Game of Thrones: Episode 4: Sons of Winter
With only just a few episodes remaining in Telltale’s Game of Throne series, things are really starting to heat up. I mean, each one delivers an intense experience from beginning to end. That said, Telltale has made it their mission to continually impress their fans. Bottom line – Sons of Winter may be the best episode yet!
Finally, things seem to be turning around for the Foresters. Gared Tuttle is left to deal with his actions at the wall; the Night Watch has zero tolerance for those who murder a brother no matter the reason. Asher finally has a chance to talk to Queen Daenerys and request the help his family needs. She’s unwilling to help unless he performs a task though. Asher and Beskha must help liberate the people of Meereen but Beskha has some skeletons in her closet she must deal with first. Rodrik is recovering well. Without the luxury of time to finish healing properly, he must start practicing with a sword sooner than he’d like. And finally an untimely death has managed to take some heat off of Mira. Queen Maragery Tyrell has banned her from attending a banquet for the new king, Tommen Baratheon, making it difficult to investigate the connections the Whitehills have in King’s Landing.
Like I said, things are heating up on the story front. When it comes to the fast paced action from previous entries however, things have cooled down. “Sons of Winter” weighs a bit more heavily on moral choices rather than QTEs, offering a nice change of pace. There are even moments that invoke a sense of accomplishment. Yes, we have a Game of Thrones episode that has drama but isn’t all gloom and doom. There are still sections that will keep you on your toes but nothing like what came before.
The extended areas north of the wall and Meereen are some of the better looking environments in the whole series. That’s due to the story and not an improvement in the graphics department of course. There isn’t much in terms of new characters except for a very small section towards the end. We aren’t greeted with a fan favorite this time around as an entirely new character is introduced. Transitions between playable characters are as smooth as ever, which alleviates some of the confusion found in the previous episode. Really, even though the story is progressing nicely, when it concerns the gameplay we have more of the same here. Just less action, blood and startling surprises. This isn’t a bad thing; ramping down the action while maintaining strong story beats allows us to catch our breaths and builds anticipation for what’s to come next at the same time.
Fans of the books, show, and Telltale games in general should find this to be one of the best episodes released. We’ll see how things shape up in “A Nest of Vipers”. Only two episodes left…
Gameplay:
10
Less is more in Sons of Winter. Also, allowing for moments of triumph and less gloom is a nice change.
Graphics:
7
Not much of a difference from the other episodes. You get to see more of the area north of the wall at least.
Sound:
10
The Voice acting is great as usual.
Replay Value:
9
I’ll have to go back to see if all the options were as rewarding as the one’s I chose.
Final Score:
9