Winter (break) is coming! And that means that there is going to be a whole lot of catch up up going on among gamers everywhere. I think that I am starting off my run to diminish my pile of shame a bit. With the release of the next gen systems my pile of shame has been growing more and invisibly thanks to digital distribution.
So this week I am finally getting around to doing my Power Hour review of Telltale Games’ Game of Thrones Episode One. After playing the Walking Dead and Wolf Among Us I have to say that I came to GoT with some specific expectations. And Telltale kinda said, “Screw your expectations!”. GoT doesn’t play like either of the previous episodic games that I played. And I don’t think that it’s necessarily that the mechanics have changed that greatly.
Let me start by saying the game is pretty, much prettier than the comic styled Wolf Among Us. The art style adds to the tone of the game. You feel your surroundings as much as you just see them. But I’m kind of putting the cart ahead of the horse. This game is not following the narrative strand of the HBO series or the first book. The game revolves around the Forrester family who have been loyal bannermen to the Starks for centuries and it picks up on the evening of the Red Wedding with you playing as Gared Tuttle, squire to House Forrester (I won’t say more than that for those of you who haven’t played the game, seen the show, or read the books…in other words, those of you living under a rock).
In the span of the first hour of gameplay (the entire episode was a little over 2 hours long), you play three different characters who hold three very different (and important) positions in the story that pretty closely mirror the narrative arcs of the Starks in the first book/series. You start off as Gared Tuttle, the Forrester squire with the familiar surname, Ethan Forrester, and Mira Forrester, who is handmaiden to Margaery Tyrell. You move smoothly between these characters as their roles and their actions come to the fore in the story’s arc. The Forresters and their home Ironrath may be new to the GoT universe, but their relationships with the Lannisters, Ramsay Snow, and other well known characters from the series just makes their story flow.
So far, the female characters in the game have been pretty independent and well developed. They do have minds of their own and make their own decisions (but still have to bend to the will of the male lords and kings). Mira as a playable character has some options that make her one of the most interesting characters so far. But be advised that once you back out of some of those options they become unavailable to you so think about what the choices may mean before you pick up items. This inability to fully explore your options before making a decision was probably the one major downfall of the game, thus far, but in hindsight it did add to the urgency of the situation (as did the limited time to make dialogue choices which I swear gets shorter with every new Telltale game!).
I have to say that GoT has me hooked and episode one is well worth the 5 bucks that I had to shell out for it. I will definitely be buying the season pass for the remainder of the episodes (as there is no way to buy all of the episodes together this time around). Buy this game, check it out, and as with any good Martin story…don’t get too attached to your favorite characters.
