Hell, even the terrific big reveal in "A Nest of Vipers" was overshadowed by a "major" choice that didn't actually have any impact on the way the episode's climax went down.īen: It's really hard to talk about this stuff without delving into spoiler territory, but there was a major setpiece that took place due to a decision I made in a previous episode that I assumed could be avoided, or a better outcome achieved with a different decision. But in the framework of an interactive experience in which the story is tailored by how you play, that's pretty unsatisfying. I suppose you could explain that away by saying it fits with the capricious decision-making that's a staple of characters in the Game of Thrones universe. You and I were discussing a story turn that resulted directly from events in Episode Four, "Sons of Winter." We made different choices in that episode, but the plotting of "A Nest of Vipers" disregarded our actions in that storyline. In fact, I replayed chunks of the episode to see if the story would play out differently with other choices - nope. But playing "A Nest of Vipers" was often an exercise in frustration: On multiple occasions, it felt like the game was funneling me through story beats, rendering my dialogue choices essentially meaningless. These kinds of games always have to balance telling the story that the developers want to tell against giving the player some control over that story.