A Game of Thrones - Genesis [Download]

by Cyanide Studio

Product Details

• Downloading: Currently, this item is available only to customers located in the United States and who have a U.S. billing address.
• Note: Gifting is not available for this item.
• ASIN: B005LIV3ES
• Release Date: September 29, 2011
• Average Customer Review: 1.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,628 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

A Game of Thrones - Genesis immerses you into the heart of the battles and intrigues between the Houses that shaped the Kingdom of Westeros. From Nymeria's arrival in the Kingdom of Dorne to the awakening of the "Others" beyond the Wall, you'll live the origins of A Game of Thrones saga through more than 1000 years of history, by taking part in Westeros' founding events and largest battles. In this great strategy game, victory does not necessarily result from brute force. You can choose to use a military approach and besiege your opponents, strangle them in an economical war, or even use dirty tricks and diplomacy to politically crush them. Treachery and deception are everywhere and can be more efficient than the most powerful army. So watch your back and show no mercy if you want to remain on the Iron Throne. The video game adaptation of the fantasy saga "A Song of Ice and Fire" by George RR Martin. A deep and exciting gameplay combining strategy, diplomacy and politics. Discover the origins of the universe of the Iron Throne through the Story mode, and participate in major conflicts that have shaped Westeros. Compete against up to 7 other players in multiplayer. Form alliances, break them, show subtle tactics and crush your opponents! System Requirements   Minimum Specifications: OS: Win 7, Vista and XP Processor: AMD/INTEL DUAL-CORE 2.2 GHZ RAM: 1024 MB (XP) / 2048 MB (VISTA/7) Hard Drive: 10 GB Video Card: 256 MB 100% DIRECTX 9 AND SHADERS 3.0 COMPATIBLE, ATI RADEON X1600 XT/INTEL HD/NVIDIA GEFORCE 6600 GT OR HIGHER Additional Info: Unknown Additional Information Requires Steam account for game activation and online play.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

74 of 75 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars This Game is Lazy, Rushed and Bland October 28, 2011

By Rhandhali

One of the first things that strikes me about A Game of Thrones: Genesis is how bland it is. Before even talking about mechanics or gameplay or graphics or anything else that makes a game AGOT:G fails because it doesn't completely embrace the source material it purportedly represents. One gets the impression that the game was designed and then, only after a license was acquired, some flavor text slapped together at the last minute and plugged in. The game is painfully generic in comparison to the rich setting of the novels and television series.

The first thing you notice is that there aren't even proper place names. In every level you operate from "feudal home" and move about a map populated by places with such interesting names as "town" or "gold mine". You really can't tell that you are supposed to be playing on a map of Westeros; you could just as well be playing in medieval England, Germany, France or even Greyhawk or Faerűn. The world is completely and utterly generic.

You are given units that are major characters from the books but they don't do anything. In the first campaign Nymeria is a unit, for example, but she does nothing. You can select her and she'll spurt the occasional flavor text to remind you of where the game is supposed to be set, but you can't move her, order her or do anything at all with her. She just stands there, fixed and immobile. When you can do anything with the characters it's something like a lame escort mission.

Missions include things like conquering named places from Westeros. However, no such places exist anywhere on the map. There is no "Crackclaw Point", only "Feudal Home" and a dozen places named "Town".... Even the dragons of the Targaryens, whose names are mentioned dozens of times in the books do not warrant anything other than the name of "Dragon" in this game.

The mechanics of the game represent a great idea, and one that works well with the source material. Players spend time building up alliances, undermining each other and gathering resources until war inevitably sets in, at which point it becomes an all out slug fest for control with little room for political maneuvering. I like that, it fits the source material and it's a great idea in its own right. Once the banners are called all bets are off and it's you-win-or-you die with your chances of success largely dependent upon how well you prepared for the inevitable war.

Unfortunately the real time implementation of these mechanics turns them into a micromanaging mess. During the game you will be constantly following single units around. Enemy units, even military units, will enter your territory and be promptly ignored by the spies, assassins and soldiers you've hired requiring you to constantly watch for a little red blip on the minimap to show where your peasants are being massacred.

The graphics are reminiscent of Warcraft III. They might have been great 5 or 6 years ago, but now they're just kind of bland and unimpressive. When combined with the blandness of the game and the mechanics it just makes the game mediocre, bordering on a failure, on every level.

Other points to make, well, your units also can be as dumb as pile of rocks. Literally, they will act like a pile of rocks while enemy units fill them with arrows or start stabbing them. The music also shifts inappropriately at times; it will switch over to dramatic "battle time" music while there is nothing going on. Not a terrible flaw, but it does kind of break immersion a bit. Better no music shifts at all than nonsensical ones.

Ultimately, AGOT:G is boring. It is just what anyone would usually expect from a game based on licensed materials; it's slapped together from whatever was on hand and largely fails to make full use of its source material. It didn't seem particularly buggy but neither did it really seem polished at all. The mechanics are like a rough draft for a board game shoehorned into a real-time framework; they weren't finished to begin with and then were applied to something they are totally unsuited for. There is some good to be had, the mechanics certainly represent something that would be great with a little more polish and refinement, but they're overwhelmed by the micromanagement and the utter dullness that permeates this game. It's not insultingly bad, just lazy and rushed, destined to pollute bargain bins across the nation for years to come.

There is an upcoming RPG that appears to be developed a little more from the ground up, I can only hope that this means that the minds at Cyanide will put a little more of the source material in the game. Read more ›

36 of 40 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars I bought this game of Steam on launch day... read before you buy. October 4, 2011

By Indiana Customer

First off, this game is not well polished at all. Mods for Mount and Blade Warband, or Medieval Total War that are based on A Song of Ice and Fire are much better then this game. However, this game is not horrible, it is very political, which is what makes it unique. It plays like a RTS game, so you make armies and they clash it out age of empires style (not total war style), lot of your time is spent acquiring towns through envoys (which is very boring since its all automatic), and then sending out spuies to make sure those towns didnt make a secret agreement with the enemy. Then one of your envoys will get assassinated, and you have to send a spy to locate him (this is all horrible graphics RTS btw, its just 1-2 clicks here and there) after spy locates him you hire mercenaries to take him out, which look no different then your main army (like 3 little guys on horseback, its not cool or anything, just a representation of a army). Anyways, I only gave this game 2 stars because of the story, being able to read before each new chapter 1-2 pages of backstory is the only reason I bought this game. I just am a huge fan of story, but def not this game. Even then its heavily outdated, its maybe 30 seconds of reading backstory (no voice reads it to you like most modern games) then 30 mins of a mission... so yeah

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Awful October 25, 2011

By Anodionysus

I was looking forward to this game, as the promos for it looked pretty good. I recognized that it was going to be an AoE RTS-type, but I was OK with that because, well, I really like AoE. But this is, amazingly, actually a worse game than AoE, and AoE came out long ago. The game really has nothing to do with the Ice and Fire series other than you are supposedly a Targaryen. And it supposedly takes place in Westeros. The game is buggy, boring, and kind of hard to figure out. It is not fun by any stretch, but is actually somewhat of interest just because it is so astoundingly awful. Worse game I've played since my brother picked up a ColecoVision at a garage sale.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Tragic October 11, 2011

By Tom Hodgkiss-Lilly

Unfortunately, pretty tragic attempt. It is pretty glitchy, at least the graphics are. Which is weird, because they seem based on 15-year-old technology anyway. It isn't a bad game for 1996, and if it had been released then, might have made some waves. Or perhaps not. The gameplay is seems somewhat frantic (in a bad way, not in a SC2 way). The back story, which should have been the most interesting thing, was just boringly done. I am sorry that it didn't work out well, and the company gave it a decent attempt, but this just is not a game that is worth playing.

16 of 21 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Just bad. October 4, 2011

By Sean McKinnon

Don't waste your money hoping this game is something its not. The game has poor graphics, gameplay, and sound. $39.99 to take advantage of a great book series. Wish I could have my money back.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars It's really just not fun. April 11, 2012

By TheCapulet

Amazon Verified Purchase

I really wanted to like this game. And I tried to like it for about half an hour. After that long with the game, the only thing on my mind was "phew. I'm glad I didn't pay anything near full price for this".

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars this game is crap to load May 22, 2012

By al

Amazon Verified Purchase

this game makes you download a battlenet like server that you have to log into that wants you log personal info to. Then it takes forever to get thru to play the game. dont waste your money.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Age of Empires with a Game of Thrones theme June 18, 2012

By K. Brizo

Amazon Verified Purchase

This game got horrible reviews in the press, which as a huge Game of Thrones/ASOIAF fan really disappointed me. Amazon had a great sale, and for the $5 investment I figured it was worth trying out and lining GRRM's pockets with a little more cash.

I was not disappointed in this game at all. If you're a fan of the series it offers an amazing insight to the history of Westeros and how events affect the course of history. It's a history lesson for ASOIAF nerds.

The game plays just like Age of Empires with a twist - you create units that serve different purposes (farmers, soldiers, etc.) but each unit has a weakness/strength. It doesn't take long to figure out which units are for what purpose. The scenarios are incredibly difficult. One wrong move and you find yourself starting over from an auto-save check point. Even on the easiest level the computer AI can easily get the upper hand and obliterate you. I have definitely had to play scenarios a few times just to see what the computer would do so that I could counter them and pass.

If you're a Game of Thrones nerd and enjoy Age of Empires you can't go wrong with this game, but buy it on sale.