In terms of making the game more playable, this adaptation succeeds better than any I have ever played. Complex movements are highlighted in easy to follow colors. Your screen is never cluttered with words, but getting to the info you need is only ever a click or two away. Digital board games are great because they help you keep track of complicated rules. Fortunately, Asmodee and Dire Wolf did some of their best ever work. I suppose I still need to talk about the most important thing- the gameplay. After I remembered all the rules, I was content to play Game of Thrones with a podcast going.
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A really good soundtrack can keep me coming back to a PC board game again and again.
It’s not grating or anything, but you can’t help but feel like you are listening to diet, zero-calorie Djawadi. The music in the game is not licensed from HBO, but insists on Djawadi’s signature arpeggios. Ramin Djawadi created a wonderful score for the show, with a distinct sound that will live on long after people forget who played the Three Eyed Raven. The one place where the show’s influence is most strongly felt is the music.
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And I bet there are lots of fans who miss that feeling after the series finale. Instead of feeling like a contradiction from the show, it expands upon the idea that there are lots of worthy stories to be told in this engrossing world. Robb Stark is a ginger (as he is in the books). The Red Viper has sex appeal, but he looks like a sallow and devious man. The Hound for example, has a truly hideous burned face. But this board game predates the show by a bit so, all the art is totally from the imagination of someone who has never seen it.
Tell me if this has ever happened to you (in the comments if you feel so inclined)- you get really into a thing, someone makes a movie, and suddenly, the actors are on the covers, the comics are drawn to look like the live-action version, and that style comes to dominate the entire franchise. What is enormously satisfying though, is the art. In either situation, you can use that knowledge to your advantage… which is similar to a game with humans, but less satisfying. As you get harder, they become more aggressive. On the easiest modes for example, the AI seems to prioritize attacking other computer opponents rather than the human player, even when such a thing makes little sense. But you can’t help but notice patterns after you’ve played for a few hours. It’s not that the AI is predictable, I’ve found it to be as messy as some in-person games. The is also, unfortunately, a reason why playing with computer opponents is a pale imitation of playing with other humans. So it becomes a game of trying to guess what your opponent is thinking, and feinting to draw them out into the open. There are no dice rolls, ties are broken by selecting a general to lead your forces, represented by unique House Cards who each have unique abilities. Battles are resolved by calculating the strength of each army. Orders are placed face down across the map, and then everyone reveals their plans simultaneously. What makes the game so brilliant is that it is almost entirely about bluffing and interpersonal dynamics. But unlike Risk, there is very little random chance at all. To be utterly reductive, Game of Thrones is a bit like Risk, in that you are moving armies across a map to conquer enough territory to win. They are a board game company that is uniquely talented at adapting the themes of the original work as gameplay mechanics (see also: their amazing Battlestar Galactica game). The Game of Thrones board game is emblematic of everything Fantasy Flight does well. Now, Asmodee Digital has brought the definitive Game of Thrones gaming experience to PCs and it hasn’t lost a step. That is how we came to own a copy of Fantasy Flight’s Game of Thrones board game in 2003, which became regularly played in our board game rotation.
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In the early 2000s, half a decade before they would start filming the mind-breakingly popular TV show, we collected every piece of merchandise we could. When I was a teen, my cousin and I were obsessed with this fantasy book series called A Song of Ice and Fire.