Okay, let me stress something right from the start. As much as you can currently play Game of Thrones: Kingsroad on PC, on Steam via an Early Access setup, this is in fact a mobile game first and foremost. Many of you will hear that and cringe or flee in terror like you’re being hounded down by a hungry direwolf, but there’s levels to what this means. So let me explain.
For a game that costs anywhere between £22 and £78 to access currently, on PC you get an experience that just doesn’t feel in-line with what we expect of the platform. It’s graphically subpar, the quest design is about as lifeless as it gets, there’s an overwhelming number of management and progression systems, and the combat lacks the finesse and depth we see in the action-RPG space, despite clearly having inspiration from it. Again, as far as a PC game goes, it’s not exactly going to be winning any awards.
But, if you look at Kingsroad for what it is really meant to be – a mobile action-adventure RPG – it nails the task at hand in the typical and often popular way we see on the platform. There are multiple and unique class options to play as and master, an open-world that spans the entirety of Westeros and that lets you travel from The Wall to King’s Landing without a hitch meeting countless A Song of Ice and Fire characters along the way, and all of this while in a package that offers a new but familiar story thanks to its setting of around the second half of Season 4 of the Game of Thrones show.
So, as you can see, you have to judge Kingsroad on its version, and for today that means the PC edition. Unfortunately…
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Kingsroad is an entirely new adventure set in the world of Game of Thrones. You play as a character from the North, the illegitimate child of the lord of House Tyre, where after years away you return to find your hold in disarray and your father gravely ill. With no other heirs due to the war with the South claiming the lives of many northerners, you are set to take over the duties of being the lord of the house, but to see that accepted you first must complete a few tasks and travel all the way south, along the Kingsroad, to visit the King himself for him to recognise your claim. The plot is simply fine. It takes you all over Westeros – typically in a southern direction – where you run into famed characters that look as they do from the show with similar voices, and you get to clear bandit camps, help with trivial issues, and even hunt down legendary beasts and targets as part of your faction relationship building efforts. It’s very typical for a mobile RPG in its setup, but regardless of platform, running from a White Walker and its wight horde alongside Jon Snow is a memorable experience. So make of that what you will.
The world is also quite impressive. We’re not talking about Kingdom Come: Deliverance II’s Bohemia here, or Elden Ring’s Lands Between, but what Netmarble Neo has created is vast in scope and range and actually feels a lot like Westeros thanks to its broad nature and the sheer scale and size of some of its landmarks. Sure, it lacks some of the interactivity you appreciate in an RPG, like being able to enter niche parts of Winterfell’s inner bailey or to explore some of the nooks and crannies that make up King’s Landing’s famous Red Keep. But as far as an open-world goes, Kingsroad is massive and varied, and no one can dispute that.
The main issue is that you typically don’t want to explore it. The best open-worlds are designed in such a way that quests aren’t needed to take you off the beaten path (think Red Dead Redemption 2). The ability to generate intrigue and to encourage the player to do anything other than follow the main story is an area that Kingsroad hopelessly fails at. Again, this is because it’s a mobile RPG and that means all the quest structuring revolves around going somewhere and either fetching or killing something. There’s very little deviation. The world has been designed around this, meaning you’ll find tougher “world boss” enemies and places to farm obscure resources to help you level up and improve your colour and rarity-tiered weapons and armour. It’s perhaps some of the least exciting core game design, as it’s tailored to those folk who boot up the game on their mobile phone, run a 20-minute dungeon while on the train, and then log off for hours. It’s not meant for PC gamers to sit down for hours upon end and grind away at it. This isn’t Diablo or even an MMORPG. Well… not unless we’re talking about Diablo Immortal…
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So yep, you’re overburdened with progression systems and crafting suites that require tons of resources to utilise and that marginally improve your items, you’re thrown at a slate of menus where only half of them seem to make any coherent sense (especially the ability trees…), and somewhere in there are heaps and heaps of challenges to tick off that reward resources. It’s a gameplay nightmare unless you’re someone who thrives on these types of games and enjoys their familiar setup. However, even a veteran will find the currencies, the microtransactions, and the monetisation discomforting. There’s no beating around the bush here, Kingsroad wants your money, and whether that’s in battle passes or cosmetics, or simply keeping your copper stash full. Almost everything in this game requires copper – and you’d be right if you thought that would include fast-travelling or accessing the few cooperative elements…
I can overlook the poor graphics and the rigid and limited combat suite, and I do appreciate the narrative and what Netmarble Neo has looked to achieve with this game in that area. But the rest of it does very little to make me want to return and keep unpacking the story. I have no desire to trudge through the progression to marginally improve my character and frankly even for the lowest price of £22 that is required to play the game on PC today, I can think of a multitude of different games that you should spend your money on instead. When it’s time for the imminent mobile release, I have no doubt that Games of Thrones: Kingsroad will excel and entertain many, but for PC players, I’m far less convinced.
