Game of Thrones is most likely the more well known of the IP's Telltale has used since the success of the books and more infamously, the TV show, was the basis for the game. The story in the game directly parallels the TV show in the middle seasons and references several times the events of the TV show along with having several characters from the show, portrayed in Telltale style. The story does follow the classic Telltale style of narrative, which is make you feel as bad as possible, and then when you are finally starting to cheer up. make you feel more sad. It is really a a roller coaster of emotion that leaves you stunned and confused. Now with all these emotions and sadness, AND the fact that this is a completely narrative game means that there is spoilers so...WARNING: SPOILERS FOR GAME OF THRONES AND GAME OF THRONES TELLTALE GAME AHEAD, DO NOT READ BECAUSE EVERYONE DIES!
Even with the boiler plate out of the way, I still feel I need to say just how many deaths and plot twists happen in this game. George R. R. Martin is infamous for his killing of characters and the Telltale game does not let up on the death. You play many characters in this game, those characters all revolving around the house Forrester in Game of Thrones, the banner men to the Starks. You play as Gared Tuttle, the squire to the lord of house Forrester, who was given a message by the lord on his last dying breath during the raid at the Red Wedding. This message then gets delivered to the squire's uncle, who is an advisor to the new lord, and another playable character, Ethan Forrester, who is a young boy who was abruptly given the title of lord. You have to make grave decisions, including choosing who will be your advisor and who you will ask help of, because you need to look after your house, which is in constant danger of being destroyed by other houses looking for power. You even need to ask help of Mira Forrester, who is currently in King's Landing being handmaiden to Margaery Tyrell, who is currently marrying Joffrey Lannister, the king of Westeros. With Mira you need to ask help and even have the option of stealing other people's things for profit all while staying loyal and impressing the other Lannisters (including Peter Dinklage) Really the whole game starts off on a sad note with the deaths of many characters and throughout the game you have the option of killing people and are sometimes forced to. This is all pretty tame by Telltale standards, since the Walking Dead had death galore. And just like the Walking Dead, the main character gets killed off as a plot point. Wait...
SPOILER ALERT FOR THE WALKING DEAD GAMES!
Sorry 'bout that. Well, anyway, at the end of the first chapter, the main competition of the Forresters and seemingly main antagonist to everybody Ramsay Snow, kills Ethan and takes his sibling hostage. This sets the tone for seemingly the rest of the game. The game does have the benefit of making none of the characters except for the ones who don't die in the show yet able to die at any point as they would in the show or books. With that said, it is very good to have previous knowledge of the Game of Thrones mythos before playing this game, as it both helps you understand the plot a little more and can give you possible foresight to the future plot points of the game (Joffrey is still alive for example) With all of that out of the way the game has a very solid and very compelling narrative that I personally enjoyed. The art style of the game is going for a more watercolor theme than the cell shaded normality Telltale is known for. This brings the game into the more uncanny valley territory where characters from the TV show don't quite look normal. it also brings a lot of graphical errors as the depth of field effects will often blur out and make the immediate background jagged and unrefined. This makes the game look a little rough around the edges but I feel the art style was more appropriate to the world of Game of Thrones.
All in all I would recommend this game if you have read the books or have watched the television show as it really draws from both sources and adds a whole lot to the narrative. I would say for the low price point it is worth the dough.
No comments:
Post a Comment