Game of Thrones “The Lost Lords” review for Xbox One, PS4, PC

I didn?t have a chance to review the first episode of Telltale?s Game of Thrones series, Iron from Ice, but I absolutely enjoyed it. I thought Telltale did a great job of capturing the feel of both the TV show and the book series that the show is based off of. The introduction of House Forrester, and how they relate to the overall Westeros lore was pretty solid, without feeling like something shoehorned into existing continuity. And of course, the voice acting really helped propel the story forward, featuring the same stellar voice work that Telltale titles are generally known for.

The second entry into Telltale?s Game of Thrones series, dubbed The Lost Lords, doesn?t drop the ball quality-wise one bit. Outside of a technical hiccup I?ll go into later, this series seems to be on track to match or exceed the quality of The Wolf Among Us and The Walking Dead. Granted, I?m a huge fan of Game of Thrones in general, but I really feel like Telltale has brought their ?A? game to the table with this series thus far. And with the introduction of Asher Forrester, a character that I have a feeling will quickly become a fan favorite, The Lost Lords looks to solidify my opinion that this is one of the best Telltale titles to date.

The continuing struggle of the Forrester clan against both the Boltons and the Whitehills progresses with this chapter, coming hot on the heels of the shock ending found in Episode 1. At the end of that episode, House Forrester looked to be in dire straits, with a number of it?s male heirs dead or gone, leaving Lady Forrester and daughter Talia to fend off the growing aggression from House Whitehill. The Lost Lords thankfully brings a bit more hope to the Forrester household, while beginning to establish Gared?s storyline as he arrives at the Wall, and amping up the intrigue in Mira?s storyline in King?s Landing.

This chapter also allows players to get their hands dirty a bit on the continent of Essos, with sellswords and other nefarious rogues taking center stage. Fans of the show will likewise enjoy more performances from show actors like Peter Dinklage and Kit Harington. And I?ll also give Telltale credit for not relying too heavily on existing characters in this chapter. Clearly they wanted to bring star power to the table for the first episode, but The Lost Lords allows the main cast a bit more time to shine here, and thankfully that cast is strong enough to do so.

Of course, don?t expect the general gameplay formula to change much here. You?ll be doing equal amounts of QTE combat and selecting dialogue choices, which in turn affect various conversation and ongoing plot threads. My aforementioned technical issues actually caused some issues on the QTE side via a fight that occurs before the title sequence begins. I failed the sequence once, and upon restarting it the sequence began to stutter and skip, which also caused me to fail a number of times because the prompts wouldn?t display. This was on the Xbox One version of the game, and thankfully I was able to power through it by predicting the inputs and spamming them until the stuttering and skipping stopped.

Outside of that issue, this was an episode that I greatly enjoyed. With the majority of the cast now established, we?re given more time to see their individual plot threads unravel, and the stakes continue to rise across all locations. Again, I think fans will really enjoy the introduction of Asher Forrester, with my only fear being that the character will become a prime candidate for an untimely demise simply because he’s so enjoyable. I?m absolutely looking forward to the remaining chapters, and I?m excited to see the continued adventures of House Forrester over the coming months.