GB Feature: Game of Thrones Review

Our review of Atlus and Cyanide's Game of Thrones is officially online, giving you yet another opinion before you make a purchasing decision on the George R.R. Martin-based RPG. Here we go:
When you first gain control of a character, you have to choose a weapon stance for him. Each character has three choices. Alester is a rogue-like character who favors lighter armors and quicker attacks, and he can be a water dancer, a sellsword, or an archer. Mors is more of a typical fighter, with a preference for heavier weapons and armor, and he can be a magnar, a landed knight, or a hedge knight. Then at level 7 you get to choose a new stance for your characters, either improving their initial stance or selecting one of the two stances you bypassed before.

Characters also get a variety of attributes (including strength and intelligence), abilities (which give active and passive combat bonuses, including Alester's Head Shot archer ability), skills (which improve how well characters use weapons and armor), and traits (which can be positive or negative, and which must be balanced at the beginning of the game). This sounds like a lot of stuff to keep track of, but it works out pretty well. Unfortunately, as you level up you're given enough points for all of these areas that you can learn just about everything useful, and so character development isn't especially interesting, other than your initial stance choice.