A Game of Thrones: Genesis' literary goals are pretty auspicious: The game recounts a thousand years of history, filled with bloody conquests and backstabbing, that lead up to the A Song of Ice and Fire novels. You won't necessarily need to know a lot about the books or the cable TV show, but the game loses a lot of its appeal if you can't recognize the names of prominent families like Stark, Targaryen and Lannister.

Without knowing at least some background, the campaign will seem like a collection of loosely connected stories, rather than the sweeping, epic tale originally spun by George R.R. Martin. It may have some appeal to general fans of strategy, but Genesis is mainly geared towards letting fans experience an abridged look at the events that shaped Westeros.