Before you begin reading my take on this second installment please do yourself a favor and go play episode one if you have not done so already as there will be a number of spoilers in this review.
After a brief recap of events (my skin is still crawling from last episodes events) we open in the far away land of Yunkai. This is where we meet the newest character in this little saga, a lost (exiled) son of House Forrester that was mentioned in episode one. Asher Forrester is not the man that you would expect to see, but one that is a welcome change from the typical Game of Thrones character. Asher isn’t dark and brooding; he isn’t a monster sized man with hatred in his heart; he isn’t the kind of man we’d expect to see coming to save the day on the back of a horse with hundreds of banner-men at his back..
What we get instead is someone far removed from the world of Westeros. A man that has carved a much different path than that of his family, but one still very much connected to it. Asher feels more the part of a Han Solo, or Indiana Jones (or both) with his quick wit and comedic sensibilities even when in mortal danger. By his side fights Beskha, the very definition of a warrior if there ever was one. She is a presence to be felt from the moment she steps foot into the story and holds her own set of secrets that will no doubt play a major role in coming episodes. While Asher is one to use his head, Beskha is one to let her swords do the talking.
Episode two “Iron from Ice” is a much different experience than episode one was. With episode one we were taken aback by the surprise brutality and sickening nature of its cliffhanger ending. Here though, we see man clinging to life, fighting with every ounce to crawl back from the face of certain doom. This is shown not only in the way the story plays out (lots more player interaction here), but in a character that thought we saw perish during the series’ opening battle during the Red Wedding. It isn’t the kind of shock we felt when the Lord Ethan was felled last episode, but it instead is there to give us hope, if only a little, for the future of House Forrester.
As with episode one we find ourselves jumping back and forth between the members of House Forrester that have now been scattered to all corners of the kingdom and beyond. Since Asher’s story is new to us it is left to Mira Forrester in King’s Landing and Gared Tuttle on The Wall to show growth from last episode. Tuttle sees the least genuine development while at The Wall, not because the character isn’t interesting, but because everything we get to see and play is just a carbon copy of what John Snow went through from the television series. The game begins to drag a bit during these segments as we see Gared learn to fight, deal with the criminals on the watch, impress the crowd, become brothers, and so on. We even get a ride up the elevator culminating on a view of beyond the wall. It’s a shame that it copies John Snow’s story note for note as fans will no doubt find these segments the least interesting.
We are then left with young Mira Forrester to show the growth and originality that we saw from the entire cast in episode one. Thankfully she does just that as Mira becomes much more bold and independent in her dealings with others. No longer is she content to play the quiet hand-maiden, but instead begins to really take charge of her own destiny. She even get to engage in some fun, if surprising combat sections that will no doubt come back to haunt her in the future. Not only that, but this is the first instance that I actually notice a choice that we made last episode have a little impact.
All in all we get another fantastic episode that is only held back by its reliance to fall back on tried story elements that series fans will not care for. While we don’t get that “Holy, shit” moment that we experienced in episode one, we instead get a lovely and somber close to all those we lost and a vision of what the future may hold for House Forrester. I do hope that the choices we make start having a little more weight to them soon as much of the choices I made in episode two, much like episode one, felt unimportant to the overall story.
Game of Thrones: Episode Two – The Lost Lords is another great adventure game in this series that is starting to finally walk in its own shows, free from the restrictive nature of the Game of Thrones literary canon. It comes highly recommended.
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