Iron from Ice, the first episode of the series, makes you fearful and paranoid in a giddy kind of way during its best moments, which invariably involve decisions or verbal confrontations.
It's the classic Telltale template: excellent voice acting, compelling plot, strong dialogues (forgetting a terrible "okay" which somehow slipped through), simplistic gameplay - an enjoyable experience as long you expect neither a RPG nor an action game nor a point and click adventure, but rather an interactive story set in the Game of Thrones universe.
Iron from Ice stammers with its sparse QTE-based combat, wonky "exploration" (of the "walk around a room and collect items from the table" variety) and lack of puzzles, but shines when focusing on the interplay between characters and factions, desperate attempts at diplomacy and thorny moral choices.
A couple of scenes made me cringe (in a good way) as I argued with potential enemies and, for all my attempts at subtlety, I kept painting myself into a corner. I'm eager (and somewhat worried) to see the fallout of my decisions in future episodes, which will import saves and be influenced by them.
Iron from Ice introduces House Forrester, Stark bannermen struggling to survive the Red Wedding aftermath. The narrative switches between three protagonists: squire Gared; young Ethan, burdened with command; Mira, handmaiden in King's Landing. We meet four canon characters (Margaery, Cersei, Tyrion and Ramsay), all with their official voice and appearance from the TV series.
While this is an original story set in Westeros, knowledge of source material (show and/or books) is STRONGLY recommended, unlike in the Walking Dead games. Iron from Ice dives into a maelstrom of events and never attempts any exposition about the Iron Throne, Starks, Lannisters and the labyrinthine politics of the series.
Episode length: about 2 hours.
It's the classic Telltale template: excellent voice acting, compelling plot, strong dialogues (forgetting a terrible "okay" which somehow slipped through), simplistic gameplay - an enjoyable experience as long you expect neither a RPG nor an action game nor a point and click adventure, but rather an interactive story set in the Game of Thrones universe.
Iron from Ice stammers with its sparse QTE-based combat, wonky "exploration" (of the "walk around a room and collect items from the table" variety) and lack of puzzles, but shines when focusing on the interplay between characters and factions, desperate attempts at diplomacy and thorny moral choices.
A couple of scenes made me cringe (in a good way) as I argued with potential enemies and, for all my attempts at subtlety, I kept painting myself into a corner. I'm eager (and somewhat worried) to see the fallout of my decisions in future episodes, which will import saves and be influenced by them.
Iron from Ice introduces House Forrester, Stark bannermen struggling to survive the Red Wedding aftermath. The narrative switches between three protagonists: squire Gared; young Ethan, burdened with command; Mira, handmaiden in King's Landing. We meet four canon characters (Margaery, Cersei, Tyrion and Ramsay), all with their official voice and appearance from the TV series.
While this is an original story set in Westeros, knowledge of source material (show and/or books) is STRONGLY recommended, unlike in the Walking Dead games. Iron from Ice dives into a maelstrom of events and never attempts any exposition about the Iron Throne, Starks, Lannisters and the labyrinthine politics of the series.
Episode length: about 2 hours.