Now then, let's get on with this one. You've read some shitty reviews of this one already, I'm sure, and it's fair enough. It's a licensed game, not even based on a film but a television property, and we all know they tend to be about as entertaining and satisfying as poking a dead dog with a stick. Cyanide games had a shitload to live up to with this property, and as far as Gameplay goes, average would be fairly flattering a description. Game of Thrones fans are an obsessed lot, and I'm not going to tell you the game is brilliant. But, surprisingly, It grew on me. There are aspects of the game that I enjoyed, it kept me coming back to it to finish it.
In Game of Thrones, we take the role of two characters, the tales of which intersect and eventually coincide. Mors Westford of the Nights watch, a grizzled old war veteran who also happens to be a skinchanger, And Alester Sarwyck....a grizzled war veteran who also happens to be a Red priest of R'hllor. Okay, there isn't a huge difference in the characters. They could have been wildly different, instead we get too loosely samey old bastards, scarred and bitter and hateful, but that's what this world is all about after all.
In general, I think fans of the books will enjoy the world as it is presented. The development team are all fans themselves, they took an interest and they stuck with it. That was important to me, it felt put together with at least a fair bit of love for the property. On your journey through the game you will head to an assortment of areas throughout Westeros, from King's Landing to The Wall, and they are one and all faithfully recreated with equal inspiration from the show and the books. Its visuals are nicely put together, if gritty and rendered in quite mediocre graphics. Cyanide studios did not have the budget or the manpower that a bigger, more notorious developer could have put into this property, which is of course a shame as we could have seen something great. As it is, we have a low budget production, and it does show. The graphics are not horrible, but certainly nothing to be wowed by at any time. Visuals are often forgettable, but the important things do come across. You'll instantly recognize Lannister banners and the likeness of King Robert Baratheon in paintings within the Red Keep, for example. A few stars from the TV show were drafted in to lend their voices, and it's particularly good to hear Lord Varys's velvet tones so much, as great as you'd expect, but these celebrity additions painfully outline how awful the rest of the acting in the game is. Our two protagonists are standared Solid-Snake sounding growlers, but most of the rest of the incidental cast are clearly Americans doing bad regional European accents. Surely they could have done better?
All this is rolled up into a storyline that does fit well into the universe, and could easily have been a side story in the first book. Family treachery, back stabbing, child murder and illegitimate heirs form the whole basis of the plot, which are of course all staples of the series. It fits, It just isn't mind blowing. Another nice addition is that our heroes really do barely fit the stereotype by any means. They are Ice and fire heroes, meaning they barely qualify as good men half the time. They are self-serving, hateful men lost in the past, and most of the games four endings are unpleasant, unhappy resolutions tainted by the machinations of more powerful personalities. Just like the books. They didn't bottle out with happy endings or baiting for a sequel, it all ends satisfyingly well.
Of course, you can't review a game without getting into exactly how it plays. If you've come for a taste of the Game of Thrones world, I'd say you'll enjoy yourself enough to warrant the purchase. If you're a gamer looking for a good time, you'll want your money back. In essence, the whole game works like a simplified, clunky imitation of 'Dragon Age: Origins'. It shares a near identical ability wheel, where you select a short order of attacks and abilities that your character will slowly develop as they advance level by level. Mors has his trusty dog with him at all times, that can be ordered to attack and knock down your enemies, whilst Alester has an assortment of flame based abilities including some healing spells. However, if you're anything like me, you just won't find yourself using much of any of these many abilities. A short way into the game you'll have found something that works for you with each of your heroes, and you'll likely never stray from using them again. I for one found an ability that allowed Mors to knock his opponent to the ground then stab him repeatedly, finishing off any foe in a matter of seconds, and I never really needed to use anything else. The game never throws in anything to switch up the combat, it's just swordsman after swordsman, with the occasional bowman to polish off on the sidelines. The vast majority of all combat scenes in the game consists of room after room of these same enemies. It gets predictable fast. There is some good enmity in some detestable villainous gits to fight, but again, they fit the same battle drill as all other enemies.
There is a great variety of weapons and armour to find and use throughout the game, but again, you'll likely end up finding something early on that you like, and never end up using anything else, ever. At no point did I ever feel the urge to pick up a bow in the whole course of the game. Neither did I ever find a use for the game's many different armour types, as 'heavy' is always stronger, more resilient, and doesn't seem to have any real drawback. All the game's most powerful items are nice nods to canon characters we know, but as badass as it felt to be strolling around in Ilyn Payne's executioners cloak, Barristan Selmy's jousting helm and wielding a Valyrian steel sword, it never really gives you the feeling that any piece of equipment is that much better than anything you've had before.
You'll be hacking through an assortment of side-quests and mumbling through character interaction as the game progresses, and although most are simple fetch quests, a few are more interesting and unique. Like using Mors's skinchanger abilities to take the consciousness of your pit bull, catch scents hidden around Castle Black to hunt down conspirators against the Old Bear. Anyone into Game of Thrones will know what that means and be at least a little interested, everyone else will be lost entirely.
That's the heart of the matter, really. Ones entire opinion on the game will simply be based around how much they enjoyed living for a little in Westeros, however clunky and restricted such a journey is. I personally enjoyed myself while it lasted. It could have been a lot more open, it could have been a better glimpse into such a complex, well defined world, but for now, it's all us fans have to explore. If you're a fan, give it a chance, you might like it, and for the ultimate in bad in-jokes, do keep a look out for Maester Martin along the way...
This review of Game of Thrones was based on the Xbox 360 version of the game.
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