Review: Episode 2 of Telltale’s Game of Thrones is Trying to Kill Me
Seven hells!
Jon Snow, still knows nothing, still very grumpy.
We positively reviewed Episode 1 of 6: Iron From Ice of Telltale Games’ Game of Thrones video game series, did Episode Two: The Lost Lords live up to our high standards?
HO-LEE-SHIT.
Ok, this episode is a bit more difficult to discuss without spoilers, but here we go.
Where did we leave off? Oh yeah, everything is f*cked. But that’s par for the course and why I have enjoyed Telltale’s Game of Thrones so much. Episode Two: The Lost Lords keeps the feeling that you’re living in Westeros intact. While the game focuses on House Forrester (previously only mentioned in passing in George R.R. Martin’s novels), the troubles are the same we witness on the HBO series. In fact, while I noticed this last time around, the comparisons between House Forrester and House Stark are many and only add to the storytelling enjoyment for me.
However, we pick up with Asher Forrester, the exiled second-born of the House, currently living across the Narrow Sea. But forget about him for a second…
Meet Beskha. “Hi, Beskha!” She’s a sellsword who’s paired up with Asher for some time and helping him get into plenty of trouble. You don’t get to play as her, but she’s pretty great so far in characterization and overall skill. Asher and Beskha are in Yunkai (just after a major turning point in the show) but fair warning, you’re in for a fight. I’m only giving that warning so you don’t die five times like I did. It’s a really well choreographed fight, though.
Meanwhile, Gared Tuttle finds his way to the Wall to join the Night’s Watch, makes some new friends, and meets the one and only Jon Snow. Out of everyone, I may be most interested to see where his story takes him because dang, I want to get over that Wall. In King’s Landing, Mira Forrester is still on uneven footing thanks to her dealings with Margaery, Cersei, and Tyrion in the last episode and that won’t be easing up any time soon much to my dread. Seriously, so stressed out trying to make the correct political decisions for myself and my family.
And back home at Ironrath, well, steal yourself for another big shock.
My play-through left me angry this time. So much so I might replay and save over my progress of this round. Not for anything the game did wrong, but because I felt I made some serious mistakes in the life choices of my characters and I am just not content to live with that. One of my mistakes came early and was truly a mistake—I simply made a decision without letting the non-player character finish speaking. Whoops. Sure, that can happen in real life, but I honestly didn’t mean to here; I was just trigger happy from a great fight, so I’m going to fix it. I will keep the rest of my decisions intact, however, to protect the integrity of my game. Though I’m quite certain the result will be disaster no matter what I do and that makes me grin in an evil way.
Episode Two: The Lost Lords is just as intense and action-packed as the first outing, even if it does take its time fleshing out the universe as we know it. You can probably predict where this episode will end compared to last episode, where I was flailing around in shock when we faded to black. Telltale’s Game of Thrones reinforces that I still don’t want to live in Westeros, but I’m sure as hell having fun playing there.
We received an early review code from Telltale for XBox One but Episode Two: The Lost Lords is available now on PC/Mac, PlayStation 3 & 4, tomorrow for Xbox One and Xbox 360, and February 5th for iOS and Android.
[Editor’s Note: Please feel free to post game spoilers in the comments if you’ve already played. We only ask you preface those comments with “[SPOILER].”]
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