The recent announcement that Telltale Games will release the first episode of its Game of Thrones series next week represents a much-needed pick-me-up for fans of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire universe. Between the neverending wait for Winds of Winter and the hangover from season four of the HBO series, we’ll take pretty much whatever we can get.
Yet Martin’s book series and HBO’s TV adaptations are towering achievements, and any foray into the ASOIAF universe must hold its own for fans who will expect nothing less than a stellar experience. Telltale Games needs to deliver a strong opening in “Episode 1: Iron from Ice” so as to convince us that its series won’t be another shoddy video game tie-in like the mess that was Cyanide’s 2012 title.
Taking into account the 2012 game’s mistakes as well as Telltale’s previous work with The Walking Dead, here are four ways the new series can actually be a faithful, yet original and compelling adaptation of the ASOIAF universe we all know and love. (Note: unless otherwise stated, Game of Thrones from now on will refer to Telltale’s upcoming episodic series.)
1. Be Unique, But Familiar
It’s obvious that any game needs to have a compelling story to do well, both for critics’ reviews and the aggregated opinion of the gaming public. But again and again we see tie-in games of great franchises (with interesting plots) that truly suck (I’m looking at you, Harry Potter). It can be a death-blow when a game re-enacts every scene and plot point from its source material. Game of Thones needs to stand out from the main plot of Martin’s books and the TV series, while still working alongside it.
There are hints that Telltale is definitely working in this direction. It was a relief when Telltale announced that GRRM’s personal assistant was going to work as a “story consultant” for the project. Second only to consultation with Martin himself, this arrangement allows the studio remarkable insight into the ASOIAF universe as a whole. They can pick out elements not explored in the TV show or even the books, like the histories of different houses or different types of magic, and from there create their own narrative.
Second only to consultation with Martin himself, this arrangement allows the studio remarkable insight into the ASOIAF universe as a whole.
House Forrester, which will be the focus of this series, is a perfect example of this: a lesser house mentioned in the briefest of ways in Martin’s fifth book, yet choicely located in the North and in a politically precarious position as Stark bannermen. It’s an inviting framework in which Telltale can weave its own original story, while still having support in the form of the War of the Five Kings conflict.
Similar to The Walking Dead: Season One, there’s value in carving out an original story that integrates itself with the source material in familiar ways (even with some added fan-service). Yet it should also be strong enough to operate independently of that material. Basically, if we changed all the names and didn’t reference the world or characters of Game of Thrones, would it still be worth playing? The answer needs to be yes.
2. Let the Audience Play the “Game of Thrones”
Martin’s ASOIAF universe is a dangerous place to live in, and that’s a perfect element to exploit for this series. Millions of people read GRRM’s books and binge-watch the HBO series, but not just for the shocking acts of violence and sexuality. The draw is political drama on a large scale, the high stakes involved in almost every decision, and thematic questions of power and control. Players want to be a part of this world. Give them the ability to choose their path and deal with the consequences of their actions, as severe and lasting as they may be.
The Walking Dead universe made this feat pretty doable in Telltale’s Season One: pull together a group of people and have them battle against hordes of undead just to survive. Yet Telltale also added the young girl Clementine, whom the main character has to protect throughout the series. The result was a game that showed you just how vulnerable you were to the slightest mistake, and it was a significantly better game because of it.
3. No Hack and Slash Gameplay
The books and TV series focus on a conflict known as the War of the Five Kings. Yet it’s surprising how little fighting there is during the story. GRRM does describe battles in great detail when they occur, and the HBO series has had two episode-length battles during its run so far, but what’s more important than the battles are the political forces that cause them and their aftereffects. At its core, Game of Thrones isn’t about large-scale battles or one-on-one duelling. It’s about political machinations, manipulating others, and how far people are willing to go to get what they want.
As such, Telltale needs to avoid drawn-out swordfighting as much as possible. Cyanide’s 2012 Game of Thrones game featured action-queue and levelling systems that won some praise, but critics noted how stale the fighting became after a few battles. Eventually it came down to attacking enemies with three or four moves over and over, with unbalanced status buffs and no real variety in ways to kill people.
For contrast, The Walking Dead showed that a zombie game didn’t need to be an FPS to be exciting. Instead, Telltale chose to focus on the conflict and character interactions. And they left the fighting to a series of intermittent, pants-wetting, quick-time events where the main character usually fought against a single zombie in dire circumstances. Game of Thrones would do well to avoid a convulted combat/weapon system and instead stick to quick-time events when the story needs them.
4. Characters, Characters, Characters
I’m sounding like a broken record, but it’s for a good reason. Telltale needs to focus on characterization in this upcoming series; it’s arguably one of the studio’s biggest strengths and something that GRRM and the HBO series have prioritized. Conflict and thematic questions of power may be ASOIAF’s bread and butter, but great characters are what keep an audience coming back for more.
We all love to hate the Boy-King Joffrey, or get angry with Sansa when she seems to be too naive or passive to do anything useful, but those strong emotions keep us tied into the story.
We all love to hate the Boy-King Joffrey, or get angry with Sansa when she seems to be too naive or passive to do anything useful, but those strong emotions keep us tied into the story. Telltale can use these familiar characters in its narrative, but it shouldn’t depend on them. The studio needs to give us reasons to care for the members of House Forrester and make their motivations and actions believable.
The Walking Dead: Season One received high marks from critics for its small, fleshed-out cast. In the same way, Season Two suffered from deficiencies in its story because the group of survivors was not as believable or filled-in as the first group. With point-and-click adventure games like these that don’t (and shouldn’t) rely on combat, characters are a crucial, make-or-break part of the story.
We’ll see over the course of the next few months just how well Telltale Games does with its foray into this beloved franchise.
If it can learn from the mistakes of past games and work off what it’s learned from The Walking Dead, Telltale very well could bring Games of Thrones into our lives in a thrilling, truly original way.
