If you’re anything like me, the advent of HBO’s Game of Thrones season 7 has you giddy, and there are few better ways to put yourself back into the GoT mindset than Telltale Games’ Game of Thrones adventure. If you may haven’t watched Game of Thrones, I suggest you do so as soon as possible. Especially since this post contains spoilers about the show.
Telltale’s games let you experience and take part in stories from the worlds in which they take place. In the case of Game of Thrones, you become responsible for the decisions of house Forrester beginning at the Red Wedding. The Forresters were loyal bannermen to the Starks, who are now all but destroyed, and their rival house, Whitehill, has long been loyal to the Boltons -the new wardens of the North. So you see where the trouble begins.
True to GoT’s style, there’s no shortage of gratuitous violence and dying protagonists. Furthermore, the Forresters’ dire situation demands that attention be paid to storylines in the North (Ironrath), on the Wall, in Slaver’s Bay, and in King’s Landing. The choices you make in each of these areas affects not only the character in focus, but also the family at large. Plus, there’s no shortage of familiar characters, and they’re all voiced by the actors who play them in the show.
Through the course of scripted decision making, the central game mechanic, the feelings and mood appropriate to each location are accurately captured: the frustration of leading a dying house in Ironrath, the stress of compromising political decisions in King’s Landing, and the difficulty of accepting the forced brotherhood of the Night’s Watch.
Here is the trailer for the first chapter:
Telltale’s Game of Thrones is available for Google Play and iOS, Xbox, PlayStation, Steam, Amazon, and gog.com. If you just can’t wait for season 7, I’d suggest you get in the mood with this game. It’s immersive, well written (if not animated), and endlessly entertaining. Guaranteed after the first 10 minutes of play, there will already be some characters you love and some you hate.
