A great game that needs time to be appreciated to the full.

User Rating: 8 | Game of Thrones X360
Without any background on the Game of Thrones series, I strongly doubted of being able to love this story. Apparently, I had no reason to do. The game is all about story, friendship and family. If you want, throughout the game, there is a lot of information on the different houses, characters, areas, etc... You can spend a lot of time reading text, which recommend to be quite close of your screen since the text is a bit small. But, if you lack info on something, for sure, it will be in the game.

You play 2 different characters, which are most of the time accompanied by one person each. So, you control 2 characters almost all game long. You can slow the combat to use your special abilities. This reminds me Dragon Age, but without being really able to pause completely the action. If you play on Hard, the combats are very though. You will need to bring several potions with you or you will not be able to complete it, trust me.

You can play as Mors Westford, who is a night-guardian. You can also control a dog, which is pretty nice to eliminate enemies from behind. However, the same animation is played while you do. This can become repetitive after a while, but you cannot do it too often anyway in the game.

The other protagonist is Alistair Sarwick, who is the oldest son of the King. He will want throughout the game to protect his father's throne. He has the Fire ability, which is more or less used.

There are several collision bugs. When you open a door, you can pass through it even if it is not finished opening. However, the sound is pretty good and the civilians discussion do not get too repetitive, unless you stick to a place for a long time. On the other hand, some guards will recognize you even if it has been 15 years that they have not seen you and that fact that you are fully dressed with a full mask, cuirass and boots. That removes a bit of immersion to the game.

There are quite few secondary missions, some are well hidden. They will give you some extra XP to upgrade your character's abilities. You may be able to fully upgrade them if you do enough of these side quests, but I only was able to max my character in the last chapter of the game for my part. I missed 3 of these missions I think, according to in-game stats.

Globally, if you like games with strong story, even if the combat might be sacrificed a bit, this is definitely for you, even if there are some critics that might have put you on the defensive. Go ahead!