You’d have to be willfully ignorant to not have come across the massive sensation that is Game of Thrones. I have to admit that I’m one of those people who only discovered it through the TV show, much at the behest of many of my friends who’ve urged me to read George R. R. Martin’s epic works. Still it’s easy to see just how detailed the world he created is with deep and complex political landscapes that stretch back over countless years. It was interesting then to hear that Telltale Games would be doing a title within the franchise as whilst they certainly have the pedigree to bring a story to life the world of Westeros isn’t exact their modus operandi. Indeed their entry into this gritty and uncaring world seems to signal that Telltale wants to begin rising above its current station, and that it has the skills to do so.
MINOR GAME OF THRONES SPOILERS BELOW
The Forresters have been the bastions of the Ironwood forests for countless generations and loyal to the Starks for just as long. That loyalty is what led them to be in attendance for the horror that was The Red Wedding where many of their men met their fates. You are Gared Tuttle, squire to Lord Gregor Forrester, who managed to escape the violence in order to carry a message from your lord back to the house of Forrester. Unfortunately the tragedy that befell you at The Red Wedding has also spread to everywhere else and now the house which you have long been loyal to is under threat. Can you fight your way out of this? Or will you use the more delicate hand to beguile your enemies and have them fall on their own swords?
PLOT SPOILERS OVER
Telltale has a very distinctive style when it comes to the games they create, favoring the heavy bordering and solid colours that are typical of their graphic novel inspired works. This has been reworked somewhat for Game of Thrones, dumping the cartoony look and instead aspiring more towards realism than any of their other games have done previously. This has also come with an upgrade in visuals in almost all regards although the semi-stiff animations and less-than-stellar attempts at depth of field do leave a little bit to be desired. Still it’s hard not recognise that this is most definitely a big step up for Telltale games and potentially signals towards them feeling comfortable enough to experiment with the format they’ve perfected.
The signature Telltale style makes a return in Game of Thrones, putting aside most traditional game mechanics in favour of focusing on developing the story and the characters within it. The majority of action sequences play out as a series of quicktime events, throwing up keys to press or mouse movements to make in order to get through a section. The heart of their style is, as always, the dialog system which includes a breadth of options that will shape the game in numerous ways depending on which one you select. Unlike previous Telltale games however Game of Thrones jumps between several different characters, mimicking the format of its source material. All in all there’s nothing too revolutionary about the game itself which isn’t surprising since this is a Telltale title.
Indeed Telltale is probably one of the few game developers out there who are able to get away with doing this since the innovation comes from their ability to tell a good story rather than develop new and novel game mechanics. For story-first titles it’s often better to err on the side of simplicity as too many mechanics, or just a couple poorly constructed ones, quickly distract from the story. This is what titles like Always Sometimes Monsters got wrong, thinking that a variety of different mechanics was necessary in order to keep the player engaged. Nothing could be farther from the truth, so long as the story that you’re telling is engaging enough.
Depending on what your current level of involvement is with the Game of Thrones franchise the story will likely mean a different many things to you although it does tend to assume you’re coming from the TV series rather than just the books. The story begins at the end of the third season and is slated to continue through until the end of the fifth. This means that, unless you’re up to that part in the series, there’s potential for bigger events to be spoiled and pivotal characters that have just recently appeared in the series likely won’t make a great deal of sense to you. Thus to properly experience the story you’d best be placed to catch up to the end of the third season. Who are we kidding though, you’ve already watched it twice.
The story itself is quite engaging, following a thread that’s apparently present in the books but yet to be explored in the series, retaining many of the qualities that made Game of Thrones so popular in the first place. The story isn’t written by George R. R. Martin himself though, rather he sent along his personal assistant Ty Corey Franck (a successful writer in his own right) to be a story consultant with Telltale. Since this is just the first episode there was still a lot of worldbuilding to be done so it wasn’t the most gripping story yet, however many of the events that have taken place are setting the scene for much grander things to come. I definitely have high hopes for Telltale’s version of Game of Thrones and I’m interested to see where they take it.
Game of Thrones is another excellent story-first title from Telltale games, taking the essence of what made their style so popular and maturing it to match the gritty world that George R. R. Martin had created. The graphics are the most notable departure from the Telltale style, ramping it up to a more realistic style whilst still retaining the same feel. However the core of what make their games great, their skill with storytelling, is very much the same and the world of Westeros provides a great canvas for them to paint a new story. Overall for fans of Telltale or the Games of Thrones franchise this title will be certain to delight and is most certainly worth the price of admission.
Rating: 9/10
Game of Thrones is available on PC right now for $29.99. Total play time was 2 hours with 100% of the achievements unlocked.
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