Game of Thrones Ascent – Review
I’m a pretty big Game of
Thrones fan. I’ve seen all the HBO
episodes at least once and am half way through the 4th book A Feats
for Crows. Last year I started looking
for a computer game based on the IP and saw that there were 3 in production:
Game of Thrones – The Game (console), Game of Thrones : Seven Kingdoms (online
MMO) and Game of Thrones : Ascent (online social/Facebook).
I rented “the game” for my
Xbox 360 and was thoroughly disappointed.
There seemed to be some good story and authentic art design but the
gameplay was atrocious particularly the combat system which seemed to be central
to the game.
I have not heard any
recent news about the MMO from Bigpoint games.
This German developer of free to play online games was flying high a
year or so ago starting their expansion into the US market with a MMO based on
popular geek IP Battlestar Galactica. I
got into the open beta for BSG online but could not get far beyond an initial
tutorial space combat mission. Since
I’ve heard that the developer has run into trouble and laid off a lot of the
staff they were building up. I’m not
sure what this ultimately means for Seven Kingdoms but it does not look good.
I was very intrigued when
I heard developer Disrupter Beam was at work on a Facebook game based on GoT.
There was some description of it being an “anti-social” game and somehow story
driven. I was curious as to how they
would accomplish as story driven social MMO on Facebook.
I started playing the game
on the first day of release. I enjoyed
it right away. The core gameplay is a mix
of choose your own adventure, “farming” resources to upgrade buildings and
sending your Sell Swords on adventures.
I began by naming my character, Lord Will Blackfyre and chose an image
for him. After completing a few missions
I was able to create my own sigil, a fiery phoenix on a field of black, and
swear fealty to one of the 5 main houses of Westeros. I chose House Stark and my banner flies right
alongside of theirs on the main page of my game screen.
Game of Thrones : Ascent
has accomplished something that as I fan I have been looking for which is to
have the experience of having my own character exist in the world of A Song of
Ice and Fire.
You are made the lord of a
keep, I named mine “Freedom’s Keep”, and given some starting buildings. You can then upgrade these buildings and use
them to craft items. All of the
buildings are perfectly pulled from the source material and make perfect
sense. This building and upgrading also
adds to your “Power” score which is I suppose the main goal of the game, become
the most powerful Lord or Lady in all of Westeros.
Throughout the story you
are introduced to your own version of a small council complete with a
whisperer, septon, master of coin, a maester and castellan. Each one councils you from their own point of
view as you progress through the very well written if not memorable story.
There are some pretty significant
bugs in the game and even some things that worked well before and are now
broken. The most bothersome bug for me
is that you score Power Points for completing Achievements but some of the
early simple achievements I’ve made in the game have not been counted. I’m not sure this bug is present for all
players. The developers though seem very responsive and are constantly making
updates.
Overall though I would say
Game of Thrones Ascent is a very solid game and one of the most impressive I’ve
seen on Facebook or for a current popular movie or TV license. I’m looking forward to continuing to increase
my standing in the realm and seeing what happens next.
