A Game of Thrones - Genesis Reviews

No need for a long-winded review.. Just need to keep this review about as long as this game manages to hold one's attention/enthusiasm: This game is simply BORING. Subterfuge is far too O.P and boring and ruins the game. Poor game mechanics that are boring. Lacklustre tutorial and UI and you dont really have any idea what you are doing or what is working/happening because the game does a terrible job of informing you. The mostly negative reviews are justified unfortunately. This game feels like an excellent, high potential concept executed poorly and lazily, exploiting the Thrones name for a quick cash grab. Recommendation: Steer clear of this one even if you are a massive Thrones fan. Consider buying only on 80%+ discount and even then I wouldn't bother. 3/10

I come at this from a different point of view than most of the reviews. I am not major Game of Thrones fan and I knew what this game was when I came into it. I would neither call this a cheap grab, nor fault it for not being Total War: Westeros. It's far from perfect, but it fills a void that no other game attempted. If the concept appeals to you, it's worth playing. GoT: Genesis is an RTS that focuses heavily on diplomats and hidden information. The best way to get a feel for the game is to literally walk you through example gameplay: = = = I start the mission by sending out envoys out to create allies and get an early economic lead. But for some reason, it doesn't seem to be adding up. So I send out a spy to determine the loyalty of towns and find that half of the villages weren't actually loyal and eventually realize that one of my envoys was a traitor and faking the alliances. I arrest the envoy to ransom him off. While I train a new Envoy I send my spy to make secret deals to steal money from enemy towns and send an assassin to eliminate their blood alliances so that I'll be able to steal the towns long term. But in my haste, I neglected to scout the towns and my assassin was caught by the ladies bodyguards. Maybe I should risk a war by sending mercenaries to kill their envoys and rob their tax collectors? = = = On the bright side, this style gameplay can be dynamic and exciting. It does lead to a relatively steep learning curve, but the campaign does a good job of introducing one mechanic at a time. It's heavily scripted and tightly focused so that each scenario requires you to master a handful of skills. It offers a wide variety of mission types though it does sometimes feel "On-Rails". It's feels good when you've mastered the skills and are given the freedom to use them. The weakest point is the War part of the game. It's a glorified and over-complicated game of Rock Paper scissors. You have about 14 units (Half Armies and half Mercenary) that each have advantage and weakness vs. other unit types. The vast freedom you have during peace time just seems to vanish at the outbreak of war. It's not nearly as enjoyable. The game tends to feel alot more complex and deep than it actually is because the UI offers you very little in terms of help in learning the game or making decisions. - There is a level of tedium that goes into testing the loyalties of every town and every character manually - I'm constantly pausing the game to look up which armies are strong/weak vs. each other. - There's little to no "details information" screens. I'd kill for an easy way to check my overall economy or military strength. - I need to look in the encyclopedia on the title screen to find out why I can't use certain items/skills rather than having good tool tips and intuitive controls. Between the War systems and the UI it's easy to see why other people don't enjoy the game. It can definitely use some streamlining and a lot of polish. This could have been a great game with minor changes to the way things work and how the information is displayed... but it's just decent. (At best) But, weighing the good and the bad, I really do enjoy the game that's here and I can recommend to people interesting in shady plots and stealth.

7/10 A great game if you read the books. NOT for the casual fan. I'm sorry if that sounds a little snobbish, but this game is deep in the lore of Westeros, your campaign starts before the Iron throne was even an idea. The history which Arya and Danaerys are determined to honour is right here, and what a tangled web it is. This is a great game, but demanding, with spies and agents under every rock, castle and farm creating the atmosphere. You need a hell of an attention span, a dozen extra pairs of eyes, and a mind as twisted as the imp or Littlefinger to even attempt this one. An RTS where you don't know which assets you [i]truly [/i]control until it's too late. You will be stabbed in the back repeatedly by lords who swore allegiance to you, but so will your enemies! If you think you have what it takes to bribe, murder and betray your way to the top, bring it on. I warn you though: When you play the Game of Thrones you win or you die!

There are a lot of negative reviews about this game, for example the lack of combat or real RTS feeling/element. However, although certain parts of that may be true, the game is very unique. The lack of combat allows for a far more political and stealthy way of capturing villages - either by sending a spy to secretly take resources, an ambassador to ensure the loyalty of the village, then cemented with a marriage of a royal lady. This can then be undone by removing the bride with an assassin. The game does feel a bit slow at time and does not feel like a classic RTS, so if you are in to games such as Warhammer etc. I would say miss this one out. But if you are open minded and the game is going for a reasonable price (I'd say below 15/ 10 dollars) I would recommend it, there is also a campaign that can be fairly challenging at times and a walk in the park at others but does provide a lot of gameplay (somewhere between 10-20 hours i would estimate, but that's just a guess).

I'd feel sorry for writing this if I thought anyone put serious effort into this game, but I have no evidence of that. I'll put it plain: Don't buy this crap. This is not worth your money. It barely counts as Game of Thrones, and I don't know why they put the word Genesis on there (I don't think it means what they think it means.) It's a generic, limited, poorly articulated strategy game that tries to pass pointless tedium as politics and intrigue. Its campaign has nothing to show for itself and I'd apologize to whoever I roped into playing it multiplayer. If you truly want to have a Game of Thrones gaming experience, check out the Game of Thrones mod for Crusader Kings II. I think the current version requires some DLC to function properly but I assure you, it's worth it. For a free modification of an already-good game, it has a thousand times more complexity and good design put into it than Genesis. If at any point you see another review of mine that says "I can think of worse games", I'm thinking of this. Do. Not. Buy.

A Game of Thrones - Genesis is a "boardgame" style strategy game with real-time-strategy elements. It's a simple concept: you begin with a "home base" and slowly expand your empire. But that is where simplicity ends: expanding your empire is accomplished principally by winning the loyalty of neighboring towns and castles with diplomatic envoys. The more towns that are loyal to you, the more income you have, and income will help you produce more units. Then, you will need to create some spy rings in enemy cities, subdue spies in your own cities, assassinate nobles, and other nefarious acts in order to succeed. You can even have the enemy create and command units that he thinks are working for him, but are actually working for you. It is the most layered, deep espionage system I have ever seen in a game (think Civ4 times 15). That being said, I also feel that the game is too deep for an RTS, playing strategically requires a bit of deep thought and I felt intimidated about having to think faster than my opponent, rather than being able to take my time and press "end turn" like in Civilization or Master of Orion. Here is most of the game's complexity in a nutshell: envoys create alliances, spies ruin alliances, nobles create blood alliances, assassins ruin blood alliances, guards block towns from assassins, spies and assassins working together can circumvent guards. Spies can reveal hidden enemy units, because about 90% of the units in the game are visible only to the player who controls them. They are on a generous "stealth timer" when in enemy territory. [b][u]The Good[/u][/b] * Great interface, smooth controls. * A game so deep that it could never be released on anything but PC. * The game is very well suited for multiplayer matches with a friend. * It is kind of fun to learn, but I assume you cannot truly appreciate it until you have mastered the basics (which I was never able to do.) * Lots of achievements to unlock. * High skill ceiling. [b][u]The Bad[/u][/b] * Long load times * Expensive pricetag, the game would be a fair buy at $10, but not $20. * Very little connection to the A Game of Thrones series that we know and love, except for the Lannisters are all jerks and killed me in my first match. * The game might be too complex for many people. I don't want you to confuse "complex" with "strategic." There are times when things are needlessly complex. * Some small problems with the tutorial. It will direct you to "look at the map in the lower right corner," when the map is actually in the lower left. Also, the "back" button does absolutely nothing in the tutorial's dialogue boxes. * High-learning curve. * The game is not friendly to colorblind players. The fog of war is just a b&w version of the map, but it's very difficult to differentiate between the colored (visible) parts of the map and the b&w (fog of war) parts of the map, especially in snowy areas. If you are colorblind, you will go mad if you try to play as the Starks. * The battle animations are, well, terrible - but I'd rather have bad animations than bugs. Additionally, although war is a large aspect of the game, 90% of the game is the espionage that happens before the war. [b][u]The Ugly[/u][/b] * Uses TAGES DRM. (5 machine installation limit). [b][u]The Verdict[/u][/b] If you are looking for an ultra-deep strategy game, pick this up. If you are new to 4X games, I would suggest waiting for it to go on sale for >49%, as the game is really hard to appreciate if you aren't already intimately familiar with its genre. I'd be happy to answer any other questions that you may have, just message me.

Hands down the worst game I have ever purchased. They created some sort of 1990 (age of empires) like game, then took anything of value out...Then tried to sell it as "strategy" and under the pretense of being AGOT. There are no similarities to agot. Not even remotely. The combat system is atrocious. Graphics. Map. Gameplay. Everything. Bad. Dont buy this game, ever. For any reason. However!!!! If you are a GOT junkie and absolutely need a fix... may I suggest mount and blade warbands? Download the mod by cozar called ACOK. It is absolutely fantastic. They recreate ESSOS and WESTEROS perfectly. The characters are all there. The quest lines are all relevant.

Being a massive fan of the book series and television show, I bought this game the day it was released. It has gone down in history as one of my most regretted gaming purchases. Cyanide's A Game of Thrones - Genesis is a messily designed, technically janky game that I wouldn't recommend to any besides the die-hard fan, who isn't reading this review anyway. The game is essentially a virtual board game, in which you send one of a few kinds of units around a map in order to maintain control of them. It's largely tedious and frustrating. You can do this in a story campaign, which gives you small maps and half-thematic objectives. I didn't make it far into this story and wouldn't recommend you do so. Much more tolerable if not actually enjoyable is the multiplayer mode, in which you select a larger portion of Westeros to fight over with computer or human opponents. Though I very much doubt you will find human opponents online at this point. The gameplay in the multiplayer mode is slightly more interesting, with a few more kinds of units and actions you can take. To be frank, Genesis seems like a game designed with bullet points in mind. Marketing materials might say you can marry off your noble daughter to an enemy to cement an uneasy alliance, or send an agent to infiltrate the enemy AS an enemy agent, and then turn him when the enemy thinks he's hurting you with that double agent. Both of these are true, but these mechanics are very shallow and there are only a few of them. In the end Genesis will likely leave you wanting, as a fan of Martin's world. I might recommend instead the actual board game from Fantasy Flight Games, or the Crusader Kings 2 conversion mod. Sadly, an amateur game modification is vastly superior and better supported than this official game.

First off, I am recommending this game only for diehard fans of A Song of Ice and Fire, or anyone that wants an entertaining way of exploring the history of Westeros. Obviously, this isn't the HBO branded Game of Thrones you might be used to so the art or characters may look a little bit different. The way you play this game is a very dumbed down version of any RTS you may think of, build units, take towns and castles, kill your enemy. The way any single player vs AI or multiplayer game works is in two parts: Peace time, where you build alliances and build up your power undertaking various actions either directly or indirectly against the rival houses and the method for taking towns and castles is using non-combat units. Once war breaks out in the seven kingdoms, you must now rely solely on your combat units to take the remaining towns and castles. The first house or houses to reach the required honor score wins. Each house will have their own special ancestral home which cannot be taken. The way you build units is a bit silly, allowing only one to be built at a time but you can queue up to 5, if funds and food allow. Gold and Food are the two forms of commerce, gold to buy mercenary units, non-combat units, and upgrades and food for your professional standing armies. The game uses an upkeep system so you must ensure you have an adequate supply of food to maintain your armies after they are built. Various non-combat units will give you bonuses to gold production and your peasants will level up with experience if you can manage to protect them and keep them alive, thus making them more efficient at harvesting. Each house has a unique unit that provides a special ability or skill but nothing spectacular, like a maester that can heal units for the Tyrells, or a direwolf bodyguard-type unit for the Starks. All houses have the same types of combat units available to them, so don't expect the Targaryens to throw dragons at you. The time period for the House vs House mode of play is right before the events leading up to Robert's rebellion. The campaign, while not too expansive, is a semi-enjoyable experience taking place from the landing of Nymeria in Dorne to the Night's Watch defending the wall from Mance and the united free folk. The variety of missions you will play is obviously limited to the somehwat limited features of the gameplay itself, but it can still offer some fresh experiences other than escort unit A to point C. All said and done, pick up this title at a heavily discounted price and for what it offers if you feel you get your money's worth then you've won.

This game is just the name and nothing else. Basically is just a strategy game with no strategy at all, just a bunch of units of deception, politics and intrigue that doesn't feel coherent or well integrated into the game but awkward and forced. The game forces you to constantly check the status of your alliances, your secret agreements, the enemy's secret agreements with your allies, the protection of your units (you even have to assign bodyguards to farmers because they're a yummy target for assassins), the vulnerable strategic units of your enemies like envoys, spies, brides, rebels and other assassins to send even more assassins after them. And all of that with one single purpose: making and keeping as many alliances as possible while trying to destroy as many as possible alliances of your enemies while producing enough food and gold to bring armies to the table. And for a military based game battles are very simple: just send as many soldiers as you can, no others plan needed. The mechanics of the game are just too complicated to be a game that worths paying for it.