“When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die.”
Each house in George R.R. Martin’s fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire, from which the Game of Thrones television series is an adaptation of and in turn the game is in continuity with, has its own motto. The above quote is not the motto of any specific house or person but of the series as a whole. From Cersei Lannister’s mouth to Ned Stark’s ears, it has proven to be quite true again and again.
“Iron From Ice” — for which the episode is named — is the motto of House Forrester, bannermen to the Starks. Evoking the cold nature of their lieges’ own saying “Winter is coming,” it speaks of the hard, unbending nature of their house. It also speaks of the Ironwood forests for which they are in charge and from which comes the strongest boats and shields. This resource makes their family an asset to the power players in the Weteros game of thrones, but not a power themselves. The house teeters on the edge of destruction.
Telltale’s Game of Thrones is not for the uninitiated. The events of Telltale’s Game of Thrones run parallel to the end of the third season of the television show and the beginning of that show’s fourth season. One is lost enough in having to maneuver the dangerous political waters with guile and subtlety without having to be thrown into the end game of a usurpation and a five sided war. These complications will turn back all those not acquainted with the source material.
Everything is joyous and hopeful on the night of a certain famous wedding at the Twins, a castle consisting of two towers on separate sides of a river, but then everything goes to hell as anyone who has been watching the show knows. Suddenly the merit of all those “he will remember that” notifications that are common to Telltale’s adventure games are put into question as the members of House Forrester are cut down before your eyes.
You play as Gered Tuttle, Lord Forrester’s own squire. Left with a message and a mission you head back to his family’s lands. However, this is no simple quest. Soon you are playing as Ethan Forrester, third son and now the Lord of House Forrester, having to navigate the delicate business of running the place while in a position weakened by the losses at the wedding and your previous allegiances with the House Forrester’s rivals, the Whitehills, now no longer certain. Your mother asks for help from her eldest daughter and now you are playing as Mira Forrester, handmaiden to Margaery Tyrell who is to be the new queen in a few days time, down in King’s Landing, the capital.
Again, Telltale’s Game of Thrones is not for the uninitiated. The opening text scrawl is only tells the player when in the timeline the game is taking place, not the details of how we got there. Ramsey Snow, Cersei Lannister, and fan favorite Tyrion Lannister make their cameo appearances and anchor what connection the events you are playing out have to the politics of Westeros overall, but also show how completely outclassed you are.
You’re playing the parts of people who themselves are playing parts. You are playing the squire, playing a soldier. You are playing the child, playing a lord. You are playing the handmaiden, playing an ambassador. Each is not playing the game of thrones, they are pieces in the games of others. Their concerns will not determine the fate of the Seven Kingdoms, only their House’s place within these events. It is said that the northerners are much too direct to be players in the game proper. In a way, this directness can cover up your mistakes in role playing, but it is also a habit both the characters and player must unlearn.
I don’t know who to trust. I know the personalities of some of the characters thanks to my familiarity with the show and books, but I don’t know what that means for House Forrester. Everyone asks for your loyalty or for your trust, and I so desperately want to give it someone, anyone in the the hope there will be a some firm foundation to stand on, no matter how small. Playing the game left me desperate for any form of stability. Yet, it seems that those who cannot stand upon the shifting sands by themselves are the first to sink.
The most important difference between this game and others made by Tellatale isn’t in the alterations to Telltale’s usual formula — there aren’t many. The most important difference between Game of Thrones and Telltale’s previous games is the nature of the franchise itself. The feel of the game is different thanks to the property being used.
The world of Game of Thrones is a brutal one, much exaggerated from the courtly politics of medieval Europe upon which it is based. The distances are greater, the weather is harsher, and the violence far more cruel and common than it was in our reality. So, too, is the difference between the tension and paranoia that the game inflicts upon its player and the kind that of The Walking Dead. The game ratchets up such tensions all the more.
When many, including myself, first heard that Telltale was making a Game of Thrones game, all we could do was nod. Given what this developer had done with The Walking Dead, George R.R. Martin’s franchise seemed like a perfect fit. In a way everyone was both right and wrong.
If you think the school board politics of The Walking Dead would prepare you for the volatile political machinations of Westeros, you have another thing coming. The jump is like the a PTA board member being launched into the position of a federal power broker. Whatever petty balance one could mange in the zombie apocalypse is pretty much unattainable it would seem. Remember the other famous saying from Game of Thrones:
“Valar morghulis.” (High Valyrian for “All men must die.”)