Game of Thrones

Telltale are the masters of storytelling (and sadly no longer with us) and one of their more underappreciated titles is Game of Thrones.

So What Is The Story?

As this is a Telltale game and one based on Game of Thrones as you would expect it is very story driven. Without giving too much away. The story is set during the War of the Five Kings and you play the role of various characters from House Forrester which is a family who hails from the North of Westeros. Your house gets caught up in what is going on with the War of the Five Kings and before you know it you could not be any more involved. Like all Telltale games, the story you experience when you play the game will differ than the one I got and that is what makes these games so great.

Think Before You Act

If you are coming into Game of Thrones expecting a Skyrim like game you will be very disappointed. Like the show, talking plays a huge part in the game. You will get to play as different characters from the House Forrester. Here you will talk to various other characters (who fans of the show will know) and it is these interactions that shape the game. If you do something that results in someone from another house getting killed, you better believe that there will be consequences for it later. If your tone is wrong with a certain “lady” you better believe that this is going to go bad for you later on. You are always walking a fine line in Game of Thrones. As the writing and voice acting is so great you get truly invested and you are always worried about what is going to happen when you talk to people.

Chapter 1

Like the other games that Telltale made, Game of Thrones is set up into different chapters with each one playing out like its own episode. The first chapter, Iron From Ice sets the tone for how brutal this game is going to be. When I say brutal I do not mean that in a bad way. There is a choice that you have to make in this game that is truly awful and it is one that stuck with me for a while after I played the game. This is a rather slow paced kind of game, much like the show and it is very story driven. For me, that is fantastic as I love this kind of thing, but for those hoping for a little more gameplay, you may be disappointed.

Walk and Talk

The core gameplay of Game of Thrones is like the other games that Telltale have put out. You walk around and the game plays like a point and click adventure style game. Each character you talk to will give you different options when it comes to your reply. Some of these can drastically alter the way the game progresses so in this regard there is a lot of replayability. There are a few action scenes and these are done in the form of quick time events. They do not happen all of the time, but when they do they are quite exciting and sometimes they come out of nowhere so you have to be on your toes the whole time. Some quick time events, if you fail them, will force you to try again. Others will change the story and force you to deal with your failure.

Game of Thrones is one of the more slower paced games from Telltale, but in this universe, you would not want it any other way. Fans of the show will just eat this up, but I am not so sure it’s slow paced would fit non fans. The choices you make really do matter in this game and that is what makes playing it so exciting. It is a real shame that we will probably not get another game like this set in the Game of Thrones universe.

8.5/10

Pros:

• Fantastic if you love the show
• Your choices really do matter
• The quick time events are fun
• Voice acting and writing are both great
• Some pretty gruesome scenes!

Cons:

• Not ideal if you have not seen the show
• A couple of technical glitches here and there