Telltale Games built its name on choice-driven adventure games, and in 2014 it pointed that machinery at Westeros. Game of Thrones: A Telltale Games Series arrived on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Android, PC (Microsoft Windows), iOS, Mac, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, published by HBO and Telltale. It is a point-and-click adventure played in third person, single player, built on the HBO show and George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire.
Trailer, via IGDBcom.
House Forrester and Ironrath
You play as members of House Forrester, a noble family from the north of Westeros. They are bannermen to House Glover and have stayed loyal to House Stark of Winterfell for a long time. Their fortress is Ironrath.
The war of the Five Kings is the backdrop, and the Forresters end up on the losing side. That is the whole engine of the story. Rival houses and powerful enemies close in, and the family has to do everything in its power to keep from going under.
Five Characters, One House
Game of Thrones: A Telltale Games Series hands you five different members and allies of the Forresters. The game moves them from the halls of Ironrath to the courts of King’s Landing and the distant lands of Essos.
That spread is the best thing the game does. Ironrath is a cold northern hall under threat. King’s Landing is a court where a wrong word costs a head. Essos is far from home and far from help. Each location puts a Forrester in a different kind of danger, and the game never lets you settle into one.
Every choice ripples outward, shaping alliances, betrayals, and the ultimate fate of the beleaguered house.
The Weight of Every Choice
This is the Telltale formula at full stretch: talk, choose, live with it. The game is fantasy, historical and drama at once, and it wears all three. The point-and-click and adventure systems are simple. The pressure is not.
The Forrester cast is caught in the war of the Five Kings, and the game makes that position feel critical rather than decorative. Every character must do everything in their power to prevent their house from going under. That is a strong frame, and the game holds it.
| Episode | House | Setting |
|---|---|---|
| Ironrath arc | Forrester | The north |
| King’s Landing arc | Forrester allies | The capital |
| Essos arc | Forrester allies | Across the narrow sea |
What Holds It Back
The game is bound to the show’s world and the book’s, and it knows it. Game of Thrones: A Telltale Games Series rarely escapes the shadow of the material it adapts. The Forresters are new, but the war around them is not, and the game spends much of its time reacting to events a player already knows.
The five-character spread is ambitious. It also splits attention. Some Forresters get more room than others, and the King’s Landing and Essos threads can feel like errands next to the fight for Ironrath.
None of that sinks it. The house is the point, and the game never loses sight of that.
Key facts
– Release: 2014
– Developer: Telltale Games
– Publishers: HBO, Telltale Games
– Platforms: PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Android, PC (Microsoft Windows), iOS, Mac, Xbox 360, Xbox One
– Genres: point-and-click, adventure
– Themes: fantasy, historical, drama
– Mode: single player
– Critic aggregate: 7.5/10 (52 outlets)
Game of Thrones: A Telltale Games Series is a good adaptation that is stronger on atmosphere than on invention. The Forrester house gives the war a personal stake, and the choice system gives that stake teeth. It is not Telltale’s boldest work, and it leans hard on borrowed ground. But the fate of Ironrath is worth the trip.
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