Brutality, betrayal and bad omens; it’s typical Game of Thrones stuff in episode five of Telltale’s adventure series, A Nest of Vipers.

SPOILER WARNING: The following review contains spoilers for Episode 4: Sons of WInter. If you haven’t yet had the pleasure of playing the second episode, do not read on.

During A Nest of Vipers it becomes obvious that war between the Whitehills and the Forresters is inevitable. With a traitor in his midst and the enemy encroaching, Roderick’s task becomes increasingly difficult, and things look bleak for the beleaguered house.

Once again, Ramsay Snow supports his bid to be crowned the greatest arsehole in fiction as he terrorises the poor Forresters. The only problem with having Ramsay as a villain is that anybody who watches the hugely popular HBO show (which is basically everybody in the known universe) knows that Ramsay is still alive after the period in which the game is canonically set. This means that unlike most video game villains, the player knows that they can never get revenge, and unrequited retribution does not make for a happy camper.

Once again, it’s Mira’s story that best portrays the source material. In an attempt to save her family, Mira has been ruffling quite a few feathers in King’s Landing in the past few episodes. In A Nest of Vipers, Queen Cersei offers her a deal; if Mira can trick the incarcerated Tyrion into giving some vital information regarding his impending trial, she will help her family. With an opponent as intelligent and perceptive as Tyrion Lannister, it was never going to be easy.

Out of the Forrester’s trying to aid Rod, it seems that Asher will probably be the one to have the most impact. After helping Daenerys take over Meereen in the last episode, Asher has to gather a troupe of blood-thirsty warriors to aid his family.

Out of the three stories (two of which collide in the episodes fantastic climax), Asher’s is the strongest. He has the difficult job of having to convince a group of ex-pit fighters, content to slaughter one another till the cows come home, to sail to Westeros to fight on his behalf.

It constitutes an exciting pit-battle and some interesting dialogue puzzles, in which the player has to judge the character and the mood of their audience, and then speak accordingly to best win them over.

Gared’s story feels seperate from the rest. The other three stories intertwine and affect one another, leaving Gared’s search for the North Grove out in the cold. In the previous episode, Gared fled from the Knight’s Watch with two of his fellow crows in tow to search for the enigmatic North Grove which we assume will help his house.

Gared’s contribution to the episode is certainly exciting, with wight battles (basically frozen zombies) and tense exchanges, but as I said earlier, it feels disconnected from the other character’s actions, and as a result, it feels rather aimless.

We as an audience know that there is only one more episode left. Unless the final episode is completely devoted to Gared (the cliff-hanger ending of A Nest of Vipers implies that it won’t be), there is no way he will have enough time to find the North Grove, collect whatever it is that will save House Forrester and return home in time for tea. From this, we can surmise that either Gared will fails in his task or Telltale are setting up a sequel-hook.

In the first episode, Lord Whitehill abducted Ryon, the youngest Forrester, as a means of forcing the House to do his bidding. However, in practice this has little effect. I know the character’s all care deeply for little Ryon and want to save him, but when given the option, I consistently endangered him for the good of the House with no emotional consequences. I know what you’re thinking, but I’m not a socio-path.

We only saw Ryon for a grand total of five minutes in the first episode, so how are we expected to care about him four episodes later? It’s a rare example of shoddy writing from Telltale. You can’t just tell us that the character’s care about this character, and then expect us to work with his safety in mind.

Players famously adored Clementine from The Walking Dead. It was the result of gradual, superbly written characterisation. Players wanted to protect her because they actually cared about her, not because they were told they should.

Honestly, as enjoyable as Game of Thrones has been, it has sorely lacked the aforementioned characterisation that made The Walking Dead so emotionally involving. Perhaps it’s because of the large roster of protagonists, but they’re all fairly bland, and none of them get enough time to really impress themselves on the player. Their stories may be exciting, but I felt an acute sense of detachment from them.

Despite not feeling as engaged as I have been with Telltale’s other work, Game of Thrones continues to satisfy. It gives the fans what they want whilst telling an exciting and suitably violent story. Each episode notches up the tension as we shuffle towards what promises to be jaw-dropping finalé, and A Nest of Vipers does a fantastic job of priming the audience for the final episode.

All in all, A Nest of Vipers was a good episode with some great moments and an astonishing ending. I would have written more about the climax, but I wouldn’t wish to spoil because I have no interest in arousing the rage of the internet. I quite like my house, and I’d rather it not be burned to the ground.

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