Game of Thrones
PlayStation 3
I think I have reviewed more games from Telltale than I have any other developer. While there were a few games I didn't like (see Back to the Future or the Wolf Among us) I did really enjoy the Walking Dead series. In fact, the first Walking Dead nabbed one of the few perfect scores ever handed out by me.
Being a huge fan of Game of Thrones (and I mean, a HUGE fan) it was only a matter of time before I got this game. This game came out in installments, and I am one to wait for all the installments to come out for a game like this before making a purchase. I can usually get a pretty good deal. In fact, I think I got this game for 10 bucks. Plus when I do it this way I don't have to wait for a long period of time in between installments for the next one to come out. So it was a win for me.
It just so happens that at the time in my life I got this game, I was reading through the series for the third time. I was on a Storm of Swords. Plus I was watching through the TV show in conjunction with reading the novels. That put me at season 3. This game is set during the time period of a Storm of Swords, so it all worked out perfectly.
Being a big GoT buff, I wasn't sure what to expect from this. Would it be true to the world of the show and the books? Would it take liberties? Would it change things completely? I was ready at a moments notice to dislike this title. Luckily, that moment never came.
The game uses the events of the show as a backdrop to the story of the game. So while people like Cersei and Margaery are in the game, their fates aren't changed by what happens here. So you aren't going to see Cersei beheaded or Margaery banging Jon Snow or anything like that. This is simply a story that runs parallel to the events of season 3 and 4 of the show. The main characters hail from the Forrester family, a small Northern house loyal to the Starks. They are the main producers of Ironwood, the strongest and most durable wood in the Seven Kingdoms
During the Red Wedding, Lord Forrester and his forces are destroyed and Ramsay Bolton rises to power in the North. In the ensuing chaos. the Forrester's rivals, the Whitehills, start to move in on Forrester territory. With the backing of the Boltons, the Whitehills occupy Ironrath, home of the Forresters, where they proceed to terrorize the Forrester family.
I will try not to spoil too much, but this is set in the Song of Ice and Fire universe, so expect a lot of bad things to happen to the Forresters as they struggle to stay afloat against long odds.
Playable characters include Mira Forrester - a handmaiden for Margaery Tyrell in King's Landing who attempts to sway the ruling powers to intervene and help out her family. There is Rodrik Forrester, a son of the late Lord Forrester who is grievously wounded in the battle outside the Twins during the Red Wedding. He returns to Ironrath injured to find his house in shambles and the Whitehills in charge. There is Asher Forrester, an exiled sellsword who has taken up residence in Slaver's Bay. When word reaches him of his family's peril, he tries to get together an army and return to the North to retake his land. The last main character is Garet Tuttle, a squire for the Forresters who is sent to the wall after killing the man who murdered his family.
Over the course of the game, you will fall in love with the Forrester family. They are strong, they have a solid sense of right and wrong. They will do whatever it takes to save their house. You just want their suffering to end, and at any cost. You will encounter many characters from the show during your play through of the game. Jon Snow encounters Garet Tuttle at the Wall. Cersei, Tyrion, and Margaery encounter Mira in King's Landing. Ramsay Bolton pays a visit to Ironrath on a few occasions. To land his sellsword army, Asher has to run missions for Daenerys Targaryen in Slaver's Bay.
As is usually the case with Telltale games, the choices you make play a large role in how the game unfolds for you. I don't know just HOW differently things are if you play through the game twice and make different choices (as of this blog post I have only beaten the game once) but I think that your choices make even bigger waves than in previous Telltale games. For example in my play through (spoilers!!) Mira is beheaded, Rodrik is killed, Asher is grievously wounded, and basically I have lost my battle to save the house. I always like to play as a dick, so perhaps if I were to play through again making wiser choices things would be much better for House Forrester. I don't know. Maybe you are destined to lose. But I don't think this is the case.
Graphically, the game is great. It looks like a graphic novel come to life. Nothing to complain about in the sound department either. All the characters from the show who appear in the game are voiced by their respective actors and actresses, so that is nice. Everything controls... fine. If you have played the Walking Dead you should know what to expect here. You don't really play these kinds of games for the game play. You play for the story. And the story is definitely worth the price of admission.
If I did have to nitpick, I would bring up something that has plagued nearly every Telltale game I have played: glitches. They seem especially prevalent here. So many times this game locked up on me for minutes at a time. It wouldn't freeze completely, but just enough to make me consider hitting the restart button only to have it start working again. This was especially bad in the final battle of the game. Every time the camera would move to a new shot, the game would freeze up, sometimes for as long as three or four minutes. I finished what should have been a 5 minute battle in nearly a half an hour. It was ridiculous. On other occasions, the audio would outpace the action on the screen, or voices would be left out entirely.
Plus - and I don't know if this is because of the paths I took or what - the ending of the game feels a little bit too wide open. Like things haven't been resolved AT ALL. It just stops and leaves you hanging for the inevitable sequel. That kinda pissed me off.
That said, I find it hard to find fault with anything else here. Being a big GoT fanatic, this game was a real treat for me. I love Westeros, and I will eat up anything put out bearing the Game of Thrones title. It's like the books, it is like the show, only it is completely interactive and you can direct which way the story goes. How can you find fault with that?
Not only is it fun and interesting, but it it truly authentic to the GoT universe. The cast is terrific, the stakes are high, and you always feel like something bad could happen at any moment. This game felt like it could actually have been written by George RR Martin himself. In other words - the game is awesome.
Sure it has its flaws and it is definitely not a perfect game. But if you are a big fan of the source material like myself, you should consider this a definite welcome addition to the Game of Thrones universe.
Overall:
A-
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