Game of Thrones: Episode Three - The Sword in the Darkness Reviews

Game of Thrones: Episode Three - The Sword in the Darkness is ranked in the 67th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
5 / 10.0
Apr 19, 2015

The flames of my attention are beginning to wane, my empathy draining, especially with the return of HBO's flagship show. The next episode will need to step it up, in terms of story and in finding a way for me to care about the Forresters again. As of now, this family is coming across as decidedly wooden, in need of a chop.

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2.5 / 5.0
Apr 1, 2015

It's still impossible to recommend this series to anyone but Telltale diehards; fans of the HBO show will find it supremely unsatisfying and dreadfully boring, and it's too steeped in lore for anyone else to jump in. The Sword in the Darkness does nothing to change that, but it does push the quality bar just a hair higher, elevating itself all the way into "I guess that wasn't terrible" territory.

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5 / 10.0
Mar 24, 2015

At the middle point, Game of Thrones is losing its momentum and, except for Gared and elements of Rodrik's story, hasn't shown enough progression to get people excited for what's to come.

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Mar 27, 2015

At this midway point, Game of Thrones is showing much promise, enough to invest in a season pass if you're any kind of fan. It's been a steady drip-feed so far but The Sword in the Darkness feels like a dam ready to burst and with three more episodes to come there's plenty of room for it to flow.

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6 / 10
Mar 29, 2015

The overall story is still interesting enough to leave us anticipating, but much like how fans wish those damn dragons would cross the sea already, it would be in this game's best interest to hurry things along.

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6 / 10
Mar 24, 2015

An episode where plenty goes on, but neither story nor characters are actually advanced a great deal. The Ironrath Forresters are still miserable hostages, Asher still needs an army, and Gared is still doing Nights Watch duties. A few revelations, plus Mira's dynamism, keep things from going stale.

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6 / 10
Mar 26, 2015

Telltale's take on Game of Thrones feels quite low-key compared to some of the goings on in the main series, but this episode begins to move away from that being a problem and starts using it to its advantage, as it shows you different sides of familiar situations. There's still a lot of filler to get through, though, and it's very dialogue heavy with little to offer in terms of unique gameplay. Hopefully, now that we're getting past the halfway point, the next episode will be much more enjoyable.

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65 / 100
Apr 5, 2015

Telltale can and has done great things for the Game of Thrones fiction. But scope is what propelled this fictional world into the cultural phenomenon it it is today. If the games hope to be considered worthy additions to the phenomenon, they'll need to take advantage of that vast world, and all its opportunities for original storytelling. While also remembering that we'd like to see a bit more than the bottom of a Whitehill's shoe.

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Digitally Downloaded
Nick H.
Top Critic
Mar 26, 2015

[This episode] was my least favourite in the series so far. I assume it will become a very important part of the narrative, but its highlights are few enough and far enough in between with the promise of more to come that it comes away somewhat less than its predecessors.

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7 / 10.0
Mar 27, 2015

This was another great installment that should please both fans and those new to the series alike.

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Mar 24, 2015

The Sword in the Darkness stays the course for Telltale's Game of Thrones series, though it still feels like the story is waiting around for something to finally happen

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7.5 / 10.0
Mar 25, 2015

Game of Thrones: Episode 3 -The Sword in the Darkness puts the series in a good spot. Asher has a decent amount of action, and his straightforward story is a nice contrast to everyone else's tales. Mira's situation is as tense as ever, and it doesn't look like the game will let up anytime soon. Gared's tale has gotten traction and gone from boring to exciting in one fell swoop. Rodrik's part in the episode still feels like it's spinning its wheels, but if you played things out a certain way, the events at the end signal the beginning of a spark . As long as the pacing of episode releases is right, there's enough here to keep players invested while the TV show rolls on.

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7.5 / 10.0
Mar 23, 2015

Game of Thrones Episode 3 is a pretty solid entry in the series made by Telltale Games. It takes the overall story to some interesting new areas, but some aspects, such as the Rodrik sequences, tend to feel repetitive and uninspired. The next few episodes are shaping up to bring some even bigger events, so expect to see even more interesting developments in the future.

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Polygon
Top Critic
7.5 / 10.0
Apr 8, 2015

This episode did a great job of quickening the pace of the story while offering the player the sort of hard choices that make Telltale games such terrible fun to play.

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Dan Stapleton
Top Critic
7.7 / 10.0
Mar 24, 2015

Early excitement and newfound purpose puts Telltale's Game of Thrones back on track in Episode 3.

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Mar 29, 2015

With 'A Sword in the Darkness,' 'Game of Thrones: A Telltale Games Series' is making great progress. Blasphemous though it may be, I'm beginning to like the series even more than their 'Walking Dead' project, and that is also an excellent franchise. Like any great episodic game, high quality episodes make me wait for the next one even more impatiently.

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4 / 5.0
Mar 29, 2015

Even though the episode is quite short, it's quite a powerful release from Telltale Games as you attempt to make the right decisions which you hope will have the least resistance in the future for the Forresters but even the best laid plans of mice and men do go awry. With that said, there's some action scenes in this episode for Garred Tuttle that has a huge consequence for this ex-squire as this series goes into overdrive. All in all, another hit from Telltale Games, especially if you're a fan of HBO's Game of Thrones!

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8 / 10.0
Mar 24, 2015

Episode Three fulfills all the promises it needs to for fans of the Game of Thrones TV series, even if it doesn't necessarily give old school adventure game fans much to actually do in terms of interactivity.

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8 / 10.0
Mar 30, 2015

A very good continuation of the story then, but I hope and suspect that the "holy s**t" moments will come in Episodes 4 and 5.

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NZGamer
Top Critic
8 / 10.0
Mar 29, 2015

At this point, the only reason I can see for people who enjoy Telltale Games' titles, and the Game of Thrones franchise to not pick this game up is because they're waiting for all six episodes to be available.

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