Game of thrones video game complete let down....

[TheCube]

I'm still playing, when time allows, and it's pretty good.

The graphics are last Gen, but the story is A1.

Voice acting is hit and miss. Game play is okay.

All told, it's worth playing for the story alone.

[Gingerly Grumkin]

I invested a good forty hours in, game play wise everything do able. Honest this game for fans of the books and the show. I swore this was written by Mr Martin himself. Hell heeven make a cameo in the game.

I will tell you this since game-play was not poorly executed, and story amazing fit quite well into universal. But honest if he planing on making one of ending canon that would be very interesting.

I'm still playing, when time allows, and it's pretty good.

The graphics are last Gen, but the story is A1.

Voice acting is hit and miss. Game play is okay.

All told, it's worth playing for the story alone.

Bet! Thanks! I'll go buy it ($65! WTF! No used!) in 20 min

[TheCube]

I forgot to mention one complaint I have though...

King Targaryen... See Westford... That's not how those titles work. Grrr.

[Lord of the Night]

I've watched some gameplay videos for this and I agree, its really bad looking. Thus I do not want to waste my money that I could spend on books getting this, so can somebody possibly tell me the outline of the plot? Apparantely that is the only good thing, but since Martin wrote it that's a given.

LotN

[Baelor Blackfyre]

I've watched some gameplay videos for this and I agree, its really bad looking. Thus I do not want to waste my money that I could spend on books getting this, so can somebody possibly tell me the outline of the plot? Apparantely that is the only good thing, but since Martin wrote it that's a given.

LotN

Like a spoiler free summary? Or an outline detailing what exactly happens?

[Lord of the Night]

Like a spoiler free summary? Or an outline detailing what exactly happens?

Exactly what happens, I know bastards play a big role in it but nothing other then that.

LotN

[ABongofIceandFire]

Aww man, not another bad ASOIAF game. I still want some company to make a good RTS out of this universe. The absolute best case scenario would be if the guys behind the Total War series (Creative Assembly) managed to pick up this license. Can't think of another company that has the potential to do this series justice. The Total War-style gameplay would fit perfectly with the medium and large-scale battles of this series and the map conquest system would be perfect for all the political intrigues that make ASOIAF interesting.

[Lady Storm]

So I started playing 2 days ago, almost gave up after an hour or so, but since I usually give games a second run, I continued and now I'm playing it and enjoying.

The graphics are not good, some voices are good, some are terrible.

The fighting is...new? And a bit off? It annoyed the hell out of me until I figured out some ways to use it strategically. The wasd and mouse seem to be off-sync (but maybe that's just my computer, although Skyrim works perfectly well).

But I like the story, I like the attention to ASOIAF details they give (Chataya was a nice surprise), I like walking around Mole's town tunnels and I like warging and I like running trough the tunnels of Red Keep, and I'm quite annoyed that I'm her bitch, but hey :)

It's not the best game ever and it's not the books brought to life, but for a game it's fine. There are others that are better, and there are other that are worse. This one has a bonus for being nice because I can pretend to be in Westeros. If you don't expect anything more, you might find it a very pleasant experience.

[Eduardo]

Exactly what happens, I know bastards play a big role in it but nothing other then that.

LotN

The game wasn't written by GRR, he only checked it to see that it didn't break canon, and suggest some tweaks. The plot is by the Cyanide writers.

From a Joystiq interview:

"The entire game was written by Cyanide, including the plot and character dialogue. But I did have creative input at many points during the process," Martin told Joystiq. When he met with members of Cyanide to review the game's design document, he made sure that the experience wouldn't break canon. "What they're doing is a parallel story to some of the early events in Ice and Fire, so my primary concern was that nothing in the game altered the events in the books."

So, plot points, chapter by chapter.

- Note: Alester's chapters are set months before Mors's ones, until (spoiler) the point where they reunite.

SPOILERS for the entire game:

Chapter I - For This Night and All the Nights to Come

- You play as Mors Westford, a brother of the Night's Watch for 15 years. He has always at his side his faithful dog.

- You hunt an oathbreaker, take him back to Castle Black and execute him.

- You start training the new recruits.ts to Come

- You play as Mors Westford, a brother of

- Mormont orders you to track another brother, who is patrolling near Icemark. He is called Cregan, he raped one of the new recruits and attacked him leaving him almost near death to cover his crime.

- Upon arriving in Icemark, you discover wildlings are there, a tribe led by Gorn. They are trying to open the Icemark Gate to allow more wildlings into the Seven Kingdoms.

- Two of the recruits die fighting the wildlings, a third that was left in a lookout position with a bow goes missing, and you manage to kill Gorn. But you are surrounded by his minions, and nearing death.

- Luckily, you are rescued by Quorin Halfhand and his archers, who were tracking these wildlings.

Chapter II - For All the Days Gone By

- You play as Alester Sarwyck, a Red Priest returning home after 15 years away. You are the eldest son of Lord Raynald Sarwyck of Riversrping, and you have come home for your father's funeral, having been contacted by Maester Harwyn.

- You find Riversrping in turmoil, there is hunger in the streets and talks of a revolt. It seems when you left you broke your father's heart, and your sister, Elyana Sarwyck, had to carry his duties.

- When reaching the Castle, you meet your cousin, Ryman Sarwyck, captain of the City Guard. He is not happy to see you, as he feels you abandon your duties long ago. Maester Harwyn intercedes and takes you to the Godswood to pay respects to your father.

- You find from Elyana and Harwyn that the situation is worse than you supposed. Your brother Gawen is suspected of poisoning your father, and your sister, eager to keep Riverspring in the Sarwyck family, has agreed to marry his bastard half-brother, Valarr.

- Valarr, your half brother and former squire during Robert's Rebellion, has risen to become one of Queen Cersei's favorites, who supports this marriage arrangement. It seems he has learn some dark arts after years of studies in the Citadel.

- A riot starts in Riverspring, and you manage with the help of Ryman to stop it, taking sides with the common people, the nobles or the City Guard.

- You decide to travel to King's Landing to track down your brother, ask for your title to be reinstated and ask the Queen to stop the marriage.

Chapter III - Between a Hunter and His Prey

- As Mors, you investigate what happened to the recruit that went missing in battle. You track him down using your dog (you are a warg) , and kill him while he was attacking a girl in the woods, intending on deserting.

- You return to Castle Black, where Mormont informs you that you have a letter from Jon Arryn, the King's Hand. You fight alongside Arryn during Robert's Rebellion under the orders of your liege lord, Tywin Lannister, who wanted a foot in each camp.

- Arryn asks you to protect a girl hidden in a brothel in Mole's Town. He is sending one of his men, Ser Godric Gonnerly, to keep her safe.

- You meet with Gonnerly and agree to help him and his men on his task to find and protect the girl.

- Mormont informs you that a crow has arrived, bearing the news of Jon Arryn's death.

Chapter IV - The Lion's Will

- As Alester, you arrived at King's Landing. You are ambushed by a local gang, the Reapers, Axe, one of them, informs you that there is a price on your brother's head, accused of kinslaying.

- You arrived at Sarwyck Manse, to find a crowd outside it. The Gold Cloaks are there, questioning the servants and searching the house.

- Valarr kills one of the servant girls, who couldn't answer where Gawen is.

- You speak with Valarr, and let him know you intend to stop him.

- The Gold Cloaks seal the Manse, and refuse to let you in. You find out from a servant that you could enter through a cellar door.

- Searching the Manse, you find a hidden letter mentioning Falena, a whore that works at Chataya's brothel. You battle and killed some Gold Cloaks.

- While in the brothel, you meet Varys the Spider, who is also concerned with Valarr's rise to power in the Queen's court.

- Falena lets you know that your brother was worried, and tried to go to the Red Keep to deal with the accusations.

- When you are leaving the brothel, a bunch of Gold Cloaks arrive to arrest you for killing some guards.

- After some time rotting in the dungeons of the Red Keep, Varys sets you free and provides you with the means to reach the Throne Room, using secret passages built by Maegor.

- Your escape impress Cersei, and you swear loyalty to her, in exchange for restoring your title and rights.

Chapter V - Beauty and the Beast

- As Mors, you travel to Mole's Town with Ser Godric to track the girl.

- You find her hiding in the tunnels under Mole's Town, but she reveals that Ser Godric is an impostor, having met the real one in King's Landing. You defeat the false Ser Godric and his men, but the impostor manages to escape.

- With the help of another brother, Patrek, you fight your way back to Castle Black against Ser Godric's men & against some brothers of the Watch he has corrupted with gold.

Chapter VI - The Crown's Dog

- As Alester, the Queen orders you to work alongside Valarr. She wants you to recover some papers in the possession of a criminal hiding under the alias of "The Mother Hen"

- Valarr introduces you to his men, the Bloodseekers. Together, you arrive at a pottery shop looking for a boy, Harry Waters, a protégé of the Hen. When you find him, a group of men under the orders of the Mother Hen arrives and protects him.

- You defeat them and track down Harry to Hen's House, a shabby inn in Flea Bottom.

- You discover that the Mother Hen is really Ser Godric Gonnerly, and he is acting under the orders of Jon Arryn. He accuses the Queen of betrayal, and fights you.

- You ended up killing everyone in the inn, including the young Harry Waters, under the Queen's order.

- You find the papers Cersei wanted. They mentioned that Arryn sent a young woman, Jeyne Greystone, to the North, to keep her safe from Cersei. Valarr orders one of his men to travel North under the guise of Ser Godric.

- Queen Cersei lets you know that whoever deals with the girl, will get Riverspring.

- Outside the Throne Room, you meet Lord Arwood Harlton of Castlewood, an old friend of your father.

Chapter VII - Stray Dog

- As Mors, Mormont orders you to deal with the fake Ser Godric, and protect the girl, Jeyne Greystone. He names you a recruiter of the Watch, to allow you to travel the Seven Kingdoms.

- Traveling to Mole's Town, you came across some corrupted brothers beating another who refused Godric's gold. After dealing with them, the uncorrupted crow leads you to where Patrek, one of the fake Ser Godric's lieutenants, is offering bribes.

- You learn that the fake Ser Godric is called Yohn, and he is one of Valarr's men.

- After killing Patrek, you track down to the brothel in Mole's Town more corrupted brothers and deal with them.

- Alongside some brothers, you attack Yohn's camp and kill him and his men.

- You decide to travel South with Jeyne, who you find out was one of King Robert's lovers.

- You take Jeyne to a small cottage in the Riverlands, where you hide your family fifteen years ago after disobeying an order from Tywin Lannister. You took the Black to further protect them from harm.

- The cottage is in ruins, and you find the graves of your wife and daughter behind it. You spent fifteen years in The Wall to protect them and they were long dead.

- You discover Jeyne is pregnant.

- Then your dogs barks, warning of attackers nearing the cottage.

Chapter VIII - A New Hope

- As Alester, you meet Lord Harlton at his residence in King's Landing. He is curious about your brother's fate, and lets you know what he found out. His leads take you to the sewers of King's Landing, where you cross paths with the Reapers again. They were hired to kill a young bastard hiding in the sewers, Cedric Rivers, and when their leader, Orys, went to collect payment he was arrested by the Gold Cloaks. In the sewers you find a medallion belonging to your brother.

- Disguised as a Gold Cloak, you infiltrate the City Watch Tower to question Orys. There you find a body dressed in Sarwyck clothes, a man that was protecting the boy. Your brother is dead.

- From Orys, you find out that the Reapers were hired under the orders of Janos Slynt, who acted on behalf of Valarr.

- You shared what you discovered with Lord Harlton, and both of you wonder why Cersei is hunting bastards.

- Lord Harlton has a lead, he knows Jon Arryn was interested in a book about the lineages of the Seven Kingdoms. He knows a maester that could provide a copy of the book, but he needs a favor.

- You visit the Arena, an underground fighting circuit in the sewers of King's Landing. The maester owes too much, and he asks you to fight on his behalf in an arena match to deal with his debt once and for all.

- After defeating your rival, the maester gives you the book and you return to Lord Harlton's place. There you discover the Queen's secret: the bastards are Robert's, but the heirs to the throne aren't.

- Lord Harlton reveals that he leads the Brotherhood, a group of lords that are working to restore the Targaryen to power, tired of Robert's ruling. Your father was a member. He asks you to travel back to Riverspring and search for your father's secret papers.

- Back at Riverspring, you discover how Gawen's last day on Riverspring went. He had discovered his father's role in the Brotherhood, asked to join but Lord Sarwyck had disinherited him.

- After solving some riddles and secret passages, you find your father's papers and return to Riverspring.

- Harlton lets you know his plan: Jeyne Greystone is a bastard daughter of the Mad King, and her baby can claim the Iron Throne.

Chapter IX - Promise

- As Mors, back at the cottage, you fight the Bloodseekers. Help arrives in the form of Harlton's men, who had a spy in the Bloodseekers, and they offer to take Jeyne to Castlewood, where a maester (that looks like GRR!) will help her.

- You confirm that the father of Jeyne's baby is King Robert.

- Arriving at Castlewood, you dinner with Lord Harlton. He reveals that he arranged Robert meeting Jeyne in a hunting trip, and getting him drunk so he could produce an heir both Targaryen and Baratheon, to rally support from both sides.

- Lord Harlton drugged Mors' food, and he is taken to the dungeons, where he is tortured for information.

- You use your dog to help another prisoner escape.

Chapter X - Crossroads

- As Alester, you are tired of waiting for Lord Harlton to speak with you.

- While having your loyalty tested by Harlton's niece, a man claiming to be your brother appears. He says that Harlton had him imprisoned for weeks, torturing him for information. The man in the sewers was an impostor, away for Lord Harlton to manipulate you into getting your father's papers back.

- Gawen asks you to help free another prisoner, who helped him escape.

- Harlton was the one that poisoned your father, after his refusal of involving an innocent girl like Jeyne in their plans.

- You infiltrate the dungeons, and discover that the prisoner is no other than Mors, your old partner during the Robert's Rebellion.

- Sadly, one of Harlton's men kills Gawen.

- Alongside Mors, you try to rescue Jeyne, but are forced to flee Castlewood by jumping out of a window.

Chapter XI - Breaking Point

- As Alester and Mors, you speak of the past. Fifteen years ago, Lord Tywin Lannister ordered Mors to kill Rhaegar's wife and children, but he refused. Knowing his lord's wrath, Mors was ready to be killed but Alester convinced him to take the Black. Mors hide his family in a remote cottage and asks Alester to protect them.

- Alester said that he was the one that buried them, that he had failed his duty and he guessed some rogues have killed them when coming across the cottage.

- They return to Riverspring, to find it overrun by Bloodseekers. Valarr's marriage to Alester's sister is happening, after he told everyone that Alester was dead.

- You fight your way into the castle, and confront Valarr's lies. Mors aks for a trial by combat, and manages to defeat Valarr, but a shadow in the shape of a man appears and stabs him in the back, killing him.

- Valarr reveals to Mors that it was him that killed his family.

- Valarr threatens Elyana so Alester will reveal where the Targaryen girl is. Alester tells she is in Castlewood, but Valarr kills Elyana anyway.

- Valarr orders his men to kill anyone that witnessed this, and has Alester locked in his father's coffin in the catacombs under the castle, to die a slow death.

Chapter XII - Fight Fire with Fire

- As Alester, you are rescued by your cousin from your father's coffin.

- Valarr has left for Castlewood.

- You free some loyal men from the dungeons and disguise yourself as a Bloodseeker to open the castle doors and retake it.

- After defeating the Bloodseekers, you pay your respects to Mors by performing the kiss of fire.

- Mors is resurrected.

Chapter XIII - Bound

- As Mors and Alester, you travel to Castlewood. Taking advantage of the confusion created by Valarr attacking the castle, you infiltrate and manage to find Jeyne Greystone. While trying to flee, she delivers her baby, a healthy male.

- You fight Lord Harlton and his men, killing most of them. But Lord Harlton is slain by a shadow in the shape of a man. Valarr is in the castle.

- Alester takes the baby and Mors tries to help Jeyne escaping, but she sacrifices herself to allow the rest to escape. She thinks that considering that Valarr doesn't know she gave birth, if he kills her now, the baby will be safe.

- Jeyne attacks Valarr, who easily kills her. Valarr is surprised to see Mors alive.

- Mors, Alester and the baby return to Riverspring. Maester Harwyn informs that King Robert I is dead, and they decide to travel to King's Landing to settle their scores with Valarr.

Chapter XIV - Light and Shadow

- Alester and Mors arrivd at King's Landing, finding it overrun by Lannister soldiers. After some fighting, they reach the pottery shop where they were supposed to meet Maester Harwyn and the baby, but he is not there.

- They track him down to a secluded spot where Varys is waiting alongside Harwyn.

- Varys offers his help in getting Valarr in the Throne Room. He has spread the rumor that the baby is still alive and that Alester is going to present him to Queen Cersei after Ned Stark's execution, to lure Valarr into a trap.

- Varys also offers a lead in dealing with the shadows: a valyrian steel weapon is needed. Alester and Mors tracked down an old friend living in King's Landing who has one.

- Alester and Mors use a secret passage in the sewers to reach the Red Keep's dungeons, where they fight Red cloaks and some members of the Alchemist's Guild. They use another secret passage to reach the Throne Room, where Valarr awaits.

- Mors and Alester fight Valarr and his shadows, defeating them. But before dying, Valarr reveals that he killed Mors' daughter, but that it was Alester who killed Mors' wife.

- Mors kills Valarr, his body laying on the Iron Throne

Chapter XV - Old Scar

- As Alester, fifteen years ago, you approach the cottage alongside Valarr. Lord Lannister has ordered you to kill Mors' family, a duty you dread but Valarr loves.

- While Valarr kills the little girl, you deal with Mors' wife.

- Angrily at Valarr's pleasure, you strike him with your sword, putting a scar on his face.

- Fill with guilt, you abandon Westeros and your family, and join the Red Priests.

Chapter XVI - Ice and Fire

- A duel to the death between Mors and Alester. Whoever wins is decided by you.

- After only one remains, Varys approaches with the baby, asking what will you do.

Epilogue - Choices

- As Mors, you can give the baby to Varys to take care of him in the Free Cities, You return to your duties at The Wall, where you execute one of your brothers that tried to desert, Patrek, who fought by your side. This breaks you inside, and you scare the new batch of recruits.

- As Mors, you can choose to take the baby. You hide in the old cottage, planning on raising him. The dog barks and you hear men outside, coming from you and the baby. You grab your sword.

- As Alester, you can give the baby to Varys to take care of him in the Free Cities, to honor Mors. When confronted by Queen Cersei, you refuse to tell of the baby's fate, and are killed by Cersei's guards.

- As Alester, you present the baby to Queen Cersei, who gives it to his guards to deal with. She reinstates your titles and names you Lord of Riverspring. But the price you paid was too high and guilt eats you. In your room, you stare at the fire, while a noose hanging in the roof awaits you.

[Lord of the Night]

Hm very interesting. I wonder if this will play any role in Winds of Winter or Dream of Spring.

LotN

[Baelor Blackfyre]

I read somewhere that Martin is considering have a name drop towards Mors or Alester, but that's about it.

And to Eduardo, I don't know if you got that off the internet or wrote it yourself; but if you did write it yourself, that was an amazing plot summary! Great job!

[Eduardo]

Hm very interesting. I wonder if this will play any role in Winds of Winter or Dream of Spring.

LotN

I think this bit answers that:

http://grrm.livejournal.com/279996.html?thread=15978940#t15978940

Mr. Martin,

Is the story in this game considered canon?

grrm wrote:May. 16th, 2012 05:50 am (UTC) Re: I can't wait to buy this game!

Only the novels (and the Dunk & Egg novellas) are canon.The videogames, the board games, the card games, the comic book, even the television shows... all great in their own right, I hope, but still secondary. The books are canon. Nothing else.

[Ran]

Use spoiler code, please. See the board FAQ for instructions

[Eduardo]

Use spoiler code, please. See the board FAQ for instructions

Sorry, will do. On the subject, I tried to, but I run into some glitchs while posting (for example, using the full editor it didn't allow me to hit the post or preview button, and while trying to edit, it broke into html code.

[Nick Of Troy]

Heh, it's already on sale at 30% off over here... I lasted 20 minutes 'till I got stuck in a wall while hunting Wildlings

[Cirdan]

Imho, the CRPG is ok. It could have been better. But it's decent enough. I've played a lot of worst games paid at full price.

[Ser_not_appearing_yet]

The game is actually decent. The graphics and animations are all fairly poor but that aspect of games doesn't interest me much. The gameplay isn't bad at all really. And the story is excellent, they did a good job integrating things and giving you genuine choices in-game. Better than Dragon Age 2 for me.

ASOIAF fans should pick it up IMO, not full price though. Wait till the price drops.

[Werthead]

About 8 hours in. As others have said, iffy graphics and ropey combat, not to mention some painful dialogue. The story is pretty good and rings true for the world of Westeros. There are some problems with atmosphere and setting however. As someone else mentioned, the oversized armour looks goofy and nothing like ASoIaF's more historically-accurate approach. Also, Alester's abilty to use fire spells at will and talk to people hundreds of miles away through flames seems very overpowered for Westeros, and rather immersion-breaking. It also doesn't help that there is no real sense of geography to King's Landing, just a morass of courtyards and alleys with no big streets, carts, horses etc.

It is also very odd that they use two characters with the correct TV actors voicing them (James Cosmo and Conleth Hill as Mormont and Varys) but then don't with the third (Cersei isn't voiced by Lena Headey, and doesn't seem to be based on her appearance either) and that they base some of the exterior of the Red Keep and Castle Black on the TV versions, but the interiors are completely different (the different throne room but the TV Iron Throne being present is a weird mash-up). It definitely feels like a weird collision between the novels and the TV series, with it feeling like the TV stuff was tacked on afterwards. Pretty much every reference in the game is to the books (the civil war being 15 years earlier, not 17; the 'Others' being mentioned, not the 'White Walkers'; Stannis and Jon Arryn working together which they never did in the TV series etc) and it would probably have been better to have kept the TV stuff out of it altogether.

It seems that with the success of the HBO series and exploding popularity of the books, the property would be much more attractive at this point in time to a developer with more/better resources.

It's not clear how well the first game has done sales-wise. However, I think it's good enough that Cyanide can build on it. By investing in better graphics, better writers (or better translators) and working a lot more on the atmosphere of the books, they could really do something impressive with the sequel. The analogy I have is that Game of Thrones is very similar to The Witcher: immense amounts of unfulfilled potential (including some of the exact same problems, such as ropey dialogue and awful combat) but enough good stuff to be built on for the future. The only difference is that I'd say GoT is better than The Witcher (1, I hasten to add, not 2 obviously).

Aww man, not another bad ASOIAF game. I still want some company to make a good RTS out of this universe. The absolute best case scenario would be if the guys behind the Total War series (Creative Assembly) managed to pick up this license. Can't think of another company that has the potential to do this series justice. The Total War-style gameplay would fit perfectly with the medium and large-scale battles of this series and the map conquest system would be perfect for all the political intrigues that make ASOIAF interesting.

Westeros: Total War (a professional-level mod based on Medieval II: Total War) is being worked on right now. Check the link in my sig.

Hm very interesting. I wonder if this will play any role in Winds of Winter or Dream of Spring.

Probably not. I wouldn't be surprised to see a mention of House Sarwyck of Riverspring at one point as a nod to the game, but probably not much more than that.

[Pete3t3]

Damn it why didn't I know of these reviews last week? I went out and spent 30 of my pounds on the game the other day. Don't get me wrong the decision making aspect of the game is brilliant in my opinion, you can spend 20 mins talking to people and getting really engrossed in the game then all of a sudden some one needs to be stabbed in the face and you realise the gameplay is not good. I'm not a fan of RPG's anyway, I prefer to do the attacks instead of picking what attacks to do while my character does the hard work if that makes sense? I loved the idea of 'skyrimming' around Westeros and getting into all sorts of shenanigans and debauchery but it just is a big 'why R'llor WHY!'. Unrelated note: Mint copy of A Game of Thrones for sale £25 if anyone is interested.

[Left Wondering Whether]

Does anyone have any good examples of when smaller decisions along the way impact the story? It seems like you get to the same ending options regardless, but I'm sure that all of the dialogue choices along the way must have some effect.