Does it come in purple?

SPOILER WARNING; The following will talk about the events that occur within the HBO series Game of Thrones which is tied in heavily into where the game goes in terms of plot. If you don’t want to know anything that occurs within it, then go and watch this instead and marvel at the amazing horse. It is amazing, give it a lick, hmm, it tastes like raisins….Anyway….

For those of you still brave enough to carry on, as before we continue waffling on, leaving behind the pretty picture of that certain chair which does wonders for your lower back…

Or in Bullseye terms, you have the time it takes for the board to revolve to see if you want to gamble…

So Game of Thrones, the Game, which was released some time ago after Telltale’s first venture in the world of Borderlands, which as it stands at the time of writing has only had one episode release. It’s taken some time to finally get to sit down and enjoy the world created by Mr. Martin and here is why;

This is a rather strange one to come back to as normally with Telltale’s episodic releases, they are played almost straight away and after a two and bit hours generally, once again after some button mashing, and various critical choices which have an impact on parts of the story being told to a certain degree.

But the main point, is that you may not know for sure about the particular franchise they present, and therefore they normally create an introduction to the world as well as the characters.

This game however, despite what some people say, will require you to have reached the end of series 4 of the TV series for certain events to make sense, even the opening scenes with one of the new characters introduced, take place during a certain bloody event at the end of series 3, therefore without context, you will struggle.

Look, it’s her off that show this game is about!

This new story tells of a new family, named House Forrester, a jolly lot from t’up north of West Bromwich, who have been loyal to the Starks of Winterfellover, aka that lot who Sean Bean headed up till well, he didn’t have a head any more.

The story begins during the final stages of series 3 of the TV show, therefore we first lay eyes on our characters during the War of the Five Kings, where after a hard day at it, everyone is having a good laugh and wanting to drink themselves silly at a wedding. A wedding for those you will remember, will have very dire consequences for the Starks and in turn, dire consequences for the Forresters too.

So who can you expect to play as in this series?

You’ll actually experience a few different points of view during the course of Episode 1, each a member of House Forrester. There is a slight further complication to proceeding in that the actions of one character can affect your choices when playing as the rest of House Forrester.

Press Q to not die. Press S to order pizza. Press Y to question everything.

During Epsiode 1, we get to have a nice time with three happy go lucky scamps, two t’up north in the form of Rodrik Forrester, a little guy who then becomes Lord of the Manor very quickly due to s**t going down at the bloody event mentioned before, Gared Tuttle who basically gets royally shafted as a result of doing the right thing, and then down in King’s Landing, handmaiden to Soon-to-be Queen Margaery Tyrell, Mira Forrester.

Unlike Borderlands, each time the character is introduced is a silent affair and unassuming which of course is more in keeping with the tone of the game, which of course, given the nature of Game of Thrones, is one more sombre and horrible. In fact this is going to be something which Telltale potentially would have struggled with.

They haven’t really gone full blown into Adult material like this before, always keeping to things more mainstream and accessible. So how does it work with their tried and tested story telling methodology while not also skimping back on what makes Game of Thrones the massive hit it is today?

Where’s the option for running away and crying?

Well, while it was never going to be an easy task to bring a new family into the mix while also ensuring they marry up to events from the TV series, they have given it a damn good go here, and for the most part, it’s pretty good. Getting involvement from the cast of the show mixed in with others adds a great deal of authenticity to the mix, while producing some excellent moments in its own right which would not be out of place within the environment of GoT.

The scene where you as Mira Forrester trade wits with Cersei Lannister, trying to appease her for the sake of Margaery while Tyrion Lannister just sits there making bad jokes and drinks is one of utter brilliance. Almost anything you say, coming with an excellent put down as you would expect from the former Queen. The aside which comes afterwards with Tyrion, potentially sets up some really interesting problems which may come back to bite you in the ass later on.

I personally had great fun with it, but again, I knew the events and also the characters, their motives etc. therefore it made it far more entertaining than it would for someone who knew nothing about GoT when getting the game.

But what of the new people themselves and indeed the gameplay?

The new characters in how they can act and so forth are going to need a bit more fleshing out and to find their feet as next to the established characters, they were left looking rather shabby in comparison at times. But it’s the first episode of something already ongoing, and therefore this was never going to be easy. But the main characters and supporting cast have enough about them to keep things interesting for the time being.

I’ve been in the scouts, I know s**t’s going down.

Also, just as a warning, be prepared to assume that not all the characters will make it to the end. This is Game of Thrones after all, and one character from the TV series you wouldn’t expect to show up, does and then just shows why he’s so f**ked up. Pure joy in many horrifying ways.

The gameplay is at least expanded a little from Borderlands, which was too much of a corridor which you could not change course at all, save for some dialogue choices.

Though it’s expanded in that you can walk around the place a bit more and explore again, a bit more. Beyond that, there is still going to be a lot where you will just sit back and watch. There aren’t really any mini games, you again have to mash keys and press arrow keys at certain points and the real choices in terms of dialogue are pretty binary in terms of what you would expect to happen.

Basically you can expect one angry choice, one calm appeasing choice, and then one in the middle of both. Silence rarely seems to be a valid choice here, despite it being given every time.

So all in all, would I say Telltale have produced the start to another winner here in terms of interactive storytelling, which is what their games have become? If you are a fan of Game of Thrones, oh yes. But if you’re not, this is too specific to get into and I would recommend you catch up with everything else first before playing this, otherwise it really won’t make sense.