The Telltale Stark

This article contains Minor Spoilers for the First Episode of the Telltale Game of Thrones video game and for the song of Ice & Fire series.

You may have first heard of Telltale Games through The Walking Dead series.  These games are essentially visual novels, where you are asked to make decisions for characters at certain points in time, often under the pressure of a timer.  Aside from the occasional quick time event, your "success" or "failure" often comes down to the consequences of these decisions.  I was never a huge fan of The Walking Dead so I passed on picking it up, but when I heard there was a Game of Thrones version coming out earlier this month it caught my interest.  The genre had finally been meshed with subject matter I could really get behind, and after the first chapter, I wasn't disappointed.

The game is broken down into six episodes which are released periodically to form the entire story.  During the first episode you take control of three characters related to the Forrester House, bannermen to the Starks during the War of the Five Kings which occupies the majority of the second and third books of the series.  Gared Tuttle, squire to Lord Gregor Forrester is serving alongside the Stark army when he is forced back to Ironrath, the seat of House Forrester, with a grim message for his Uncle Duncan, the castellan.  Gared is a young man of humble beginnings, relatively unskilled at swordplay but knowledgeable of combat from his time as squire.  Much of the swordplay and "combat" is concentrated in his storyline.  

However fans of Game of Thrones should know the tension in the series doesn't always come at the edge of a sword, but at the tip of a tongue.  Balancing diplomacy and deceit among a cast of characters that each have their own agenda is part of the political intrigue in GoT, and to play is first-hand got my heart racing.  While Gared's decisions often revolve around loyalty and honor, the duplicitous nature of Westeros politics takes precedence in the other two characters of the first episode.  

Ethan Forrester is the third son of Lord Gregor, but is forced into the role of leading the house in his father and elder brother's absence.  He is surrounded by competent men who each have their own opinions on the best form of leadership, including the diplomatic Castellan Duncan, the stoic Maester Ortengryn, and the stubborn master-at-arms Ser Royland.  Who you choose to take council from in critical moments will shape the young leader, and there are plenty of critical moments for Ethan and House Forrester as he tries to navigate his family through a sea of shifting alliances.

Mira is called before Cersei & Tyrion in King's Landing.

Ethan's older sister Mira is handmaiden to Margeary Tyrell, the betrothed of King Joffrey Baratheon.  While Ethan has the backing of his ancestral family lineage behind his decisions, Mira is in uncharted territory at King's Landing.  There are eyes and ears everywhere, and several characters have something to offer her... if she can trust them.  Her mother writes to her hoping she can pull some strings with Margeary to benefit House Forrester in these troubled times, but from the onset of her storyline it becomes apparent that task will be nowhere near easy.  Within minutes of adopting Mira's character she is called before Queen Regeant Cersei Lannister to vouch for her family's loyalty to the crown.  Cersei hurls volley after volley at Mira in quick succession, all in the presence of Margeary and Tyrion Lannister, Master of Coin.  It's one of the most tense moments in game, and the part I most want to replay for fear I may have inadvertently pissed of the wrong person, without even being fully aware of it.  So much is said in the sideways glances and the silence between decisions that even when I'm pretty sure I emerged unscathed, I'm left with doubt.  You may know if your answers pleased Cersei from the prompts in the upper-left of the screen, but what does Margeary really think of how you handled yourself?  Or Tyrion?  And what of your fellow handmaiden Sera, is she to be trusted?

One of the criticisms I've seen in the forums of the first episode is that none of your decisions bear consequential fruit right away.  The episode's thrilling end is the same regardless of your decisions, though with five more episodes to come, it's certain the choices highlighted at the end will affect the story in the future, such as Ethan's punishment for a man accused of thievery.  Even innocuous decisions such as whether to pocket a key weigh on my mind.  What implications could this have down the road?  Will I encounter some door I can't open without it?  Will someone notice the key is gone and suspect me or treachery?

An early concern I had about the game was that it would shoehorn in popular characters from the show just for the sake of having them in there.  However the retinue in King's Landing weaves itself perfectly into the personal plot of the Forresters, without detracting from the main plot set forth in the books.  The voice acting is solid and adds to the tension if you're a fan of the television adaptation, since you know the wrong word at a particular moment could mean a beheading (or debearding).  If you're concerned that the story will be mired in King's Landing and Ironrath, worry not.  There are still two more playable characters in the overall series that haven't been introduced, including the exiled Asher Forrester in Essos, where Daenerys Targaryen is becoming a rising star in Slaver's Bay.  There's also good reason to believe we'll be seeing the Night's Watch of The Wall, though more than that I won't say.

I picked the game up on sale over Steam, and I'm really eager to play the second episode, slated to release in January, in the hopes of finally seeing some of the consequences of my decisions.  Fans of the show to consider this game, particularly if they enjoyed The Walking Dead or visual novels, though those unfamiliar with Game of Thrones might be lost a bit regarding some of the more important events in the game.  The first episode clocked in around two-and-a-half hours for me, and with five more to go that means a full playthrough will be the better part of a day.