I’ve never seen the tv series that this game is based upon, so I’m not sure whether it’s a whole new story or if it has something to do with the show. Maybe that’s for the best anyway, as I don’t have anything to compare it with.

Story

The story is divided into two different stories with two great warriors. The story starts with the story of Mors Westford and how he ended up in the order of the Night Watch, in the north at the “Wall” near Black Castle. This story will come again and again during the storyline, so you will get his side of the story and get to know what he had to pay for his decision of honour.

The other main character in this game is Alester Sarwyck, which is the oldest son in the house of Sarwyck and the heir to Riverspring City. The only problem is that fifteen years ago did he just suddenly exile him self to the free lands because he followed the kings orders and had to do something horrible, so when he then returns will there be a lot of questions and he have to do a lot to get back his titles and land. Sounds simple enough right? But if that was only the case, the bastard half brother of Alester is also doing his things to get the lordship over Riverspring as well and it will be a race for it.

During the Story will you encounter actions of honour, be a huge part of the political schemes filled with betrayal, lies, murders and cunning. You will soon se that everything you do have a consequence, so you can’t act without thinking first. You will also come across scandals both political and sexual, and you have the choice of doing what you feel is the right decision. But be aware, maybe what you feel is the right thing might not be it, so be careful with your actions and think through what you’re doing. Just remember that you have a political agenda your self, and with both characters.

Gameplay

The fighting system in this game is somewhat new and a little interesting. You have only three action slots available, this means that you can only assign three skills at the time. This system gives you a little challenge as you have to watch if the slots become empty and refill them, if you don’t you will only use a regular and poor fighting style which don’t deal a lot of damage. It’s pretty helpful that you usually have a second character you can use and chose which styles he should use, this gives you a tactical advantage and it may even save you from time to time. Just remember that certain armour is better against certain weapons, but it also has a weakness to other. So choosing armour isn’t just a cakewalk, the armour will also affect your stamina and how much you’re going to use with the skill attacks.

There is one thing I must say that Cyanide Studios have really done right with the dialogue sequences, and that’s the options you have during the dialogues. There’s always one or more answers you can choose between and whatever your choice is, the character always talk. It’s not a deaf and dumb character where only the text is the only communication you got.

Areas

There aren’t many different areas in this game, and you will usually be inside of the city walls or in the freezing cold forest in the north. This said, you will have enough of things to do anyway so this might not be an issue or something that you will think of at all.

Movie like

The game have a lot of dialogues and they can be long as well, so it’s more or less like a long movie or a tv series where you actually take some control over what happens. This is what makes the story interesting and heartbreaking, it so good that I would dare to say that it can’t be just a game studio alone that has written the story and manuscript. I got a big hunch that HBO have been involved a lot in the development in the whole game from the very beginning. It’s just a little disappointing that they haven’t got all the voice acting to be great and real like with all the characters, which was kind of annoying when it’s one of the main characters the voice acting is poorly performed on. Besides this it’s a great game.

Conclusion: It’s a great game with a great story that takes you into the world of political schemes, honour, lies and betrayal.

Rating: 9/10