Game of Thrones: Episode 1 - Iron From Ice Review

Game of Thrones: Episode 1 - Iron From Ice

Information:

Developers: Telltale Games

Publishers: Telltale Games

Platforms: Android, iOS, PC (Windows, OS X), PlayStation 3 PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

Average Completion Time: 2 hours

Type: Stand-Alone, Episodic
Modes: Single-Player
Genres/Perspective/Flow: Episodic, Point and Click, Interactive Drama, Graphic Adventure
Rating: N/A
Release Dates:
PC
WW: 2/12/14
PlayStation 4
NA: 2/12/14
EU: 3/12/14
Xbox 360 & Xbox One
WW: 3/12/14
PlayStation 3
NA: 9/12/14
EU: 10/12/14
Series: Game Of Thrones Telltale Series
Average Completion Time: 2 hours
Trophies/Achievements: 8 Trophies out of 49.
Other Editions: N/A
Additional: Review based on PlayStation 3 version.
Alternate Recommendations: Walking Deads, Wolf Among Us.
(Source: Wikipedia)

Synopsis:

Game of Thrones - A Telltale Games Series is a six part episodic game series set in the world of HBO's ground-breaking TV show. (Source: howlongtobeat.com)

Review:

Is Game of Thrones episode 1 a good representation of the universe in an interactive media or is it an enormous failure on the scope of the Walking Dead Survival Instinct?

Well to start this off by addressing the most important matter, the plot which centres around a briefly mentioned house in the Game of Thrones universe, known as House Forrester supporters of House Stark where it centres around key members of the household, in separate locations from King's Landing to the Forrester's Keep Ironrath.

The game starts on the night of 'The Red Wedding' and then proceeds to jump around the various characters of the house which the player will control from the Young Lord Ethan Forrester, who controls the house after his father's passing having the more interesting and dramatic parts that proves the more interesting and exciting being a more engaging character out of the three playable characters that is both fun to play and fun to watch; where on the other hand is Gared Tuttle who serves as squire for the house and has some of the most boring parts in the game despite them being action focused the character is just average and has no exciting characteristics about him. Lastly in King's Landing you get to play as Mira Forrester the eldest daughter of House Forrester, who serves Lady Magaery from the main series and while, not having the most interesting points of view she does have the most interaction with characters of the TV series, which leads to some fun results depending on your choices. 

Supporting character on one side can be great pieces of art having a range of traits that can be loved or hated from the calm and collected, Duncan to the fierce Royland who's temper made me shudder, but on another side characters like the Maester and Lord Gregor where boring and didn't draw me in very well. 

Now having got the main characters out the way, let's get on with the plot which while slow at first goes fast paced and enjoyable keeping me at the edge of my seat for most of the ride, right up until the dramatic conclusion, which was also helped by the amazing soundtrack most of the way with great scores that helped increase the drama and action scenes that will cause me to purchase the second part immediately due to a dripping and a great interactive narrative, even though some parts lost their touch mostly when playing as Gared for reasons mentioned above though at times I did feel that new comers to the Game of Thrones series could be thrown of as it relies heavily on the plot of the television's narrative. 

Not to mention the great performances of the cast of the Game of Thrones television series who play some characters from the original series starting with Ramsey, who mixes well into the plot as well as showing of his crueller side and sadistic nature well within character interaction, and lastly characters Tyrion and Cersei are featured within the plot greatly with Cersei's manipulative being as strong as ever and Tyrion's wit being just as funny despite their character models looking like a candle was squashed against there face. 

Now linking of what I previously said the character models of those two characters is not something to be desired while both Ramsey and Margaery having great models looking just like the actors from the show. While the main cast and supporting cast of characters had great models and designing that fit well within the universe of Game of Thrones while having unique look to them having the famous Telltale style. 

The environment though while looking great at times has a few issues mainly in the texture error department from textures popping in and out to some going pixelated, at times either on purpose or not, doesn't matter though, as it looked really ugly and breaked my immersion often.

Now as you know this is a Telltale episodic game so mechanics stay the same, and if you don't know this is a point and click adventure game with some quick time events and dialogue choice options that can have great effect on the rest of the story depending on player choice, no matter how small or large which is great but I would like to see at least something different as the formula is starting to get boring and feeling like a copy and paste as time moves on.

 But there was one problem I had with game which was during some of the more hectic scenes the frame rate would drop drastically, causing me to fail many quick time events and broke my immersion often.  

In conclusion Game of Thrones is a great addition to the Fire and Ice Universe thanks to some good story telling and character engagement, but falls short in immersion breaking thanks to texture issues, poor character models at some moments and copy n paste game play. 

Verdict:

Characters/Story: 8.4

Gameplay: 6.6

Visuals: 7.4

 Soundtrack: 8.2

Final Score: 7.8/10 (Good)