A Game Of Thrones: Genesis

They picked the hard route instead of the easy route. Whatever else a game of A Game Thrones gets wrong, I admire it for resisting the sure temptation to be a dime a dozen medieval-themed real-time strategy game filled with units that endlessly uttered familiarly pithy or portentous lines from George R.R. Martin's deadline-busting fantasy books.

Instead, it's tried to capture the underlying themes of the Song of Ice and Fire series. No, not suffering characters taking oh-god-so-long boat journeys to wherever the action resolutely isn't or having to sit through yet more of a dirty old man's sex fantasies when all you really want to hear about is the liches and the dragons, but instead the game of thrones itself - the politicking, alliances and treachery that sees the balance of power shift regularly and unpredictably, every noble family in the land forever striving to out-manoeuvre, out-think and out-marry their blue-blooded/power-crazed/inbred competition.

Bewilderingly, Genesis throws out all the character of the books, outside of token naming of factions as the land of Westeros' most renowned Houses, and presents a bland, brown world where everything, everywhere and everyone looks the same and no-one even knows what a bon mot is. As a celebration of Martin's seven-book low fantasy saga, it's a straight-up failure. You'd be far better off buying a King Joffrey commemorative plate or House Stark-themed thermal underpants (winter is coming, after all - better wrap up warm). As, however, a strategy game that strives to escape the genre's build'n'bash traditions and come up with something fresh, it's on to something. The ideas are right: the ideas are great, even - but the execution is grim.

Before I get into the daunting task of explaining how Genesis works outside of making small groups of men with swords stab each other, I should probably note that this game, from ever-patchy Blood Bowl devs Cyanide, was commissioned and primarily developed before the Game of Thrones TV series first reached our goggleboxes. So if you're looking for a steady stream of Dinklage quips or bare breasts every fifth minute you'll be disappointed, and perhaps even confused. Genesis is based on the books and the books only, and wastes no time in wading deep into Westeros' extensive lore and history rather than soap operatic present. If, for example, you don't know who Nymeria is (and I'm not talking about Arya's pet wolf), you'll be in the dark even from the first level.

That's a warning rather than a complaint: there's a raft of fan-service in here, but it's aimed square at the people who weren't even slightly shocked by A Certain Moment in the ninth episode of the TV show. Beyond entirely superficial name-drops of characters and areas, though, this could be any-fiction. The known sights of Westeros barely appear - so instead of the Lannisters' legendary stronghold of Casterly Rock, you'll get a generic castle called Feudal Home with a red flag outside it. Each House has one unique and generally non-combat unit, but other than that each side looks, sounds and behaves the same save for the colour of the little flag it carries. 'Drab' is the best word for the game, and that's totally at odds with the mischievous, sadistic, lecherous source material.

So how, then, is it like Game Of Thrones? Well, while thrones themselves don't get much of a look in, the heart of Genesis is about the long game of duplicity and alliances necessary to gain control of the land. This is rarely a game of conquest, but instead one of using Envoys to take and hold fixed nodes on the map. These nodes are nominally neutral strongholds and cities, which your rival(s) are also striving to get on-side as they're the primary source of gold (for unit construction) and Prestige (for winning a game). Build an Envoy, right-click on a node and in most cases it'll be yours just as soon as the unit's completed its tortuously slow journey across the map.

Or, at least, it will appear to be yours. It might be an enemy Spy has gotten there first and arranged a Secret Agreement - so your Alliance will earn you no gold or Prestige, and the settlement will declare itself for the enemy once the open war stage begins (I'll get to that in a minute). Alternatively, an enemy Rogue might have bribed your Envoy to switch to the other side.

Again, all will appear well but those coffers won't fill as fast as you'd like. As is one of the overarching themes of A Song Of Ice and Fire, no-one can be trusted, anyone can and will switch sides in an instant and whenever one side thinks the tide has turned in their favour plot and treason in a holding they thought safe can set them on a course to ruin.