First Impressions and Developer Interview for Game of Thrones: War for Westeros!

A look at how RTS meets the Game of Thrones universe

Early access to the game was provided to us by PlaySide Studios, thank you very much!

The coming years are shaping up to be a small renaissance for strategy games, especially RTS titles. Among the many games currently in development and expected to launch in the next few years is Game of Thrones: War for Westeros, which takes the massive Game of Thrones universe and combines it with many familiar elements from classic RTS games. In the days before Gamescom, I got the chance to play a demo of War for Westeros and have a conversation with its developers during the show. So what's it all about, and is this the spearhead of the RTS comeback?

For the North

Let me start by talking about the demo I played. As is typical for demos, it was relatively small and didn't contain a ton of content, but it did include all the core gameplay elements you'd expect in the full game. The first thing I thought the moment I started playing War for Westeros was that it feels a lot like Age of Empires 2, which is actually high praise. The game mode available to me was the classic Skirmish mode in a one-on-one format, where I could choose whether I wanted to play as House of Stark or House of Lannister on one of two available maps: Greywater Watch or Ashemark. At first I thought the differences between the houses would be purely cosmetic, but to my surprise they behave completely differently from one another, with each suited to a slightly different playstyle. I have to give praise right now to the game's design teams, who did an amazing job designing the environments, various characters, and structures in the game. Everything feels faithful to the source material and is beautifully crafted with a lot of attention to detail. I especially loved how buildings can be destroyed with animations that look very natural.

Despite the strong similarity to AoE, War for Westeros has a core mechanic that sets it apart from other RTS games: the hero system. Each house can recruit several heroes to its battlefield—for House Stark, these include Jon Snow and Robb Stark, for example. These heroes who enter the battlefield essentially serve as commanders, giving surrounding units advantages like extra armor or increased damage. For me, this mechanic was reminiscent of Heroes of Might and Magic (especially the third and fourth installments). Even though my instinct was to keep the heroes back to protect them, the intention is actually the complete opposite. Heroes move quickly and are very powerful, so they can often tip the scales in your favor during battles. Additionally, the more battles heroes participate in, the more experience they gain and the more they level up, making them even stronger. Proper use of heroes and their abilities is what makes the difference and wins battles, so there's real significance to how you protect them and use them correctly. I really loved this mechanic and the strategic thinking it required from me, as well as the emotional connection to the characters it created.

At Gamescom I sat down for a brief conversation with Ryan McMahon, the game director, to discuss the development process, the inspiration behind it, and some of the current challenges before launch and what's expected after. One thing that interested me was what the studio would do if it had to choose between brand fidelity and accuracy versus gameplay. McMahon answered that War for Westeros is first and foremost an RTS game, so with all the studio's great love for Game of Thrones, gameplay and mechanics come first. The main thing I took away from this interview was how much the studio loves the brand and wants to deliver a good Game of Thrones experience that devoted fans of the show will enjoy, not just RTS players. At launch, the game will include only about four of the nine Game of Thrones houses, and McMahon didn't address whether additional houses would be added as expansion packs, but it's reasonable to assume that will be the case. In response to the question of whether the game would also include characters from the spin-off brands (House of the Dragon, The King of the Seven Kingdoms), he said that the current game received a license to use only the original series, and additional brands would require a new and separate license. The last thing I was told is that the studio wants as many people as possible to try the game during its beta and provide feedback, which will influence the game's future roadmap and help improve it before launch.

The launch date for War for Westeros hasn't been revealed yet, but as mentioned, beta registration is open and available through this link.