The company experienced in episodic adventures has just released the first part of the transposition of the license plate HBO television series, inspired by the original plots contained in the books of George RR Martin.
Return many distinctive elements of their previous titles such as The Walking Dead, Tales of Monkey Island and The Wolf Among Us, flanked in this case by epic battles on a large scale. Stefano tells us everything, having tried the first episode, Iron from Ice, on iOS. ”
Iron from Ice
In recent years, Telltale has created a name especially made games more than appreciable linked to the franchise, particularly heavy. Usually, it was to text adventures, consist of multiple-choice dialogues, many forks narrative and sporadic phases of action (often appointed to Quick Time Event).
Famous is the series dedicated to The Walking Dead, perhaps the most successful work of Telltale. Personally, having never followed the series focuses on the zombies, I’ve never tried the adventures dedicated to it. Telltale, though, I played Tales of Monkey Island (satisfactory in half) and, above The Wolf Among Us, the saga dedicated to the universe of Fables, the ambitious comic created by Bill Willingham.
The Wolf Among Us is a product emblematic of the way to do Telltale: a text adventure and detective, made up of multiple-choice dialogues and QTE action. From the point of view playful, something interesting, as enough limited. From the point of view of the narrative and appeal (originated by the license), a really interesting product.
The Wolf Among Us pretty well captured the imagination of Fables – albeit with some imprecision not entirely secondary – and, from the point of view of the intrigue, after a blazing start, came to conclusions a little trivial, perhaps the result of development pathways rather difficult.
The piece of 90 by Telltale announced was the acquisition of the license of Game of Thrones, the hugely popular TV series for HBO, based on the novels by George RR Martin. A Song of Ice and Fire, then bring on TV as the Iron Throne, are a recent and blazing case literary.
The books of Martin, from prose dry and functional, are imposed by the general public for several reasons: first of all, you have created a universe articulated, complex, huge but still coherent. In Westeros (and Essos) move so many characters, that outline the events of war, politics and intrigue, in an environment comparable to that of the European Middle Ages. The mastery of Martin was that of dusting this world all too believable and realistic, with a hint of the supernatural, always present, but never (for now) really decisive.
Another superb quality of the chronicles is their raw unpredictability. Martin has no mercy: dead bloody and spectacular one after another, not sparing even the hyper-popular characters and protagonists-like, making the whole story chock-full of twists. This freedom of the sacrifice of the most important, is made possible by the narrative style chosen by Martin, who tells all the vicissitudes of the Chronicles from the point of view of numerous players, and not only by following one.
The challenge of Telltale, in front of a world so rich, complex and popular, it was certainly not insignificant. As the hype originated by the announcement of the game was suffered huge. Let’s see how the programming team the US has done its homework.
Narrative choices polished and effective
One of the big question marks on Game of Thrones, Telltale concerned what he would tell and how it would fit into continuity of Martin. A retrace the major events would not make sense, while telling the facts too far away from the struggle for the throne or the War of the Five Kings would surely have had little charm.
Here then is the excellent idea of Telltale: focus on the history of the house Forrester, a ” clan ” (as Asha Greyjoy does not fail to point out) of the northwest, a vassal of the house Glover and loyal to Stark. Characteristics of this small house are to have control of Ironwood, which produce the most durable wood of the Seven Kingdoms, very useful for the construction of weapons and ships.
Obviously, you cannot do spoilers, but suffice it to say that the events that follow will start at a turning point of the chronicles: that moment when, for a representative of the North, the twin towers of House Frey represents an absolutely disastrous. From that place, and that night, the War of the Five Kings will turn, as well as the events of House Forrester.
Very consistent with the style of Martin, do not play as a single character, but we will divide between two offspring of Forrester and one of their squires, for a total of three story-line, at least in this first episode of the series.
Even the brutality (most of the TV series, indeed, that the books) will be respected: the blood flow in rivers and raw scenes not fail. Appreciable even some twists, raw and unexpected, that will leave the player with his mouth open in more than one occasion, in pure style Game of Thrones.
Also significant was the presence of some of the main characters of the saga: as our story is secondary and not narrated by Chronicles, the involvement of these celebrities of the Seven Kingdoms is correct, credible and above all consistent with what we all know to Following the reading of the books of Martin.
The psychological tension of the dialogue is really well represented, especially when we find ourselves face to face with the most important people: knowing them and knowing the character more or less angular, we tend to measure our every move and every word, trying to bring water to our mill, as far as possible.
Contraindications
As mentioned, the Game of Thrones is essentially a text adventure, with multiple-choice dialogues able to bring forth the changes in plot and action scenes play through Quick Time Events.
The proposed Telltale is effective because it allows the player to determine the course of history (at least partially), making spectacular actions with relative ease.
Evidently, the strength of Game of Thrones is not in the gameplay tight – as it is elementary – but in appeal flows from its license, which tells the interesting story and the possibility given to the player to conduct part of the story where he wants.
As often happens with the titles of Telltale, license dominates: if you are not passionate about Game of Thrones, the adventure of writing there captivate. Do not understand many of the references, and you cannot enjoy a certain style of play extremely limited. There is no real exploration phase, and there are puzzles, as there is no other action besides some QTE not very well done (at least on iOS).
The worst thing, though, is that, in reality, our choices will have no impact on the overall story, but only on the nuances of this. Compared to other products of Telltale, then, there is also a lower consistency of non-player characters, compared to our decisions. Especially in the storyline more substantial, the one about Ethan, the firstborn of Forrester.
In short, this not absolutely Game of Thrones Telltale Heavy Rain. Something more could also be done on the technical realization: as the game world and the characters are compelling, the whole gives the impression of being a bit rough and certainly less depth, in terms of creativity, compared to As seen in The Wolf Among Us.
Conclusions
I’m happy with this first (of six) chapter second of Game of Thrones. That’s because I’m a big fan of the universe created by Martin, where developers will hurl, effectively, making us live episodes also true and important, but without intrusiveness.
If I was not fond of Game of Thrones, I find it in my hands the first chapter in an interesting adventure but playfully limited. Fascinosa for the narration for the possibility to choose, but, also from this point of view, not enough incisive.
In short, if you’re a fan of Game of Thrones, run to download the game. Otherwise, think of two or three times. Even four.
Game of Thrones : Iron from Ice is now available in the formats PC, Mac, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, iOS and Android.
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