Telltale’s Game of Thrones: Episode Four “Sons of Winter” Review

Telltale regains the footing in the Seven Kingdoms.

Sons of Winter, the fourth episode in Telltale’s Game of Thrones series, is a turning point in the series based on the popular HBO TV show, Game of Thrones. As of this point, I really hadn’t been interested in what happened to the Forresters. But, man, what an episode.

In this episode, I felt like I was actually making a difference. I felt the weight of the world on my shoulders. If I messed one thing up in my grand plan, me and my family were sure to be doomed to death. Everything just felt more meaningful without the weight of living up to the TV show.

Thankfully, the writers behind this episode have written out any possible ties to the TV show, other than a passing mention of The Red Wedding and Margaery Tyrell showing up to scold me, I felt like I didn’t have to watch the TV show to understand the weight of my choices, which was a problem with the previous episode “The Sword in the Darkness”. It just feels like a Telltale game, instead of a thing that HBO made to promote Game of Thrones Season 5.

Oh, and it wouldn’t be a Telltale review if I didn’t mention the performance. It’s really great. Sure, there’s the occasional hiccup during the Season recap, but other than that, the game finally runs well.

So, if you’re interested in Game of Thrones at all, this time is great as any. The story, gameplay, decisions are all meaningful now. There’s really no reason I can see not to pick this game up, other than time constraints.