If you’ve played The Witcher 3 you probably have an opinion about Gwent, its playing cards mini game. From what I’ve heard/read, people either get super into it - or are completely ignoring it. I was part of the latter, after losing my first two or three matches. Though when I gave it an honest try in a new playthrough, I became hooked.
Before I knew about Thronebreaker, I’d only heard about the online multiplayer game, Gwent, which I had no interest in. But Thronebreaker is more than just an extension of that, it’s its own singleplayer game, a 'card game RPG' with a fully detailed story and characters and tough decisions to make. If you liked the worldbuilding in the Witcher games, you get one just as rich here, and if you liked Gwent in The Witcher 3, you’ll probably like the gameplay here, too - although it’s quite a bit different.
The biggest change is that every card has active or passive abilities of its own, and there are many of them. At the beginning this may seem a bit daunting, but even during a match you can always look up how each card and its ability works, and eventually you can come up with ways to synergize and develop strategies that go beyond what the original mini game could offer.
Matches are either battles or puzzles. During battles you have to defeat your opponent, either in a straightforward have-more-points-than-them way, or under certain conditions, like under x amount of turns. Puzzles are especially fun: They provide you with a specific deck of cards that you must use creatively to solve the puzzle. They can get pretty difficult and there were a few instances where the conditions where a bit unclear, but I enjoyed those types of matches the most. Also like everything else in this game, they are always part of a story, and the cards that are used reflect that.
Speaking of story, you play as queen Meve, one of the - in my opinion - best written protagonists in video games. The premise, reclaiming your kingdom, may seem simple, but Meve’s journey is anything but. Throughout the game you are faced with dilemmas, and the responsibility for your troops and occupied kingdom makes many of the choices weigh even heavier than in The Witcher 3. At least from my perspective, I could usually find a way to argue for the 'lesser evil' in that game, which I feel is harder to do in Thronebreaker. There are short and long-term consequences that will not only affect the story, but also the gameplay. Your relationships to the characters that accompany you will change depending on what you do.
When you are not playing cards or following the story you move Meve on the beautifully drawn world maps from an isometric perspective. You can search for treasure chests and resources, or engage in side quests. The camp, where you can manage and create cards, read documents and talk to your companions, is not a fixed location but can be accessed anytime on the world map. Upgrading it and the card deck is what the resources are for.
What hinders Thronebreaker in achieving greatness are pacing and difficulty issues that become apparent in the later parts of the game. If you want to explore the map fully you get thrown into too many battles that seem to just stretch the game’s runtime. They also become almost exclusively three-round matches, which means you have to at least play two rounds to win, as opposed to one-round matches that appeared more frequently before. You also begin to easily defeat enemies (at least on normal difficulty) in a 'one strategy to rule them all' way and are not pushed to really familiarize yourself with new cards. The final battle on the other hand is really tough and requires strategies that were not needed in (boss) battles before that. This can all feel a bit tiring when you just want for it to end.
Regardless, I'd recommend Thronebreaker to people who like Witcher-esque storytelling and are open to a different version of Gwent, that, despite some issues, is engaging to play.
Before I knew about Thronebreaker, I’d only heard about the online multiplayer game, Gwent, which I had no interest in. But Thronebreaker is more than just an extension of that, it’s its own singleplayer game, a 'card game RPG' with a fully detailed story and characters and tough decisions to make. If you liked the worldbuilding in the Witcher games, you get one just as rich here, and if you liked Gwent in The Witcher 3, you’ll probably like the gameplay here, too - although it’s quite a bit different.
The biggest change is that every card has active or passive abilities of its own, and there are many of them. At the beginning this may seem a bit daunting, but even during a match you can always look up how each card and its ability works, and eventually you can come up with ways to synergize and develop strategies that go beyond what the original mini game could offer.
Matches are either battles or puzzles. During battles you have to defeat your opponent, either in a straightforward have-more-points-than-them way, or under certain conditions, like under x amount of turns. Puzzles are especially fun: They provide you with a specific deck of cards that you must use creatively to solve the puzzle. They can get pretty difficult and there were a few instances where the conditions where a bit unclear, but I enjoyed those types of matches the most. Also like everything else in this game, they are always part of a story, and the cards that are used reflect that.
Speaking of story, you play as queen Meve, one of the - in my opinion - best written protagonists in video games. The premise, reclaiming your kingdom, may seem simple, but Meve’s journey is anything but. Throughout the game you are faced with dilemmas, and the responsibility for your troops and occupied kingdom makes many of the choices weigh even heavier than in The Witcher 3. At least from my perspective, I could usually find a way to argue for the 'lesser evil' in that game, which I feel is harder to do in Thronebreaker. There are short and long-term consequences that will not only affect the story, but also the gameplay. Your relationships to the characters that accompany you will change depending on what you do.
When you are not playing cards or following the story you move Meve on the beautifully drawn world maps from an isometric perspective. You can search for treasure chests and resources, or engage in side quests. The camp, where you can manage and create cards, read documents and talk to your companions, is not a fixed location but can be accessed anytime on the world map. Upgrading it and the card deck is what the resources are for.
What hinders Thronebreaker in achieving greatness are pacing and difficulty issues that become apparent in the later parts of the game. If you want to explore the map fully you get thrown into too many battles that seem to just stretch the game’s runtime. They also become almost exclusively three-round matches, which means you have to at least play two rounds to win, as opposed to one-round matches that appeared more frequently before. You also begin to easily defeat enemies (at least on normal difficulty) in a 'one strategy to rule them all' way and are not pushed to really familiarize yourself with new cards. The final battle on the other hand is really tough and requires strategies that were not needed in (boss) battles before that. This can all feel a bit tiring when you just want for it to end.
Regardless, I'd recommend Thronebreaker to people who like Witcher-esque storytelling and are open to a different version of Gwent, that, despite some issues, is engaging to play.
2 Comments
Yes, the whole cast is terrific.
FallenGrace
1 year ago