REVIEW – Face-to-face, direct confrontation is the main premise of the fifth episode of Game of Thrones, where both of our “capable” heroes: Gared and Asher have to prove themselves in surprisingly long combat sequences (especially the one with Asher), while Rodrik and Mira has to confront their enemies and forced allies with more subtlety. We get also two long scenes with the favorite female queens of the show: Cersei Lannister and the Daenerys Targaryen, the Queen of Dragons.

 

This episode is a bit more dynamic than the others, albeit also a bit on the short side. I finished the episode twice in one evening, just to have another ending, since I didn’t like the first one.

Asher: becoming a true leader

This episode is a big evolution for Asher who will finally find his army (one way or another…) and who has to return to Westeros. He will also take part in one important ending scene which will have very important repercussions concerning the final episode. This scene is actually kind of surprising and it may be also a bit… annoying for both the fans of Asher and Rodrik. I have to confess that I didn’t like this ending much, I found it forced and a bit clichéd.

Mira: scheming, as always

Mira Forrester have to take part once again in the schemes of King’s Landing: this time on Cercei’s side, who want to know his brother Tyrion’s intentions concerning who he will bring on the trial. Once again the developers are taking in account that you have already seen the show so far, as they don’t even bother to explain which trial it is. (It’s about Tyrion’s trial for the king’s assassination.) Tyrion is a bit out of character this time around (at least concerning this scene) because as much nonchalant and witty he is usually (like he is depicted in this very scenes, he was pretty grim and desperate while waiting for the trial.

Rodrik: more physical improvement

Although we won’t partake in direct combat with Rodrik, there are occasions where he must prove himself physically. Rodrik’s encounters are a bit similar to what he had before: he gets humiliated by his enemies, and either he gets the upper hand or not. He gets more “fierce” in every episode, although this kind of character development is getting a bit old. Still this ending…

Garred: fighting walkers on his quest to find the North Grove

Garred Tuttle is still searching for the North Grove alongside his new friends. Not much surprises about him besides the fact that he have to fight some walkers (the blue eyed undead) on his way to the Grove. This passage with him is a bit short, not much character development here unfortunately.

Fight to the death!

This episode is perhaps the bloodiest, with some gruesome deaths and mortal “kombat” (yes, in a sense one scenes it reminded me the famous beat-em-up series) along the way. My favorite character in this episode was Asher, even if I was less fond of him in earlier episodes.
The shortness of the episode is certainly a negative aspect, playing it twice in something like 3 hours is way too short, even for episodic content.

There’s also one aspect which I must mention, which didn’t really appeared to me important until this episode. Characters are using the same kind of facial expressions too much. I know that Telltale has still a lower budget compared to AAA titles, but in a game, which is an adaptation of such a professional TV show, looking at a bit poor diversity and quality of facial expression is more disturbing than in other Telltale games which were adaptations of comic books (The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us). While I appreciate to play four different characters, I still prefer The Wolf Among Us, which is my favorite Telltale series so far.

That said, this is an excellent episode, perhaps the best in the whole series. The only real downside is this stupid ending…

-BadSector-

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Publisher: Telltale Games

Developer: Telltale Games

Genres: adventure, action,

Release date: July 23 2015