Game of Thrones: Genesis

Well, after spending half my afternoon trying to get the game to run to an ok level (be very careful with graphics level, screen res, and frame rate in the games Options menu), I started the campaign to play through the first few levels. Suffice to say, I was not impressed. The game doesn’t feel very fluid and is more linear than you would expect from an RTS.

 Probably the most disappointing aspect of this game, being a big fan of the ‘A Song Of Ice and Fire’ series, is the sheer lack of depth involved with the game. When I first heard about its production, the concept sounded promising, with battles, sabotage, alliances, underhand methods, interesting characters, etc. but instead, all you get are ‘bastard son’ and ‘lord’ and what-not. You really don’t feel like you have your own kingdom, just a boring, basic castle that you have very little control over and alliances with villages (which means not a lot in this game, yet at the same time is the whole aim too).

 I even tried going straight to the versus mode, where you can have all the different Houses of Westeros battling it out. What an utter waste of time. You can only go to parts of Westeros where there is something to do (such as a village or a gold mine to form an alliance with (and how does someone actually form an Alliance with a gold mine or an abandoned tower anyway!)) and this really makes the game as Linear as can be. Not only that, but the game was all but over before I got to do anything interesting, making playing time much shorter than you would like. No epic story here, just dull generic things happening.  

 If you are considering buying this game, save your money and read the books again. Hopefully a decent RTS game for ‘A Song Of Ice and Fire’ will come out in another 15 years time.