The thumb is up, I like the game. I like it a lot in fact. This is my second time purchasing it, the first time on PS4 was so good I was eagerly waiting on a PC release. Buying it again at launch was done immediately without hesitation because this game is not just beautiful every single moment but it is also the definitive wandering samurai / ninja assassin game.

Detractors can call it an ubiclone all they want but I've given up on many tedious and boring ubisoft games. If you squint and say they're in the same broad genre then this game is at the peak of a mountain that ubisoft games are the foothills of. The gameplay has a simple foundation and layers complexity on throughout the playthrough at just the right pace to keep things interesting and easy to understand. The exploration is exciting both from a visual standpoint but also thematically. As you clear areas and discover new (beautiful) locations freeing the land of invaders peasants move back into their farms and villages. It adds a bit to backtracking I often do rather than fast travelling just because I want to see more of the scenery.

Performance wise I have been playing GoT on two different systems so far;
One has a 3090 and a 5800x3d with a 4k120hz hdr vrr screen. My settings are a mix of high and very high, I tuned a couple of things down to stay above 60 all the time. Using UP/DLSS I get usually 75fps but it can dip as low as 60, the version of DLSS they're using looks fantastic and doesn't seem to have any upscaling issues at UP. I'm not using FSR3 frame gen, I was for a while but it kept crashing. I believe its an incompatability issue with nvidia reflex low latency mode but I'd rather have reduced latency than generated frames so I turned it off.
My other system is a 7600xt GPU and 3600x CPU, this one is running bazzite deck mode as the os because its a HTPC connected to a 4k60hz screen also with vrr. My settings are mostly high though a couple of things are at medium and a couple are at very high. I'm playing the game at 1080p with automatic fsr3 upscaling (noFG) targeting 60fps, it stays locked at 60 with a butter smooth frame time graph. The OS uses fsr1 to upscale it the rest of the way to 4k as is standard for steamos style systems (gamescope feature). Visually it looks almost indistinguishable from my main windows computer with the much higher end specs, the photomode shots I've been taking are hard to tell apart anyway.

The upscaling is doing an incredible job whatever the case, both DLSS and FSR3 are looking very good on both systems. I'm usually quite sensitive to ghosting, visual trails, schmearing, and odd dithering effects. Neither of these seem to have any of those issues that I've noticed at all. Maybe the game is too visually busy with the waving grass for me to tell while I'm playing or even standing around looking for it but its really doing quite and excellent job. I'm quite impressed with both upscalers in this game.

So yeah whether you want to role play as the ultimate honorable samurai or the silentest brutalist assassin or something in between this game is basically peak ninja/samurai genre. If you're just looking for another game to mindlessly process the checklist chore program while ignoring the story and setting then this game may be better picked up on sale or skipped. The chores are there on the map but the games a much better experience if you spend less time on the map screen setting objectives and more time just wandering the lands dueling mongols and bandits.

The thumb is up, I like the game. I like it a lot in fact. This is my second time purchasing it, the first time on PS4 was so good I was eagerly waiting on a PC release. Buying it again at launch was done immediately without hesitation because this game is not just beautiful every single moment but it is also the definitive wandering samurai / ninja assassin game. Detractors can call it an ubiclone all they want but I've given up on many tedious and boring ubisoft games. If you squint and say they're in the same broad genre then this game is at the peak of a mountain that ubisoft games are the foothills of. The gameplay has a simple foundation and layers complexity on throughout the playthrough at just the right pace to keep things interesting and easy to understand. The exploration is exciting both from a visual standpoint but also thematically. As you clear areas and discover new (beautiful) locations freeing the land of invaders peasants move back into their farms and villages. It adds a bit to backtracking I often do rather than fast travelling just because I want to see more of the scenery. Performance wise I have been playing GoT on two different systems so far; One has a 3090 and a 5800x3d with a 4k120hz hdr vrr screen. My settings are a mix of high and very high, I tuned a couple of things down to stay above 60 all the time. Using UP/DLSS I get usually 75fps but it can dip as low as 60, the version of DLSS they're using looks fantastic and doesn't seem to have any upscaling issues at UP. I'm not using FSR3 frame gen, I was for a while but it kept crashing. I believe its an incompatability issue with nvidia reflex low latency mode but I'd rather have reduced latency than generated frames so I turned it off. My other system is a 7600xt GPU and 3600x CPU, this one is running bazzite deck mode as the os because its a HTPC connected to a 4k60hz screen also with vrr. My settings are mostly high though a couple of things are at medium and a couple are at very high. I'm playing the game at 1080p with automatic fsr3 upscaling (noFG) targeting 60fps, it stays locked at 60 with a butter smooth frame time graph. The OS uses fsr1 to upscale it the rest of the way to 4k as is standard for steamos style systems (gamescope feature). Visually it looks almost indistinguishable from my main windows computer with the much higher end specs, the photomode shots I've been taking are hard to tell apart anyway. The upscaling is doing an incredible job whatever the case, both DLSS and FSR3 are looking very good on both systems. I'm usually quite sensitive to ghosting, visual trails, schmearing, and odd dithering effects. Neither of these seem to have any of those issues that I've noticed at all. Maybe the game is too visually busy with the waving grass for me to tell while I'm playing or even standing around looking for it but its really doing quite and excellent job. I'm quite impressed with both upscalers in this game. So yeah whether you want to role play as the ultimate honorable samurai or the silentest brutalist assassin or something in between this game is basically peak ninja/samurai genre. If you're just looking for another game to mindlessly process the checklist chore program while ignoring the story and setting then this game may be better picked up on sale or skipped. The chores are there on the map but the games a much better experience if you spend less time on the map screen setting objectives and more time just wandering the lands dueling mongols and bandits.