Middle-Child Syndrome.
Middles have it rough. Beginnings are interesting because we’re learning about the world and the characters we have to get to know for the rest of the story. Endings are climactic and – hopefully – satisfying. But middles? When it comes to a Telltale episodic adventure, even these traditionally troublesome parts of a narrative become even more difficult. A certain amount of exposition is expected, questions have to be answered whilst also giving us a reason to plug on – new mysteries and intrigue – all without a conclusion of its own. So it’s unsurprising then that Game of Thrones’ third episode struggles to retain the verve of its predecessors.
Storyline
Spoilers for Game of Thrones episodes 1 – 2, and GoT TV series 1 – 4 follow.
After the events of the Red Wedding that kicked off the season premiere, Episode 3: The Sword in the Darkness has another wedding in its sights – one that fans of the show will be very familiar with. Having this landmark occasion looming means that everyone in the know realises what’s about to happen, tying great moments of tension to that underlying sense of dread. This knowledge is used to great effect, and the final twenty minutes spent within Kings Landing are some of the series’ most dramatic – and most dangerous – to date.
Elsewhere, Asher is trying to find himself an army whilst fending off a certain scaled beast, Gared is settling in to his new life with the Nights Watch and the Forrester home sees even more Whitehills walk through the door. The Whitehill occupation is, sadly, one of the games weaker points. After three episodes of constantly outdoing the evil that preceded it everything is just getting a bit silly. These people are too mean to take seriously; whereas Telltale’s best villains are dealt with in shades of grey, here it’s simply black and white. Even in George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones villains don’t really exist – there are just people you’re rooting for, and those you’re hoping get stuck with the sharp end of a pointy stick. The ‘bad guys’ have clear motivations and understandable personalities – they’re even likable at times – but the Whitehills are just douchebags for the sake of it.
Gameplay
Admittedly, this constant aggravation broke me in a way Telltale had failed to do until now. Whenever I found myself defending Ironwrath I’d play completely differently to how I was playing elsewhere. In King’s Landing for instance I was performing an increasingly dangerous political dance between various parties, but when I was back at Casa Forrester I’d let my emotions get the best of me. I’d punch people at every opportunity, shout down my captors and told annoying comrades to shut their yaps if they spoke out of turn. The Whitehills have seriously pissed me off, and although I don’t think I’m going about things in the most sensible fashion, I am going to make it my sole mission to destroy them going forwards. That sort of emotional investment doesn’t come cheap, so for that at least I have to applaud what Telltale have accomplished.
Elsewhere the episode isn’t quite so exhilarating. The problem with The Sword in the Darkness is it’s a little tame. The events that occur are certainly daring enough, pushing the series forwards towards an ever-darkening destiny, but our place as a player seems increasingly irrelevant. The choices we’re faced with are all a little arbitrary and predictable. Worse still is that often the game seems to disregard our choices altogether. This is understandable; this early on Telltale can’t have large subsets of gamers forge their own paths towards too distinct an ending – that’s for finales to do. To have branches that spread that wide this early on would simply be too demanding a workload for the team.
If I’m to be forced towards certain decisions, however, I’d appreciate the narrative forcing me towards those decisions naturally instead of pretending I had a say in the matter.
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