Game of Thrones: Ascent on Kongregate
MSRP: Free with in-game purchasing
Platforms: iOS, Android/Kindle, Browser-Based, Facebook
Release: 4/15/13
I’d consider myself a moderate Game of Thrones fan. I’m intrigued by the show, and have read most of the books. What I haven’t felt the need to do, however, is buy the tie-in games that have, for the most part, only gotten mediocre reviews. So it doesn’t surprise me that this game didn’t even merit a blip on my radar until today – a Game of Thrones game just wasn’t something I was looking for.
But the idea was too interesting to not at least poke at. A story-driven strategy game, which includes events & characters from the books; sounds great. However, with this being a mobile app, I had my doubts.
Thus far, it seems to be fairly a fairly slow game on rails. Perhaps I’m not understanding the depth of my choices so early on; it only seems logical that the quests would vary greatly depending on which house you swore fealty to. However, the biggest flaw seems to be that which plagues most mobile / Facebook-style games: you wait or you pay.
Pretty much every action has a completion timer, and while I’d like to lie to myself and say “Hey, these things take time”, I really do see it for what it is – an attempt to get you to shell out real cash in order to keep playing. Not having explored too much of the game yet, I feel like this would have been fantastic if it were a real pay-once-up-front game; with 8 houses to pledge to, it’d even have some replay value. But as a mobile game, I don’t know that it can keep me coming back to check on my hold and find out what’s happening in Westeros.
366 Days of Gaming 