Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales

Short, but enjoyable.

When I pre-ordered the game, I honestly did not know how this game would turn out. I couldn't really see what "game" would actually be possible, except for a couple of niche puzzle fights of Gwent. But oh, how was I suprised. 1) The setting and lore, including your own decisions, fit perfectly in the Witcher universe, so much so that I would find it hard to decide if any specific storyline was from Witcher 3 or Thronebreaker. 2) The gameplay is really good, and fun. There are puzzle fights, but the majority is good ol' proper fights.

The story is a fairly classic tale of betrayal, friendships and overcoming an immense foe, but even though it is little new in the story itself, it is properly enhanced by proper utilization of the fact it is an interactive experience. This lends new freshness to the tropes you do find. It is also great to see a game where gameplay and story are reinforcing eachother, instead of just having a story tacked on to give the mechanics of the game some context. In an industry that has lost its integrity to rereleasing the same skinner boxes over and over again with more and more addictive, but ultimately paper thin, experiences to the pry as much money out of the consumerbase, this game is truly a shining beacon on how it is done. Gameplay wise it offers enough variety to not make the game boring. It can, however, not stand on its own. Without the story to motivate the battles were too monotonous and boring towards the end causing me to lose interest in replaying just for the sake of the combat. Because of that I would like to give it a 4.5, but since I cant, max score.

Essentially "Gwent: The RPG", although so much more then that. Great story building and enjoyable gameplay, i felt that it didn't overstay its welcome. Interesting charachters and around 45 hours of gameplay for an attractive price. if you're a fan of gwent and/or hearthstone for example while at the same time enjoy the medival universe you'll enjoy this.

I really, really enjoy this game. However, rarely I can play it for more than 30 minutes due to bugs, including crashing on loading, crashing on restarting battle or freezing on AI's turn. It's a pity because I can't remember one time a game of much grander scale, that is Witcher 3 crashed or froze on me. If the problems I've stated above are fixed, the game is easily 4 or even 5/5.