GWENT: The Witcher Card Game

I played this out of beta and came back to check it out again. Literally every game is the other opponent having 3 times as many gold cards as you and you just flopping around getting blasted. So I guess the idea is that you just lose for a while until you get enough strong cards and then maybe you'll have a chance. No thanks.

I loved Gwent in Wild Hunt and was enthusiastic of keeping it playing as a solo game. The game introduces you step by step and seemingly offers a lot of fun. BUT: If you do not like playing against other people, this game punishes you by giving you exactly one AI with one deck only. Get's really dull after the 25th game because you basically foresee every step the AI does. If you then want to play classic games (against others) it starts out with a match making that is somewhat balanced, yet since so few people seem to play it, you still get matched with Level 5 against like Level 9 people. If you decide to keep going, the match making lures you into believing it will all get better, by sometimes even matching you against people your level. You might even have a winning streak. Then you get Level 12 and this games turns into Dark Souls big brother but with way less personality. Suddenly you have to explicitly mention you do not want to play ranked (which I advise because people will not finish the game the second they see themselves loosing in a ranked, that is how much pride people take into a card game!). But again, since few people seem to play this game (and I now know why that is) it matches you, with your sweet little Level 12, not an ounce of real money invested, so with a good but not superior card deck, against a Level 60 bored out dude, who spend all his mommys coins in this game, has even animated card backsides and who whippes your ass across the board. You do not have a chance because you simply cannot have all the special cards that he has. And this nightmare continues, you get matched against Level 32, Level 50, Level 56, Level 27 and so on and so on. Absolutely. Broken. Matchmaking. !!! Sad part is, this takes all the fun out of this promising game start because you cannot get better without better cards. This is the way, the game tries to force you to invest real money in it. No thank you.

The latest version of Gwent is genuinely a pretty good game well on the way to greatness. It came out of beta about 2.5 months ago in October 2018. Like a lot of the reviews in here around that time my initial reactions were generally quite negative, but in the intervening months CDPR have managed to address a number of balance issues and have recently tinkered with some some of the game mechanics based on feedback from the community. These have made the game so much more enjoyable and diverse than it was on initial release. The card game is essentially about trying to out-wit and out-play your opponent over three rounds. Between rounds you draw a few cards and can mulligan some back into your deck in the hope of drawing more favourable cards. It is a lot of fun. If you are starting out it can be a little overwhelming because the starter decks are not very powerful and you will be generally unfamiliar with the oppenents cards and how to counter or play around them for a while. Do not fear however because if you play in the ranked mode you be matched with other new starters and low ranked players and you will quickly start to expect certain cards with certain leaders or patterns of play. Part of the fun of this game is building your card collection over time via earning kegs, or earning ore to buy kegs, and by crafting cards with scraps. Typically you can earn enough ore for 2-3 kegs over the course of several hours buy playing games, meeting some daily reward targets and earning reward points by leveling up. The game is free and you can happily build up your collection over time and eventually build more powerful decks and hopefully get more wins. I would recommend purchasing the starter pack which is a discounted pack of 10 kegs. You will typically encounter a Legendary or Epic gold card about once every 5-8 kegs in my experience so probably you will get 2 in the starter pack, although it is random chance so maybe not. So download Gwent and have a go. It's great.

Gwent has one of the best F2P models out there . It is quite generous in giving cards and even allows you to craft specific cards using scraps ( which you can get by destroying any extra cards you have). Gameplay wise I just love theorycrafting and deckbuilding aspect of it. They are decent in balancing the game.There can be some cards which can be absolutely broken, but get fixed after some time. HC also has certain issues with respect to it being a little slow, but they have made some improvements in recent patches and hopefully will continue to do so. And oh, the reward book system is just amazing.

I loved playing Gwent in Open Beta and I love playing Gwent Homecoming. Despite being transformed in a lot of ways, Gwent's primary appeal remains unchanged: a) The game has the best art of all CCGs b) The graphics are now beautiful and cards are actually large. (It sucked losing a row, but the two remaining rows actually matter now) c) No annoying mana system so you can play any card you want any turn. This is probably my favorite thing about Gwent compared to other card games. d) 3-round, no face system remains and all 3 round matter now. With the recent Mulligan change, the game feels much like Open Beta Gwent again. e) The added order mechanics and provision system opened a TON of design space and made deck-building a lot more interesting (I'll admit that some cards could be more interesting, but it is the base set after all). f) Gwent has the most generous economy of all card games (rivaled only by Eternal probably). I like having a large collection of cards to choose from, and Gwent just showers you with rewards. g) There's a solid competitive scene and CDPR's tournaments are a joy to watch. h) The amount of RNG cards is low compared to most other card games. While some of the changes weren't to my liking, CDPR has shown their willingness to listen to the community and continue to improve Homecoming with every patch post release. If you're a veteran Open Beta player that was too used to how things were, then sure, skip the game. However, if you're new and are looking for a new card game to try out, Gwent is great choice.