Game of Thrones: War for Westeros—the upcoming RTS from PlaySide emerging from the blasted wreckage of HBO’s once-water-cooler-dominating fantasy TV series—would like you to know it still exists and is still coming out. Just, you know, a little later than it originally had planned.
War for Westeros originally broke cover at last year’s Summer Game Fest, promising big RTS battles, tricksy alliance-forging between the many houses of Westeros, and “deeply asymmetric strategies, with signature heroes, armies, and mechanics forged from the brutal legacy of Westeros.” It was very much a game based on the TV show, and not the more well-regarded but less recognisable book series—you could tell because Charles Dance did the narration and there were some uncanny CGI renditions of Kit Harington and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.
But it’s been quiet since then. That is, until an update last week informed fans that “development has been progressing well” in that time, and provided a little more insight into what the game might actually feel like to play. You can check out the full post here, but to my eye it all looks like a perfectly cromulent RTS. You’ve got swarms of men in armour and hero units to rally ’em, plus some pretty and sweeping (though not yet distinctively ‘Thrones-y’) maps for them to fight on.
The most interesting part of the update pertains to combat itself. “We are placing a massive emphasis on responsiveness, unit behavior, and physical impact in War for Westeros,” says PlaySide, accompanying which statement is a gif of some—I think Lannister—calvarymen absolutely knocking some archers aside like skittles.