A Game Of Thrones: Genesis - Part 1

Unbowed, Unbent...Kinda Broken

After playing through the tutorial and the first of six campaigns, I'll admit that I may have been wrong about Genesis. Don't get me wrong, it's still pretty bad, but it's still kinda playable. The way a match plays out is nice, if not deeply flawed in parts. A game is basically split into two distinct parts: peacetime and war. During peace, armies are largely useless and it focuses on the politics of the game, with alliances and backstabbing being the name of the game.

At least the throne looks good

However, this is where problems occur: if war breaks out at the wrong time (sometimes due to no fault of your own), you can royally screwed for the rest of the game, and in a position that is near impossible to come back from. And the game isn't clear on what can start a war either. It states that any seen hostility between two houses triggers a war, but I can still walk up with a visible assassin and slit the throat of a Stark noble lady and walk away with no repercussions...way to go game!

These textures on the other hand, do not

Thankfully, the first campaign is quite a guided affair, with no real skirmishes taking place, so these rules don't play too big a factor. Missions usually involve making as many allies as possible, or waging war on a much smaller scale, or escorting your Ruler from town to town making allies. These smaller sections seem much more enjoyable than playing a full match, and make me hope that the last five campaigns follow suit. 

A Game Of Thrones: Genesis - Introduction

Let me preface this by saying I fucking love A Song Of Ice & Fire! Seriously, the books, the television series, the fandom, which is why it baffles me that it seems completely impossible to create a decent video game around it. Between this and Game of Thrones (an action-RPG), the only truly amazing Game of Thrones game is a mod for an existing game, but I'll tell that story when the game comes up.

Robert Baratheon - The Epitome Of Ruggedness!

I have played some of Genesis, when I first bought it, and, in truth, the ideas in the game seem really interesting and true to the backstabbing and politics shown in the source material, but they are just so poorly executed! 

There are some positives, the problem is that none of them relate to the gameplay in anyway. I like that it is based on the books, not the television series (but does take some...questionable liberties with it), and it's a nice look at the biggest events in the history of the story and how the land of Westeros became what it was at the beginning of A Game of Thrones.

So, without further ado, I shall begin playing this terrible, terrible game...wish me luck!

An Introduction To The Challenge

Inspired by a good friend's attempt to do the exact same thing and the fact I have too many games that are going unplayed with no motivation to play them, I will be attempting the A-Z Steam Challenge, in which I must complete all games in my Steam Library in alphabetical order.

For those that are unversed in the ways of PC gaming, Steam is an digital distribution platform, enabling gamers around the world to have all their games in a digital library. 

For shame!

So, with 99 games worth over £1000 (God, that's really depressing), I will lay out some ground rules:

• Only games with defined single player sections are taken into account, so multiplayer games like DOTA 2 or Planetside 2, or sandbox games like Cities XL or The Sims 3 will not be taken into consideration, leaving the grand total at 85 games to be finished (give or take a couple I may have missed).
• I cannot cheat to make playing a game easier or to skip levels, but I don't have to 100% a game to consider it finished, simply see the end of a campaign or some form of credits roll.
• If a new game is added to my Steam library (which is likely, with sales and such) that comes earlier in the alphabet than the game I am on, I will finish the game I am on and go back to the earlier game afterwards. 
• Obviously, I have completed some games in my library, therefore, I am leaving it to my discretion whether I wish to play it again. Games like The Walking Dead I am happy leaving, due to the linear nature and story of it, but games like Bioshock Infinite offers new challenges on harder difficulties, so will probably be played again. The decision to replay a game will be made whenever I come to said game, not at the start of the challenge.

Pretty sure that's it on the rule's front. I will be starting this madness on Saturday, since I haven't even the first game on the list installed. I will usually update whenever I start a new game, and at any major points during my playthroughs.

So, I will see you on Saturday with an introduction to the first game on the list: A Game Of Thrones: Genesis!

Lucky me! *sarcasm*