A Game of Thrones: Genesis

A Game of Thrones: Genesis is a real-time strategy game from Cyanide Studios built around the political machinery of George R.R. Martin's world rather than straight-up base-building and unit spam. The core pitch is genuinely interesting: instead of winning purely through military dominance, you can accumulate victory points through alliances, espionage, assassinations, and betrayals. Sending a raven to offer a fake alliance, then slipping a spy into an enemy's court to flip their units, is the kind of move this game rewards. On paper, that sounds like exactly the kind of layered decision-making a strategy player wants. The problem is that the execution is shaky in almost every direction that matters. The AI is unpredictable in the worst sense, not in the "keeps you honest" way but in the "did it just betray its own winning position for no reason" way. The diplomatic system, which should be the heart of the whole experience, is underexplained and inconsistent enough that it often feels random rather than readable. Newcomers expecting a tutorial that walks them through the spy-and-alliance mechanics will find guidance that barely scratches the surface, leaving you to learn by losing matches you didn't understand you were losing. The military side of the game is not where you want to spend your time. Unit variety is thin, combat animations are stiff even by 2011 standards, and battles resolve without much tactical texture. The campaign covers Westerosi history stretching back centuries before the events of the books, which is a lore-rich angle that fans might appreciate, but the storytelling delivery is flat enough that it rarely lands with the weight the setting deserves. Multiplayer, which is where the betrayal mechanics actually shine, requires opponents who know what they are doing, and the playerbase at this point is essentially gone. For strategy players specifically: there is no mod ecosystem worth noting, no meaningful post-launch support, and the depth of decision-making does not hold up against contemporaries even from the same era. If you are a Paradox veteran or someone who appreciated the social deduction layer in games like Crusader Kings, you will see what Genesis was trying to be, and you will also see how far short it falls. The bones of a more interesting game are here, but they were never fleshed out. The honest position is that this one is for committed completionists of the IP and curious historians of licensed RTS games, not for anyone seeking a functional strategy experience in 2024. The 35% positive review score on Steam is not a fluke. Approach with very low expectations or skip it entirely and load up a Crusader Kings mod that covers the same fantasy setting with ten times the systemic depth.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

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