Experience the Founding of Westeros in Game of Thrones: Genesis

Greg Tito

PR for Dungeons & Dragons
Sep 29, 2005
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Experience the Founding of Westeros in Game of Thrones: Genesis

George R. R. Martin wrote the story for the strategy game tracing 1000 years of history.

As in any fantasy story, Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series has a lot of events that lead up to the conflicts dramatized in the books. Some are recent, like Robert's Rebellion, while some stretch back hundreds of years like Aegon Targaryen's conquest of the Seven Kingdoms. Then there is the First Men and the Children of the Forest and their fight against the Others beyond the Wall. Rather than let players assume the roles of characters and Houses in the present, Cyanide Games (Blood Bowl) and Martin have chosen to bring all of that wonderful history to life with Game of Thrones: Genesis.

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When I first heard about this game, I was skeptical that Cyanide would be able to pull off creating a strategy game that really felt like it was pulled from Martin's pages. There is so much more to the series than a unit of horsemen running down some archers, or even a dragon laying waste to a castle. The Game of Thrones is political wrangling, backstabbing, incest, vengeance and lust. How well would a "dudes on a map" strategy game represent all that?

It seems that the developers were just as worried that the game wouldn't recreate such intrigue. Cyanide promises that the player will be able to win the game without ever fielding an army by using spies, assassins and kidnappers to ransom lords. Harassing caravans and staging secret alliances will be possible as well, but I'm not convinced that such tactics will be just as powerful as a thousand heavy horse thundering down the field.

Setting the game in the past is a brilliant way to circumvent preconceived notions of the characters he all know and love like Tyrion or Daenerys. All we as readers and fans of the HBO adaptation know about the events in the game is when they happened, like memorized dates in a history book. Genesis has a mostly blank canvas on which to paint the emotions and pathos of characters like Nymeria as she lands in Dorne or the passions of the Targaryens as they rode their dragons over Westeros.

Given all the new information and the new screenshots, I'm now cautiously optimistic to play Game of Thrones: Genesis when it releases on PC on September 29th.

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vrbtny

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Sep 16, 2009
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Wow September 29th? It seems like only a couple of weeks ago that this got announced.

I'm wondering how the stories that take place in A Song of Ice and Fire can take place in-game, if say, the Lannister family has been trampled into dust by another family, or Roberts rebellion fails and the T-family still rule.

It'll be interesting to see how that all works out.
 

karoliso

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Apr 14, 2009
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Visual aesthetics look very unimpressive. And I don't see how novels known for their story and characters will translate into an RTS of all things.
 

Davih

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May 7, 2011
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I don't see this working. I really hope it does though. I'll wait until I watch a number of reviews before buying it.
 

Owlslayer

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Nov 26, 2009
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Well, I'm hoping it'll be good, but you never know.
I'll be keeping an eye on this. Sometimes even two !
Hah, I'm not funny...
 

GrimTuesday

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May 21, 2009
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karoliso said:
Visual aesthetics look very unimpressive. And I don't see how novels known for their story and characters will translate into an RTS of all things.
Considering all the history that GRRM put into his books, a lot of it concerning wars and thing of the sort, I think that an RTS is perfect for it.

I too am cautiously optimistic about this, the people at Cyanide are big fans of the books and as we saw with the HBO series, that can lead to great things.
 

brodie21

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Apr 6, 2009
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this looks very interesting, i will be keeping an eye on it. now if only skyrim would come out!
 

Not-here-anymore

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Nov 18, 2009
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Gah. Had the theme tune to the show playing in my head as I read that, and now it'll be stuck there for days...
 

The_Decoy

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Nov 22, 2009
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karoliso said:
Visual aesthetics look very unimpressive. And I don't see how novels known for their story and characters will translate into an RTS of all things.
Hey, just wondering why you think it would be an RTS? I figure something more like the Total War series would work (try the fan Middle Earth mod for Rome Total War - the elves are unbalanced as hell but overall a pretty good job). And the report does say that it won't rely on the books characters as it is set in the past, so that might help.

I'm hoping it will be good, but I don't know the developers, so I admit it could turn out to be a steaming pile of cash in...
 

jurnag12

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I'm kinda worried that it won't work as planned, but then I hated the idea of a TV series, yet that turned out great.
Especially the part about being able to win through subterfuge, betrayal and espionage sounds great. If it makes you feel like Littlefinger, count me IN.
 

Sartan0

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Apr 5, 2010
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I forgot about this game. Thanks for reminding me. I will give it a solid look when it comes out.
 

TheBelgianGuy

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Aug 29, 2010
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The_Decoy said:
karoliso said:
Visual aesthetics look very unimpressive. And I don't see how novels known for their story and characters will translate into an RTS of all things.
Hey, just wondering why you think it would be an RTS? I figure something more like the Total War series would work (try the fan Middle Earth mod for Rome Total War - the elves are unbalanced as hell but overall a pretty good job). And the report does say that it won't rely on the books characters as it is set in the past, so that might help.

I'm hoping it will be good, but I don't know the developers, so I admit it could turn out to be a steaming pile of cash in...
I love the total war series. I love the Middle Earth mod (for Medieval 2 kingdoms that is, haven't played the Rome one).

Game of Thrones would not work as a total war game.
Why? Because total war is about having lots of dudes on a battlefield killing each other.
Every other aspect of total war - diplomacy, intrigue, etc - are completely laughable when compared with other games from people like Paradox Interactive.

Their campaign map AI is completely retarded. They do not know that declaring war to you, their most loyal ally from day one, is a bad idea especially because they have 2 provinces and you have 25.
They haven't got the slightest idea about how to conduct trade. They don't know intrigue, except sending large amounts of assassins to kill every character on sight.

I love Total War. They're amazingly fun games. I would not want them to make a Game of Thrones game.



That said, I am curious about what Cyanide will do. As far as I know, their most successful game is BloodBowl, a fantasy sport from the Warhammer world.
It's nothing ground-breaking, but I am sort of positive because they actually were faithful to the warhammer world.

I'll judge on the 29th :D
 

Boba Frag

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Dec 11, 2009
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I don't know why they couldn't just use the Total War engine, or why it couldn't be a creative assembly game but that's just me.

Looks... Interesting, but not exactly stunning.
Any gameplay trailers around?
 

Bravo 21

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May 11, 2010
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I'm intrigued, and I want to play it, but I just feel slightly uneasy about weather it will live up to the expectations set by the books. My bet it can't, but i need a new strategy game anyway, and this could just be it
 

Baldr

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Jan 6, 2010
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Is it me or does the wall look 500ft to short and missing a couple thousand miles?
 

WouldYouKindly

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jurnag12 said:
I'm kinda worried that it won't work as planned, but then I hated the idea of a TV series, yet that turned out great.
Especially the part about being able to win through subterfuge, betrayal and espionage sounds great. If it makes you feel like Littlefinger, count me IN.
Amazing how that ponce seems like less of a ponce the more the story goes on.

OT: Interesting premise in the least, but I'm wondering how they'll differentiate between the abilities, tendencies, and assets of each house.

Starks should have superior infantry and suffer no penalties in cold or snow, winter is always coming after all. On the other hand, they would suck balls when it comes to forming secret alliances and doing underhanded things like sabotage and assassinations.

Lannisters should have much better income from the mines and have an increase to negotiating ability and subterfuge.

Baretheons have the best ships in the east and better assault units, if Robert is even remotely representative of his predecessors.

Tyrells would probably have better farms and knight cavalry.

Tullys are the one group I can't think of an advantage they would have aside from strategic positioning. Maybe an increase to negotiations because everyone will want to be your friend in order to invade other areas of the map.

Greyjoys would have the best ships, hands down, excellent light infantry, but generally crappy cavalry.

Dornishmen would have good light infantry, superior spear men, increased heat resistance, and cavalry with great stamina and speed though lacking in armor.

Arryns should be the biggest pain in the balls to invade just due to geographic isolation and the hill tribes who will be a constant drain on men until you are in a more civilized area.
 

jurnag12

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Nov 9, 2009
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WouldYouKindly said:
Arryns should be the biggest pain in the balls to invade just due to geographic isolation and the hill tribes who will be a constant drain on men until you are in a more civilized area.
This makes mu curious if it would be possible to just burn some of their fields and then blockade the valley. Ya know, starve them out?
 

WouldYouKindly

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Apr 17, 2011
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jurnag12 said:
WouldYouKindly said:
Arryns should be the biggest pain in the balls to invade just due to geographic isolation and the hill tribes who will be a constant drain on men until you are in a more civilized area.
This makes mu curious if it would be possible to just burn some of their fields and then blockade the valley. Ya know, starve them out?
Only if the passes are unguarded, which would be my first order of business. I'd be fighting you all the way.

I think the best route would be to attack by sea. The fingers would be the easiest way of entry because there is nothing at all important there except maybe a fishery or two. Gulltown would be bolder and more direct with greater immediate rewards.

EDIT: As an aside, I don't think they get much of their food out of the hills because of the tribes there.
 

Darth_Dude

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Jul 11, 2008
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Hm....I haven't seen any gameplay, so I'm not particularly impressed yet...The premise certainly has me somewhat excited though, however, the only thing this developer is known for is Blood Bowl...So I guess We'll have to wait and see.

EDIT: Wait...No, I just saw the teaser trailer, and to be quite frank, it looks like a piece of shite.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPs2wdbkHlQ&feature=player_embedded

Looking at some more of the gameplay images as well, -sigh-. This looks to be pretty mediocre so far.. http://www.agot-genesis.com/index.php?rub=images