Review in Progress: Kingsroad from Game of Thrones

Sure, here’s a rewritten version of the article with a messy, human-like tone:

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Okay, so let’s talk about something that’s been eating up way too much of my time recently—Game of Thrones: Kingsroad. It’s in Early Access, and I gotta say, it’s left me with some mixed feelings. I mean, it’s trying to channel that epic vibe of the TV series—dragons, drama, and all that jazz—but man, there’s a ton of grinding involved. Like, seriously? Grinding or maybe just handing over your cash.

Anyway, you start as this kid, the last one left in House Tyre. Your dad’s sick, and now it’s on you to travel Westeros and win over some allies. Sounds thrilling, right? Sure, you meet the usual suspects—Jon Snow, Samwell Tarly, you know the crew. But I can’t shake off this odd feeling. Like, there I was, hoping to be the next big thing, but then I realized—the grind is so intense, it’s scary!

Oh, and here’s where it gets juicy: you can pick what kind of warrior you want to be. Fancy a sword? Go knight. More of an axe person? Try the Sellsword. I went Sellsword because, well, swinging axes around seemed fun. And here’s a cool thing, you can switch characters from the main menu and share loot between them. But, you still have to replay stuff. Ugh.

The character creator was a fun surprise. I could mess with the tiniest details—beard length, scars, even hair sheen. I swear I spent more time tweaking my character’s look than playing the actual game. Is that weird? Maybe.

Westeros, by the way, looks great at first. Lovely places like Winterfell feel alive, but hang around too long, and they sort of lose their charm. Grass glitches, everything repeats. Makes ya wonder if you’ve accidentally signed up for some weird loop. Oh, and don’t even get me started on the NPCs—they either move way too much or not at all. Awkward!

And then, there’s combat… sigh. Same old, same old. You dodge, hit back, rinse, repeat. It’s like they just couldn’t be bothered to spice things up. I mean, come on! Sometimes there were nice surprises, but mostly, it’s a dull affair.

But the stories? They’re nice. They pull on your heartstrings a bit. Like, help find lost kids or deal with some bandit bothering farmers. But even that gets old pretty fast. The fighting just makes everything feel thankless. I wish it was more engaging.

Thankfully, once in a while, you stumble across puzzles. Yeah, actual puzzles! They give you a break from all that fighting. Exploring feels nice until, well, you hit barriers. A score system stops you from moving forward if you’re not buffed up enough. Which is fair, sort of. But then the loot dries up and suddenly, you’re just repeating everything to get by. Or tempting you to pay. Ugh, not cool.

Let’s not ignore all those pesky microtransactions scattered everywhere. No kidding, they’re pushing it hard. Need a quick resurrection? There’s a fee. Fast travel? Another fee. It’s like everything’s set to make you want to, no, need to spend more.

Long story short, after 20 hours, the game still feels massive. Like I’m just scratching the surface but, there’s a bitter taste. It’s all so close yet so far behind a paywall. Still, I’m curious about those features I haven’t dug into yet, like estate management. Whatever the case, in this game, either you pay, or, well, you don’t make it.

Crazy, right?