GWENT: Rogue Mage

Thronebreaker is so much better. This is only a hollow shell of Gwent as every match is one round of ten turns, if you lose after those ten turns you have to start from the begining. There's no stategy involved since you start every run with one of four premade decks and as you win matches you can add or remove a single card out of three options given. However since you only draw a card for the first five turns the cards you add will almost never be played, or never in the context that you added it for. On top of all that the mathes themselves are basically just luck and will always come down to the final card played, your opponent will always save their gold card for last and that's what will pull them ahead. The most BS one I experienced gave the computer a 54 point swing. The only reason it's 2 stars instead of 1 is because it adds to the lore and world of The Witcher.

For $10 this game is a steal. I'm an avid long time Gwent fan from all the way in Witcher 3 but I was really luke-warm on Thronebreaker (the last Gwent based single player game). The gameplay there was slow and easy, but this game keeps me on my toes and is bursting with creative outlets. There are so many fun ways to bend the decks and so many opportunities to remove/add cards to my deck I have to be mindful to have enough cards. So many deck builders dangle card removal as a rare gift which always frustrated me, with this game I feel like I'm in control and the enemies are strong enough to match that control. There are so many different enemy types and variants of those enemies I'm continually surprised whenever a new one pops up because I feel like I should have seen them all by now. As a bonus the game looks beautiful, complimenting the reused Gwent card art with bucket loads of absolutely stunning new art. I'm so excited to see that art be brought to life if it ever transitions over to the multiplayer game! Thank you CDPR for making this a microtransation free offline game, I love how much stuff I'm unlocking after every failed run, it makes the next run even more exciting. I know I'll hit the end of the current content and that's awesome, I want to feel like I beat a game rather than been burnt out and needing to walk away. Here's hoping this does well enough to get some more, but even if it doesn't I'm glad you guys really pushed to create something new and full of passion.

I loved Thronebreaker, so I gave Rogue Mage a shot. Unfortunately, it's a far cry from the previous single-player Gwent. The story is almost non-existant. I honestly feel like there may be more story in Doom. There's very little content, and even by roguelike standards it is extremely repetitive. You always start a run with one of four basic decks you can't edit in any way. And only one deck is available at the beginning of the game. You only get to add or remove cards one at a time throughout a run, and always chosing from random cards. It's impossible to plan anything clever, and you're likely to use the same cards over and over. Every run takes place on the same map. The paths on the map change (a little) every time, but essentially every run is the same as the one before and after. There's about a dozen of ordinary opponents, a few more elite ones and three final bosses. And your reward for winning is exactly the same as punishment for losing - you get to start over from scratch. Fight the same enemies on the same map starting with a basic deck. There's just way too much luck involved for winning to feel really rewarding, and the three-round structure of a match that made Gwent stand out among card games is totally absent - every match is a simple one-round slugfest to get the most points. It also doesn't help that, at least in Polish, the rules on some cards are not clear and you have to see them in action to get what they actually do. Oh, and I don't know about other languages, but there is no Polish dub for the few cut-scenes and dialogues the game has. Only for the sound effects of the cards. I started getting bored and frustrated with the game after a couple hours, and a few more later I decided to refund it, when I realised that there is just no way in hell I want to start another run from square one. It's not fun, and there's no story I would care to see the resolution of.

Would be fun IF: you can really choose your deck, a little longer campaign, a little predictable enemies.. and I mentioned the deckbuilding function? It has not! Honestly, deep regret to buy this garbage.

Gameplay loop isn't fun after 2 hours. A sequel could address the issues, but from the ground-up. The only invalid criticism people make here is with the story. It's a roguelike designed for replayability and doing lots of runs over time... so a story doesn't help with that in the long-term, it was never aiming to be the follow-up of Thronebreaker, rather it was supposed to be something of its own.