Game of Thrones Season One
Did you win, or die?
RELEASED OUT NOW! Publisher Telltale Games
Reviewed on Xbox One
Also on Xbox 360, Ps3, Ps4, PC, Mobile
videogame There came a moment, towards the climax of Episode Six: The Ice Dragon, when we suspected that we’d made a colossal mistake. Maybe even several. Ten minutes later, the tale of our Forrester clan was being neatly recapped by a handful of key GoT characters telling of their interactions. We smirked at remembering acts of defiance, and near-wistfully recalling fallen allies we’d turned on and sold out. No regrets. This obscure family may not meet the happiest of endings (what did you expect?) but it feels true to Westeros.
The collection of interlocking plotlines through the series serves almost as a greatest hits compilation of familiar locations – the Wall, King’s Landing, Meereen – as well as teasing a few others, such as when you head deep into Wildling country in search of the (whispers) North Grove. Spoiler: what you do find is essentially a small shark for you to leap over.
It also puts you face-to-face with some of GoT’s biggest names, voice-acted by their HBO counterparts. Of course, interactions with them are largely tangential – can’t mess with canon, after all – but they help ground the series in the fictional universe. Given the scope of the source material, it feels wholly probable that there are scores of families like House Forrester – absent almost entirely even from the books – with a story to tell.
Granted, it’s not always told with the greatest of technical or aesthetic skill. We never warmed to the smudgy, painterly art style. Your decisions might not always feel as gutwrenching as Telltale would like. But people can (and often do) live or die based on your choices, and you’ll develop an attachment to this little family that could. Or could they? Who it is that gets the iron from that ice is ultimately in your hands. Emma Davies
We’ve reviewed individual episodes before, but we’d recommend you play the series as a whole – it’s worth the effort!