A Game of Thrones

[Mhaedros]

A Game of Thrones

A Game of Thrones

A Game of Thrones is one of Cyanide’s newer titles, a role-play game set in the fantasy world of Westeros. Westeros, which is where the bestselling book series “A Song of Ice and Fire” and the popular TV show “A Game of Thrones”, takes place. Rather than following the author’s plot, the game introduces a new one, focusing on two brand new characters. These are Mors Westford, a sworn brother of the Night’s Watch and Allester Sarwyck, a red priest who has come back to Westeros after 15 years in the east.

Gameplay

Let’s start with combat. It might seem hard to understand at first, but don’t be fooled. It is really quite simple. You won’t have to do the hitting yourself, but you are supposed to change weapons based on your enemy’s armor, use different sorts of abilities to stun the enemy or make him drop his shield and basically make sure your character survives. This is easily done by clicking “space” and then pressing a button or two. The combat is extremely simple and requires no skill at all to master, which makes the fighting boring. After finishing off an enemy Mors or Allester will even run to the next one by himself. You can literally just sit back and press the occasional button.

Mors' horrifying dog. Watch out for the sharp teeth!

Being Mors’ dog allows you to track down your target by using smells, but beware! There are people who do not like dogs out there, ready to kick you…While Mors is a skinchanger, Allester is a red priest. Being a servant of R’hllor gives you certain abilities, like finding hidden doors and putting your sword on fire.

Leveling up gives you points, which can be spent on purchasing new abilities. These abilities can vary from combat moves to passive traits which improve your combat abilities or health regeneration. Allester, being a red priest, also has the ability to purchase abilities to purchase similar upgrades, like putting his sword on fire and regenerating health while in battle. Mors can do the same, but with his dog. He can make it steal the shield of an enemy or bite him in the legs so you can hit him without risking getting struck back.

Most aspects of the gameplay are probably quite normal for RPG’s, but I’m truly disappointed with A Game of Thrones. Hell, you can’t even jump.

Storyline

Mors Westford, or the Butcher as he is commonly known as. He is a ranger in the Night’s Watch and the last thing many a wildling and deserter have seen. He is a skinchanger, which means he can take control of his dog and use it to track down deserters or wildlings. He trusts completely in his own judgment and carries it out whatever the consequences. Mors’ old friend, Jon Arryn, the Hand of the King, has sent one of his trusted knights to Castle Black with a mission for Mors. A young girl is hidden somewhere in the North and the knight requires Mors’ help to find her. A letter from Lord Arryn suggests she is hidden in Mole’s Town…but who is this girl? And what does ser Godric want with her?

Mors Westford on the right and his fellow brother of the Night's Watch on the left.

Allester Sarwyck was the oldest son and heir of the lord in a small town called Riverspring, which is located in the Westerlands. After the rebellion of Robert Baratheon, Allester sailed across the Narrow Sea and adopted the faith of R’hllor. He became a priest of the Lord of Light and spent his years in Braavos. When he 15 years later received word of his lord father’s untimely death he returned to his town only to find chaos. The maester of Riverspring thinks the lord was killed by poison and Allester’s younger brother is missing. At the same time Valarr, Allester’s bastard brother betrothed their sister, who has been ruling the family’s lands while the late lord was grieving his son’s departure…

Alester Sarwyck returning to his town, Riverspring

Most characters are very well planned and even the bad guys have gotten love. If only the producers had been able to find real voice actors the characters would have gotten a huge bonus.

The game offers you a series of choices which will determine what happens next and people’s opinion of you. For example, in your first chapter with Allester there is a riot in Riverspring. You have to make decisions based on what you see and hear from the population and in the end the people, the lords and the guards will evaluate an opinion of you based on your actions.

Graphics

The graphics in Game of Thrones are…lacking. Most models looks like they belong in a game much, much older than GoT and a lot of the textures are plain ugly. The best models and textures are found in a select few characters, like Jeor Mormont, who is astonishing (though his armor would break a normal man’s back; the game puts way too heavy armor and weapons in the arms of men) and Varys, who was too tall and not fat enough, but otherwise good.


Animations are lacking. Lacking is probably the word for it as there are about 10 animations you will keep seeing during the whole game. The only exception to the casual running and hitting is a very uncommon kill-cam which you sometimes get when killing the last enemy. However, these will always be the same, unless you constantly change weapons.

Audio

The music is what you would expect from such a game, it is nothing special, but it’s not bad either. But when it comes to dialogue and voice acting…both are absolutely horrible. There are two exceptions to the latter and these are Jeor Mormont and Varys the Spider. Every other voice actor seems not to understand what immersion means and I can’t believe the producers were lazy enough to hire just anyone here. The dialogue is horrible as well, which brings out the worst in the voice actors. Whoever wrote the dialogue should be punished.



Most parts of the game are truly awful and the only reason I pressed on to the end was the plot, which is good. Dialogue and voice acting is terrible, graphics are poor and gameplay is lacking.

5/10

[Vaðarholmr]

Added to the directory!

[tbird166]

Are there any good Game of Thrones Games?

[Cyclops]

Are there any good Game of Thrones Games?

I made the mistake of buying GoT Genesis, a quick wiki shows it was by the same people. Rush job to cash in on the TV show, and pretty unplayable for mine.

[ggggtotalwarrior]

There was/is Westeros Total War and of course the mod for Crusader Kings II.

[Mhaedros]

I wouldn't say there currently are any good GOT games, however there are many good mods such as Westeros Total War, a GOT mod for Crusader Kings 2 and a mod for Mount and Blade Warband called Clash of Kings. There might be and almost certainly are other good mods as well, but these are the ones I've played.

[Ciciro]

I liked the voice acting and story. That was it.