A Game Of Thrones: Genesis - Completion

And Now His Watch Has Ended

Sorry this update took so long. I've had the game finished for a while now, but haven't felt like writing because of the good weather, a pissy mood, and a base reluctance to play the next game on the list.

Finally! One down, but a whole lot more to go. It may have been a struggle at time, but the last three campaigns were a hell of a lot more positive than the previous ones. I did have some problems, from random bugs, to a fucking stealth mission (yeah, in an RTS...I don't know either).

"Made of ice"...

The last three campaigns were more recent than the others, dealing with Robert's Rebellion, Beric Dondarion's brigade during the War of Five Kings, and the Night's Watch fighting wildlings in a full war and picking a side in the war, a story that hasn't been told in the series yet, which I thought was pretty cool. However, I still had some pretty big gripes with aspect of the gameplay, and style choices.

That's not ice! It's a snow-covered stone wall!

That last campaign was easily the highlight of the entire game though, despite the Wall being completely wrong. It receives this prestigious title for cutting out all the bullshit and just giving you a huge army and a target to kill. No resources, no spies, no alliances, just plain war.

This pretty much highlights my main problem with the game: the peace time in the game is fun, and the war time is fun, but only when separated from each other. Put them together and it kinda becomes a small clusterfuck of ideas and tedious micromanagement. I shouldn't have to tell my peasants to go farm, it's their only function! I shouldn't have to tell to run away from enemy soldiers if they come to close, it's basic AI! 

And it becomes impossible to strike a good balance between doing well during peace, and doing well during wartime. If I funnel resources into building an army, chances are my opponent has struck up alliances with all the towns and I'm left with no gold. Put too much towards being friendly towards all the neutral towns, and you're left hamstrung for the war with no immediate army. 

This is why the last mission struck such a chord with me, it made me realise how potential A Game Of Thrones: Genesis had, but was squandered with poor choices and even bordering on trying to cram in too many systems into the game. 

One last battle...

It's funny though, I don't regret buying this game. Granted, it was £5 in a sale, but I've made worse purchases for more money (fucking Viva Pinata!). I don't play a lot of RTS games, but Genesis peaked my interest, for not only being based on A Game Of Thrones, but for adding some interesting concepts to the genre. However, where it failed, modders have done the rest with another game called Crusader Kings 2, but I'll get to that later.

A dream of Spring

Next up...Amnesia: The Dark Descent!