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That promotional image from HBO's Game of Thrones is probably still stuck in your head, right? Jon Snow, bleeding from where his eyeball should be? And the word "April"? Who the hell can wait until April? That's, like, next year! You've already re-watched all five seasons. This Game of Thrones jones is not going away.
Well, have you considered playing the videogame? Telltale Games just finished up its epic six-part Game of Thrones adventure, and there's a lot to like about it.
Not only do you interact with some of the series' most intriguing characters (played by the show's actors), but rather than simply re-enacting scenes from the books or show, it's sort of a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead take in which you play as many different members of a minor house, embroiled in a smaller-scale conflict tangentially related to the major events of the show.
This allows the game to bring in fan favorites (Cersei! Jon Snow! Peter Dinklage!) while leaving you with no idea as to how anything's going to play out in the end. Telltale's point-and-click adventure games are less about puzzles and more about choices, which also dovetails nicely with the source material: Do you betray your friend and survive, or sell them out and die? With so many "main characters," like the show, you can't be sure that simply being the protagonist of the game will carry you safely through each situation.
Game of Thrones follows the Forrester family, a noble house responsible for the production of "ironwood," a type of lumber that is the strongest in Westeros and thus much-prixed by anyone with any inclinations of raising an army. When the Forresters find themselves caught between warring factions, the very future of their house is in danger. This is exacerbated by the fact that their family members are currently scattered throughout the world, taking you to King's Landing, Meereen, Castle Black and beyond.
The fact that, mirroring the books and show, Game of Thrones jumps to and fro between so many point-of-view characters gives playing it, I found, a different feel from Telltale's similar game version of The Walking Dead.
Other Telltale games, by putting you in the shoes of a single protagonist, made me identify more closely with that person, making crucial decisions based on my own logic or emotions. With Game of Thrones I felt more like a director—since I had a pretty strong feeling that everything was probably going to go to hell anyway, I was more likely to pick provocative decisions to see the fireworks.
Even if you don't usually play videogames, you shouldn't have any issue getting into Game of Thrones; there are some very minor key-pressing action scenes, but these are easy to fake your way through, and you never get sent back very far if you fail.
It's also available on nearly any platform you can think of: I played on the PC via Steam, but you don't need to have Steam installed to buy it. It's also available digitally on PlayStation 3 and 4, as well as Xbox 360 and One. And if all you've got is a smartphone, it's on iOS and Android.
Of course, once you've marathoned through all six episodes (it should take you 10-15 hours to do so), I have no idea what you'll do until April. Maybe act out your own scenes with Funko Pops?
