Valar morghulis!
Note: This review may contain spoilers for both the Telltale episodic series as well as the HBO show, so be warned!
When I heard that Telltale was doing a Game of Thrones series, I was gobsmacked and overjoyed…especially after playing the previous RPG entry, which was a major letdown in my book. I had high hopes and while I knew my decisions couldn’t impact Westeros too much, but hoped I’d still be able to make tough choices. So what’s it like in House Forrester?
If you’ve played The Walking Dead or The Wolf Among Us, the gameplay will appear very familiar with its brutal choices and quicktime events, such as fights. This time around you play as more than one character, all members of House Forrester and set all across Westeros. In the first episode, you’ll come across famous characters from the show like Cersei, Tyrion, Margaery and Ramsay Snow…all of which the TV cast reprise their roles for the game. So to see Peter Dinklage deliver lines in a game with his TV character is brilliant, and almost makes up for his questionable voice-acting in Destiny…but that’s a conversation for another day.
The series takes place between Season 3 and 4 of the show. The episode begins the night before the Red Wedding where most of the Starks are massacred by Walder Frey’s forces and House Forrester must pledge their loyalty to the new “Warden of the North” Roose Bolton, who dispatches his bastard son Ramsay Snow to make them bend the knee to the Warden. The Forresters have a week before he visits them and try to do whatever they can do to stop him from doing so, you’ll visit prime locations like King’s Landing where you try and persuade Margaery to get Joffrey to help, while also appeasing Cersei as a loyal subject and not a traitor. The banter between Cersei and Tyrion is hilarious as the in the show and a reminder of how good it was, before the whole Purple Wedding incident…
There’s also the issue of a youngster taking up the Lordship at House Forrester, which causes divide between the other members on how he should lead, as well as not being ready to lead in the first place. The showdown between the Forresters and Ramsay Snow is really something and proof that Telltale is just as vicious in its Game of Thrones choices as George R.R. Martin.
The game itself looks pretty impressive, it’s not making the most out of the PS4 hardware…but I didn’t see any slowdown moments from making choices, like in previous Telltale outings. Characters do look like their show counterparts quite well and the game’s locations do too. As I mentioned before, the voice-acting is superb with most of the cast returning to the game series from the show, as well as new ones for the Forresters. All of which do a spectacular job, then the music is pretty damn impressive thanks to Jared-Emerson-Johnson and of course, the original music from the show.
The Verdict
Episode 1 goes out with a bang, leaving on a brutal cliffhanger and vengeance screaming. With the rest of the 6-part series meaning to take place all the way till the opener of Season 5, there’s tons of room for the story to go and I for one, will be there every step of the way. Telltale, you’ve done it again.
