Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales

Now, you have to make a game like HoMM 3, but in Witcher world! Please! Please! Please!

A nice concept of storytelling while pkaying cards. Must have if you play GWENT.

After playing Witcher1, Witcher2, Witcher3, and Gwent, Thronebreaker left me puzzled. The game should have to do little to impress long time fans who want more Witcher, and who like Gwent, as this is more of both, right? Sadly, after having played the game for a few hours, I have to say that Thronebreaker's biggest issue is that it just isnt a Witcher game. No matter how hard the game tries to please you, and convince you it is in the same universe, it just doesnt fit. The games identity crisis is only made worse by the fact that Gwent has seen a whole slew of changed since Witcher 3, to the point that it is almost a completely different game. I wouldnt let this ruin my enjoyment of the game if the rest of the experience held up, but it just doesnt. All the nuance and careful crafting of quests from the previous Witcher games just isnt here. The quests in Thronebreaker are pointless, and dont ever get you to invest in them, leaving the game feeling like it was handled by completely different developers from the main series. I really wanted to enjoy the game, even with the new Gwent, but somehow adding pointless quests as deep and engaging as a valley girl, just makes the actual Gwenting even less enjoyable. Thats right! somehow adding context to Gwent matches has made them less enjoyable, and I think that says a lot about how this game was handled.

It looks a bit like CDPR went for quantity over quality. Thronebreaker is massive, both in story and gameplay content. The campaign took me 35 hours! The quality doesn't quite measure up, though. There are Gwent rounds, whose main draw is that the AI is a massive cheat, but the decks you can construct within Thronebreaker allow for some ridiculous combos that would never be allowed in multiplay. Unfortunately, once you arrive at such a deck, all challenge and variety goes out of the regular matches There are also puzzles, which usually present a very constructed scenario that hinges on you figuring out a particular twist. They are fun but quickly completed. The plot is an enjoyable tale of war and vengeance. Both the story and its protagonist might be a bit one-note overall, but the game keeps throwing these mean little curve-balls, usually with a very tough choice attached. Also the villains of the piece are despicable yet complex enough that the desire to make them pay dragged me through the occasional lulls in the plot quite successfully. Is it fun to play? This one is a qualified yes for me. The first third of the game is fun. As things go on, you notice that the gameplay is a little thin: You scour the map for interactive elements, most of which are resource caches, you play a few games of gwent, you listen to the next conversation cutscene. The difficulty curve has plateaued and, disregarding two or three spikes, will never move again. Routine sets in. All in all, Thronebreaker has a pacing issue, and it runs out of tricks too quickly. So, do I recommend this game? Yes, to two specific audiences: Players invested in Gwent, who probably need the new cards the expansion brings and will have a lot of fun completely thrashing the AI. Also, people invested interested in the lore of the Witcherverse, who will get a kick out of playing through the second Nilfgaardian invasion. Everybody else should look somewhere else.

If you consider yourself brainy or you wish to expand on Baptism of fire's battle of the bridge or are a fan of fantasy storytelling or simply miss the good ol' days of HOMM3. then get it. Beware though not to disable Vsync or you might get a BSOD and a corrupt save.