Telltale deliver their most brutal and bloody finale yet…
Update: Game of Thrones Season 2 now confirmed to be in development.
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR PREVIOUS EPISODES AS WELL AS THE SEASON FINALE, READ WITH CAUTION!
The heart-wrenching choice we made at the end of Episode 5 meant we either had to sacrifice Rodrik or Asher in order to escape the trap set by the Whitehills. It was brutal and unexpected, especially as Asher had done everything to get back to Westeros only to be ambushed, but Rodrik had endured far worse than anyone and has led the family well so far, so I chose to sacrifice Asher before the finale.
The final episode of the series ties up some loose ends, while leaving doors open for others and leaving on cliffhangers that more or less confirm a second season is in the works. This is definitely an episode you will want to play more than once, your choices will have bloody consequences for each character in some way or another. As you would expect, the Whitehills descend on Ironrath to snuff out the Forresters once and for all, after Ramsay Snow’s ultimatum that only one family will survive.
Rodrik gets choices to make to defend the city and some of them are quite brutal. While in King’s Landing, Mira has to answer to Margaery Tyrell for her actions throughout the season but despite what happens she will choose to distance from you after hearing the rumours that she killed a Lannister guard, which she did way back in an earlier episode. Mira has a tough decision to make to live or die, one that is left to the player and leaves you with a rather difficult dilemma to say the least.
Gared, Cotter and his sister Sylvi make it to the North Grove at long last. It’s an odd place full of mystery and dark magic, there’s another difficult set of choices to make here and while we don’t get a lot of answers or resolutions…we do see things setting up nicely for the second season, which looks more and more likely now with these outcomes. All season we have been asked if we can get House Forrester to survive, but what we get is more a case of some can survive this finale to reach the potential second season.
All in all, this episode sums up the brutal reality of Westeros. Don’t expect a typical happy ending from this finale, expect something more in style with the works of George R.R. Martin and you won’t be as surprised to see what transpires. I won’t give it all away, but suffice to say that you will feel emotionally drained at the end.
The performance takes a bit of a knock framerate-wise at times, I also noticed lip-sync problems with dialogue. It’s inconsistent, but despite that it’s still a nice looking game and as always has the classic GoT theme tune.
The Verdict
The Season Finale of Game of Thrones goes out in style. Gory, brutal style…but style nonetheless. It definitely feels like it’s building up to more, so I hope we do get another trip to Westeros from Telltale soon. It’s definitely not one for the fainthearted, the choices have been relentlessly cruel and twisted as the great series itself. Let’s hope this is the first stop of many along the way.