Game of Thrones : Part 2

I posted something about Game of Thrones the video game a little while back.  I haven't seen anything posted here about it and now, since it has been released,  I decided to give my impressions and give a quasi review.

First, a disclaimer. I like the book series and the HBO series. If you are not familiar with either, the game will most likely not appeal to you. The whole basis of the story lies in the time right before the book Game of Thrones begins. There are a couple characters people will recognize from the series.  The game developer was able to use those actors from the HBO series for character modeling and some voice work.  The game story is actually pretty good with some twists to keep things interesting again, if you're familiar with the book series.

The game is a basic RPG. You play as two characters, a veteran memeber of the Nights Watch  and a Red Priest who has come home to reclaim his birthright. There is no independent character development. You can designate various traits at the beginning the basics; strength, agility, endurance ect, ect. and assign special attacks for combat. You get equipment as go through the game and can switch out weapons, armor and potions. The usual standard RPG stuff. The two characters follow seperate stroy lines but eventually converge towards the end to wrap up the story. You jump back and forth between the two in seperate chapters which  very familiar if you read the books.

There is no free roam as in Skyrim or Fallout  which was dissapointing. You follow a scripted story. There are situations where you get to make some decisions through your responses in certain situations, but even those are usually limited to only two or three choices.  

Combat is the one major thing that really affected my enjoyment of the game.  Frankly, I didn't like the combat sysytem. You get to assign various attacks before combat and you can hit the right bumper button to slow time down to make target assignements, assign your special attacks and then go back into real time. Then you just slug it out and hope you win. I prefer more of a strong, special attack, defend button mash style. There are limited "spells" or healing potions  the type you frequently find in other RPGs, which again, is more in keeping with the books.

The game play is a lot of loading screens. A LOT of loading screens and cut scenes with dialog that move the story along and set up the next chapter. You will do a lot of reading.   There is also clearly an issue with the voice acting. The best one is the actor who plays Jor Mormont. He clearly is used to reading a script and his voice  actually has inflection when he speaks. Some of the voice actors sound like they are just reading the script with no reference to the scene they are in. If you ever were ever in a class in school where you  everyone had to participate in reading a play out loud,  that's what it sounds like.

Graphics are  not anything spectacular, but deccent.  During the cut scenes, the characters go through about four different poses while talking. After a while, seeing someone put one hand on their hip and shift their wieght to one leg over and over gets annoying.  Lip syncing is non existent

Overall, I give it a 5 out of 10 and that's only because I'm a fan of the books. I think that if you're a fan, rent it. If you're not a fan, don't bother.