworks-review/

Before we dive deep into episode 2, a quick recap from the previous episode as goes. You are our main protagonist Midge, a newly hired animator for Shovelwork Studios, tasked with the job to help work on their latest release ‘Surfing with Sharks’.

Diving back into the most abused and weird world of 3 out of 10, episode 2 starts off with a shipment of fresh interns arriving at the office, and a most important boardroom decision being made…. to officially stop sacrificing the interns to the engineers. Midge, and a few members of the development team, go on a little trip back to school, but returning a few interns and explaining the missing ones is not as easy as you may think.

Keeping up with the absurd humor and fun mini games, Episode 2 is more of what you expect if you played the first episode. The mini games do vary from the last episode and it’s nice to see different sorts of mini games rather than reused ones from the last episode.

My favorite one was the little driving mini game, where you have to drive through the city streets and avoid various obstacles, all the while trying not to lose any interns that are resting on top of the car as you deliver them back to college. We are still presented with a mix of 3D and 2D animation throughout the world environments and mini games, but also we are introduced to a few more interesting characters in this episode that help keep the narrative going. One stand out was the newly introduced not so ex-military robot, that is the school’s mascot, of sorts.

Overall, Episode 2: Foundation 101, keeps the ball rolling from Episode 1 nicely and is interesting enough to keep me wanting to go back and to see what happens in Episode 3. My enjoyment so far with the world and characters at Shovelwork Studios is just like sitting down for an enjoyable animated TV show. It is a shame I have to wait for the next episode.

Written by: Simon Hayward