Despite not being a fan of story experiences and walking simulators, I tend to really enjoy Telltale Games’ products. I’ve watched the first Season of Game of Thrones and recently read the book, so I have some background with the series. However, I wasn’t a fan of the TV show or the book, so how does the game fare?
Well, it does have some of the same flaws as Game Of Thrones: there’s probably too many characters, there’s a lack of real story, plenty of padding/story arcs that aren’t really resolved.
On the plus side, it has aspects that make Telltale Games great - so has plenty of twists and turns and gives you a good illusion of choice (even if your choices don’t really matter until the final scenes).
The game takes place at the end of Season 3 of the TV show at the “Red Wedding” where House Stark was essentially defeated (I watched ‘Film Cram’s Season 2 and 3 recap videos to get more context). At the Red Wedding, Lord Forrester is also slain, but he passed on a message to his squire, Gared, that 'he must protect the North Grove'.
Gared is one of the playable characters, and returns to the Forrester stronghold Ironrath to deliver the news. However he is sent to join the Night’s Watch, and from there, attempts to discover the location of the North Grove.
The Forrester stronghold Ironrath is under threat by the Whitehills who want to take their Ironwood. This is the main plot point of the game. The Whitehills are essentially taking by force and you need to try and fight back.
Ethan Forrester is a boy who temporarily becomes the Lord Of Ironrath, until Rodrik returns. Asher Forrester is a mercenary in Essos who needs to return to Ironrath with an army to help the battle. Mira Forrester serves as a handmaiden to Margaery Tyrell. She tries to gain support from King’s Landing but the Forrester’s previous alliance with the Starks is frowned upon by Queen Cersei.
The story jumps between these 4 perspectives (Ethan is just for Chapter 1) but it slows down the story progression. Asher’s story doesn’t seem to make a big difference to the story, and Mira’s seems like it has no impact. I didn’t spend much time researching it, but it doesn’t seem like there was a way to make a difference. It’s a shame because I did like Mira’s character.
You could argue Mira was created so there was an excuse to see some TV show characters like Cersei, Tyrion and Margaery. However, you already get to meet Jon Snow with Gared, Ramsay Snow with Rodrik, and Daenerys with Asher - so there were probably enough characters there anyway. These characters from the show have their likeness and voice actors.
There were a couple of scenes where I thought the dialogue responses were a bit weird. I thought I was being quite open with Cersei but she and Tyrion seemed to react like I was being suspicious. There’s a scene with the Night’s Watch where Finn was talking aggressively and I chose some neutral or friendly options - then Finn stated that I was the closest friend he had. It was a bit of a u-turn when he was constantly hostile prior to this.
Aside from a couple of moments, the writing was great overall. The only other thing I’d question was the amount of f-bomb swearing which I don’t recall seeing/hearing in the first book/season.
I think by 2014, the game engine and graphics were starting to become dated. I’m not convinced the graphical style worked that well for Game of Thrones since you probably want a more gritty aesthetic, but instead you get a pastel-painting style. The graphics seemed generally inconsistent and a lot of aliasing. Sometimes the background has an extreme pastel look so is very smudged, so you will see candles that are very jagged and blend/smear into the background.
I encountered a few crashes when loading the game, and some of the introductions seemed a bit on the loud side. Aside from this, the game ran fine and I didn’t notice any other bugs.
I think I am a bit on-the-fence with this game. I enjoyed this over the TV Show and book, but there’s more enjoyable Telltale games like The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us.