First Posted: 1/9/2015
When Telltale Games created “The Walking Dead” game, they established themselves as one of the leading developers for story based adventure games. Following suit, they got their hands on the “Game of Thrones” franchise.
The HBO show is known for its shocking story twists and killing off main characters.
The game is based on the epic work of George RR Martin and the award winning show “Game of Thrones: A Telltale Games Series.” It is a new episodic adventure game that continues the story from a new point of view. We get to hear the story of House Forrester and this family hasn’t really been mentioned much in the show. I haven’t read the books so it is nice to learn more of the story of Westeros.
“Episode One: Iron from Ice,” is set at the end of Season 3 and will continue to around the beginning of Season 5. Even though it is the story of a new family, you do visit some familiar locations like King’s Landing and you do encounter a few familiar people from the show.
Just like the show, the video game tells the story from many different points of view. You experience the story as one of five different family members from the House Forrester or a family associated with them. The Forrester family is from the North and have always been loyal to the Stark Family. Now they are going to be caught up in the “War of the Five Kings.”
Telltale’s version of the story is very similar to “The Walking Dead” game. The art style is similar but not as much like a comic book. Each of the choices you make effect the way the story plays out and characters will live and die based on your actions. The opinion characters have of you will change based on what you choose.
The story is weirdly similar to “The Walking Dead” but without the zombies; it is just as dark and the choices you make are just as hard to deal with. Each action you take will carry over from episode to episode, so you choose what will happen next. The decisions you make will affect your standing in the world and future episodes.
Often the choices you have to make are hard and the only options are bad and worse. They are just as shocking as the show. All the things you will see are canonical so they are real parts of the books and will eventually tie into events of the show.
Many of the characters are voiced by the actors who play them; making the acting superb. Even the people you don’t recognize have great acting and voice over work so you will definitely be entertained. The game plays out like the chapters of a book, you play each of the five characters and then you switch at the end of an act or chapter.
Most of the story in the game is told in conversations, but there are some action scenes which are glorified quick-time events or simple button presses at the correct time. There was a ton of talking in “The Walking Dead,” but there is a lot more in “Game of Thrones.” Because of the incredible dialogue and voice acting it never gets old.
Overall “Episode 1 of Telltale’s Game of Thrones” is off to a great start. The story is excellent and the graphics and voice acting are phenomenal. If you are a fan you are going to love this game, but if you are looking for an action game this is not it.
I loved hearing the story of some of the lesser known characters and got very excited bumping into some of the more famous people from the show. It will be a few months before the new season starts and this is a great way get more of the story while we wait.
