Game of Thrones: Conquest is a new Android game with an official license

Game of Thrones is a potentially rich license that hasn’t exactly been as successful as it could have been in recent years. In fact, there are only two Android titles with official GoT licenses: Game of Thrones: Ascent, initially released in 2013 for Facebook, and the graphic adventure from Telltale Games. Game of Thrones: Conquest has just come out on mobile devices with the distinction of being the most expensive game ever to be released on Android to date. Hardly surprising, really, given the current cost of the monster that the license has become.

Only a publisher with the heft of Warner could cope with the presumably excessive cost of the brand – they assigned the development to their in-house studio Turbine Inc, restructured after a long run producing MMOs of the caliber of Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons & Dragons Online. Now that they’re working at the behest of a heavyweight they’ve had to ratchet back the expectations. Because yes, friends, Game of Thrones: Conquest is a strategy game seen a thousand and one times on Android, heir to browser games like Ogame and contemporary of Clash of Kings and Game of War. And hence Clash of Clans as well, of course.

Given the nature of this game, here you’re not leading any of the popular houses vying for the iron throne. Instead you head up a fictitious faction located on the continent alongside several other players on one of the many joint servers. This conceptual potpourri allows for liberties like, for instance, having Tyrion Lannister (with the obligatory look of Peter Dinklage, obviously) to counsel you as you learn to play, or the option to build Red Keep among your city buildings or a Citadel where apprentice Maesters are trained, (except here it’s been revamped to serve as a place where you can research new technologies).

Here the currency of exchange, as tends to be the case in games like this, is time itself: wait time for a building to be constructed, a troop to develop, or an expedition to make it to its destination. This means that you’ve got to enter and exit the game at frequent intervals if you want to optimize your growth process in a never-ending loop of leveling up. After a few days of progression, your main worry will be protecting yourself from enemy cities that are trying to loot your own cities basically constantly – which makes joining a clan pretty much a must.

Game of Thrones: Conquest has a gameplay seen a zillion times and I must say it makes rather questionable use of the license, but that doesn’t mean that it won’t end up with millions of player in very short order. Though it’s still not available internationally on Google Play, its APK can already be downloaded and installed from Uptodown with no geographical restrictions. Lucky for all of you out there who just can’t get enough of Daenerys and Jon.