Game Of Thrones RPG review

The Game of Thrones (GoT) is a book series written by George R.R. Martin, which had a more popular TV adaptation from HBO which really pushed this content to the masses. It has caused lots of fan fiction to be written as well as numerous attempts at making a decent video game out of it. It is not the issue of the world, just a tiny budget or disregard from the developers in our minds though. Enough rattling about overall expectations let’s dive into the Game of Thrones RPG and oh man, this game is a tough one to evaluate.

Game of Thrones RPG is an action role-playing video game. It is simultaneously on-going with the first book – Song of Ice and Fire.

The pros

The first thing that comes to mind is the visual depiction that the makers of this game have taken. The visual side needs a lot of getting used to. Do not mistake the improvement part since the game feels like it was designed to be such an eyesore. The combat part is also another huge bump in the head from the developers as it is wonky and tedious. Voice-acting feels like they just picked up random people somewhere in the bar to come and record their voices for characters. Let’s be honest, there are some people who like this game but even they have to admit that the visuals and combat are not the strongest sides of this game.

Funnily enough, the tutorial area at first seems nice but once one is done with an unofficial tutorial area and starts facing off some street thugs you come to a very quick realization that the tutorial didn’t teach you much about the ongoings of real-life experience with combat. This leads to a number of frustrating deaths until one finally gets a hang of the combat. Even then, it is not the best experience. However, weirdly enough the game becomes better as time passes. Once you get used to the quirky voice acting, ugly graphics, and clunky combat system you will start making out a glimmer of good writing in this game.

The game follows two characters. One is a brother of the Night’s Watch named Mors and the other is a Red Priest named Alester. Here we will not spoil the game since the story is the only decent thing this has going for it and if anyone is interested in playing we definitely recommend just setting the game to the lowest difficulty and steamroll just so one can go through the story quickly. Both protagonists are brought together by a stranger woman who is on the run. One thing to keep in mind is that the story ties really well with the first novel.

The cons

Unfortunately, this is where all of the good things that we can state about the game end. The result that we have here can hardly be considered a masterpiece. It is a subpar experience with a nice attempt at storytelling. There are several gruesome scenes as well as good enough control over the character speech lines. One way or another, the player gets to decide if Alester is a man of the people or a self-centered individual much like all of the typical Westeros lords.

Both of the characters have different skill sets as well as personalities. Mors has the ability to possess his ridiculously ugly dog (I’m sorry this has to be said) while Alester is your typical RPG fire mage who has the ability to call the favor of his god R’hllor and thus manipulate fire. This ends up with him shooting fireballs from his hands. Such powers are not common in the TV series nor books. However, the developers could not miss the opportunity to make a brother scene which is just funny to watch.

Overall, the experience is lacking. The overall design is quite lazy. The game is full of weird “hey wait a second that’s not how things work” moments like at some point there are around 4 to 6 NPCs constituting a riot in front of a castle. Combat, in general, is boring and uninteresting. It is solely dependant on status effects like bleed and what not. Put X status effect, use Z skill which amplifies it, and the combat is done. The game is an ugly and frustrating experience with a decent shot at telling a story, which is a saving grace of this game. It is mediocre to the core, however, we have played much worse.