Nearly 12 months after its first episode released, Telltale Games’ “Game of Thrones” wrapped up its first season with the Tuesday release of the sixth entry, “The Ice Dragon.”
Largely, the story had progressed nicely in the lead-up to the season finale, with the right balance of cameos from the main HBO series and drama involving the series’ protagonist family, House Forrester. Twists along the way never felt forced, and always seemed to be building up to some major conclusions in the finale.
Unfortunately, not enough was resolved in “The Ice Dragon.” Many of the major stories came to a head in episode five, “A Nest of Vipers.” That left it up to the final entry of the season to set up elements for a presumed Season 2.
Without spoiling too much, Mira Forrester’s tale came to a disappointing end that hardly seemed to integrate the value of past choices in a decision-based game.
The central plot involving the Forresters’ feud with House Whitehill, too, finds some level of closure, but not much more than in some of the previous installments. In other words, it didn’t necessarily raise the stakes a great deal.
But give credit where it deserves. “The Ice Dragon” effectively capped Gared Tuttle’s quest to find The North Grove while setting up future intrigue. Some might look at his ending as unfinished, but it seemed appropriate to me.
The annoying trend of graphics hiccups first observed in the first episode, “Iron From Ice,” saw no noticeable improvement along the way. While the game was designed to be compatible with just about every platform people still use to play games, it’s time for Telltale to move its animations and graphics to the next level.
All this might make it sound as if the first season of “Game of Thrones” was a letdown. On the whole, it was an interesting journey despite a less-than-satisfying ending. For anyone starting fresh, the game’s six entries offer a combined 10-12 hours of interesting storytelling that helps flesh out the world depicted in the hit HBO drama.
Temper expectations, but series fans should get enough out of their experience making tough decisions for House Forrester.
“Game of Thrones: A Telltale Games Series” is out now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, Mac, iOS and Android
