Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The first hour asks you to accept a particular rhythm. You are not roaming Westeros at will; quests open locations on the map as the largely linear plot moves forward, and your time is spent pursuing objectives, fighting, collecting loot, and checking in with merchants or blacksmiths for better gear. That structure can feel restrictive if you arrived hoping to make your own path through the Seven Kingdoms. Treat it as a story-led RPG with stops along the way, and it is easier to settle into.

Combat is the game’s most distinctive idea and its biggest adjustment. Fights happen in real time, but you build an action queue of attacks, stances, and abilities, then slow the action dramatically to reorganize it. You do not manually swing weapons or maneuver to dodge, so the satisfaction comes from setting up a useful sequence and reacting before the queue goes wrong. Once it clicks, the slower pace suits a tactical brawl better than frantic button pressing. Before it clicks, battles can feel like you are supervising a fight rather than fully inhabiting it.

Mors and Alester help keep that system from becoming completely one-note. Each starts with several combat-style choices, then lets you distribute attributes, invest in stance and equipment skills, and select strengths and weaknesses. Choosing traits such as Born Leader or Acrobat, while accepting drawbacks such as Clumsy or Allergic, gives character setup some welcome role-playing flavor. Leveling into new abilities makes those early choices matter more than a simple equipment treadmill would.

Companions come and go according to the plot, and you cannot build or manage a permanent party. You can take direct control of a teammate in battle and cycle through the group, which adds some flexibility, but the campaign never lets you shape the team around your own preferred tactics. Dialogue choices can affect some plot events, though conversations are response selections rather than deeper topic-driven exchanges. Go in for the authored journey, not unlimited agency.

Graphics

The game uses a behind-the-character view and draws heavily on the HBO adaptation’s recognizable scenery and Westeros locations. That familiarity is a real benefit: moving between the Wall-side world of Castle Black and the political corners of the realm has the immediate comfort of a licensed setting you already know.

The cast also benefits from voices associated with the television series, while the theme music does a lot to establish the right atmosphere. These touches make the trip through Westeros feel closer to the show even when the campaign follows its own characters.

Story

The strongest reason to play is the decision not to retell the famous plot. Robert Baratheon sits the Iron Throne, the Stark-Lannister conflict looms in the background, and familiar places and characters exist around the edges, but Mors and Alester carry a parallel story. That is a sensible choice. You are not being asked to replace the novels’ central cast; you get a smaller, more personal route through the same political mess.

Mors starts as a brother of the Night’s Watch at Castle Black, guarding the Wall against threats beyond it. Alester arrives in the second chapter as a priest of R’hllor caught up in court politics. Alternating their chapters gives the story a useful contrast between duty at the edge of the realm and the maneuvering closer to power, and the eventual intersection of their paths supplies the campaign’s main forward pull.

This is still a linear tale, so do not expect every dialogue choice to rewrite the campaign. Some responses can alter plot events, but the story keeps a firm hand on where you go and whom you travel with. That limits the fantasy of role-playing a wholly self-made Westerosi, yet it also lets the game concentrate on delivering its own thread without trampling the source material’s best-known events.

Overall Experience

Game of Thrones is a middling RPG with a very good place to be middling in. The licensed world, familiar musical and vocal touches, and two-pronged original story give it a pull that its constrained maps and occasionally hands-off combat cannot always match. You will probably know early whether the queued battles are a tactical curiosity or an obstacle: give them enough time to learn the slow-down-and-reorder rhythm before deciding.

For fans of A Song of Ice and Fire or the HBO series, the payoff is a respectable detour through Westeros that avoids trying to outdo the main saga. For anyone wanting free exploration, a customizable long-term party, or direct action combat, frustration will set in quickly. It is worth a chance when you want a focused licensed RPG and can forgive its narrow structure; it is not the game to choose for a wide-open fantasy holiday.

The 6.3 score fits that balance. There is genuine value in its character customization, dual protagonists, and parallel-story premise, but the limited freedom around exploration, companions, and combat control keeps it from becoming essential. Think of it as supplemental Westeros fiction you play through, not the definitive Game of Thrones game.

Retro Replay Score

6.3/10