Game of Thrones for the PS3 is billed as a prequel to the HBO series. What it really is is a prequel to a fully finished game.

We adore the Game of Throne series on TV as well as the books. We've seen the series many times. We were enthusiastically looking forward to the game release. We were disappointed with what the game provided.

The game starts out seeming interesting. There are two characters that you go back and forth playing, one being a Night's Watch brother and the other being a Red Priest. You get some small amount of configuration - for each you can choose one of three basic battle techniques. These then affect your "attack tree" for building experience. The priest gets magic, and the fighter gets a dog to take over with.

You find various items along the way of your quests, mostly junk you just sell, but occasionally you do hit a useful item. There's an arena mini-game to hone your battle skills, and you bet on them as well. You can even bet against yourself and throw a fight. You do get some decisions along the way, and they affect how certain characters react to you later on.

Gameplay is frustrating. The game will auto-save when you head into a section, and if it's long and convoluted, you're sent all the way back to that spot. This issue then trains you to have to save after every single action which is tedious. Loading times are quite slow as well. By the end of the game it seemed like one was doing the same thing over and over again.

Graphics and sound were OK. Not stunning, but not atrocious either.

All in all, the game was not so awful that we gave up part way through, but it didn't leave us thrilled with the experience when we finished. It could have been so much more. The bar was set high by the novel and the actors in the series. The game doesn't rise up to those standards.

Rating: 6/10

We purchased this game with our own funds in order to do this review.

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