The Good: Fantastic writing, characters, and original story that perfectly intertwines with the show, a lot of huge choices to make
The Bad: Downright ugly, mobile versions have many problems, compressed audio in some episodes, walking segments make no sense, combat is strictly QTE's
Game of Thrones is one of my favorite TV shows of all time, and for good reason. It was memorable characters, well-written scripts, fantastic actors, and so many gripping plot twists it will make your head spin. How do you copy this in a 5-hour game? Telltale somehow managed to do it, with some flaws, and I left wanting more.
You play as House Forrester who are aligned with the Starks in the North not seen in the show. They are trying to come out from under Roose Bolton's foot as the Boltons were assigned as wardens of the North after Ned Stark died in the first season. Ramsay Snow is constantly coming back to the house to "babysit" them and this is some of where the major turning points happen.
You follow 5 characters in the game as our viewpoints change. Mira Forrester is in King's Landing trying to gain Lady Margery's favor before she becomes queen. Then there's Ethan Forrester who is the new lord of House Forrester after his father dies in the hands of the Frey's ambush. Then there's Edward Tuttle who was the original Lord's Steward and gets sent to the Wall. Asher Forrester is off in Essos trying to gain Daenarys's favor for an army. With all these different viewpoints it feels just like the show with everyone spread out.
This is a much more story driven Telltale game, and I know that sounds silly, but there's maybe 5% gameplay here and not even any puzzles. There's some combat quick time events, and few times where you walk around an area looking at things, and then the many many dialog options, with some being meaningless to some having full swing of the entire story.
I won't' get into details about the story as that will spoil it, but I was kept in for the whole game. The acting from the original characters who do appear is nice as well as great acting for the new characters. The new characters are memorable and hold their own, and feel like they would fit right into the Tv show. As the episodes pick up you spend less time with each character as all the choices you made culminate into the finale. Some choices were rather difficult to make as you decided who lived or died or how you acted towards someone. This was especially brilliant as I thought I was doing the right things sometimes when it turned out it was hurting me more.
In the end, the point of the game is to gather a large enough army to fight back the Whitehills who the Boltons assigned to watch over House Forrester. All your choices will mean the difference between a house that lives or dies. I didn't find the game really ever dull, but the scenes where I had control felt pointless. Rarely did it ever feel relevant such as in a scene where Mira is searching for a letter in Tyrion's office and guards are running down the hall, and she was trying to not get caught.
The game does end with a sequel in mind, but I don't know if that's ever coming, not all the characters' stories were fulfilled which is a shame. The visuals are downright ugly and still use Telltale's decade-old engine which needs an overhaul. The mobile version of the game is still riddled with bugs and poorly optimized with frequent slowdown, crashes, freezes, and bugs. The audio was terrible as in the last 2 episodes it was somehow compressed to sound like PS1 audio. Overall though, the game is well worth a playthrough for fans of the show, just don't get the mobile version.