Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales

A nice Combination of different Game Types, mostly RPG and of corse Card Games. The Storytelling and the atmosphere are great, just as we know and love it from the Witcher Series. The Gameplay itself is rather simple, everyone, who has played Gwent before will find an easy start in the game, and even for those, who are new with this sort of game will find it easy to step into the game mechanics with the well made Tutorial. I think the Fights are a bit to easy (playing on the medium mode by now) but onm the other Hand ooffers the Game many different and special encounters, that need some thinking arround the corner. Over all a very entertaining title and I recoment it to every Fan of the Witcher and everyone else, who olikes tactic Games.

In the new "Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales" you'll play through a card game experience unlike any other. As of writing this, I have played for a little over 12 hours on the game's hardest difficulty setting: Bonebreaker. Having completed every Gwent quest in The Witcher 3, and Thronebreaker being a Gwent RPG, I felt comfortable in hopping directly into the fire and seeing how unforgiving it was. And... Let me just say, the start of this game--while you're learning all the card mechanics--it is very unforgiving--but it does get easier. There are 3 main types of battles in Thronebreaker. You'll have your traditional Gwent gameplay where you will play an opponent for 3 rounds, you will also have shortened battles where you'll only play for one round, and finally, you'll have puzzles--which are based on playing your cards in a perfect order while there are custom rules on the board. Your first puzzles will be very hard while you are learning the game. Aside from Gwent, the game offers a lot of exploring--that explore definitely adds a value of immersive gameplay. You feel like you're a part of the world, and not just playing a linear card game. There are main quests, side quests, puzzles, and looting. Without all of that, I don't think I would have given the game nearly as much time as I have already. Moving on from gameplay, the art style is beautiful and simplistic. You feel like you're walking through a story-picture-book and the cutscenes reaffirm that feeling. The cutscenes seem simplistic and heavily writing based, but if you like lore--there's going to be more than you could ever imagine soaking in. Even after 750 hours of Witcher 3 gameplay under my belt, countless hours of reading Witcher lore on wikipedia, as well as reading the first half of the first witcher book "The Last Wish", a lot of the lore in Thronebreaker still went over my head. To wrap up, this game is a must try, and I look forward to beating the game in the coming days.

I am a veteran GWENT player with over 450h and I am playing since alpha. I loved the time limited special events and puzzles during beta and was looking forward to the release of Thronebreaker. I got it on release day and today I finally finished it... Yes, it took me over 5 months to play it through but not for the good reasons. Let me start with the positives first though, because objectively the game is loved by the press and the player base. The two main positives for me are: VALUE: the expansion is insane value for dedicated GWENT players, it gives you all new cards, exclusive premiums versions of them and tons of reward points you can spend in GWENT. These alone are worth the price tag. PRODUCTION: The game is polish(ed) to the last detail, every line is voice acted, the visuals and cut scenes are beautifully crafted. The game is stable and "just works" in contrast to some other products that claimed the same ;) Now to the aspects of the game that I personally didn't like: MEVE: Yes, I found Meve, our main character very bland and uninteresting. Her voice acting was cringy and annoying at best. I didn't care at all about her. I also can't say anything better about the rest of characters as well, except for maybe Barnabas, who was occasionally fun. STORY: The story was underwhelming and forgetable. No seriously, maybe I am too spoiled by the witcher storytelling, but to me Thronebreaker was a snoozefest compared to the worst side quest in the Witcher 3. GAMEPLAY: The game is liniar. Way too long. Way too easy. I got through all puzzles and combats with the same "starting" deck except for the final battle and Gernichora, where I had to make adjustments. Resource collection and building was a pure gimmick and nothing more, there was no ballance or real strategy to it. The "moral" choices didn't work for me as well, and most of them felt punishing no matter what you choose. Thronebreaker is objectively not a bad game, just not the game for me.

This game has the best feel of any RPG I have played in a while. The story, in general, is linear but you get to make a lot of "pick your poison" choices as almost none of them are clearly a better choice than the other. The card game aspects are interesting for an RPG but do work very well. I did get this game after getting trashed in Gwent during my first week in and hoped this would help out with my lack of skill or foresight in the game. Thronebreaker does play differently than the stand-alone Gwent game as scenarios and puzzles help to mix up the feel. The game and puzzles do feel as they get easier as the game progresses (with exception of the final MAJOR battle) but I did play the game on the medium setting as the hardest setting I was getting whooped early on. The game does include unlockables for the Gwent card game but no cards you can't unlock through the regular game. Titles, icons, and premium versions of cards might be exclusive unlocks to this game but nothing game-breaking. The best writing and voice acting I've seen in a while and extremely charming graphic style. Highly recommended and starting my second playthrough after putting in 40+ hours.

I expected something like the Hearthstone adventures from this, but set in the Wither's world. I couldn't have been more wrong. This is a proper RPG. I think it would stand it's ground even if it was a standalone game. It took me around 27 hours and 30 minutes to beat the game and I had a great time. I liked that instead of filling it with cameos, they focused on areas and characters that were barely explored in either in the games or in the books. If you want to adventure with Geralt again, this isn't your game, but if you wish to see what else is in the witcher universe, you'll be satisfied. Gwent serves as a surprisingly good combat system, but it is the reason I give this a 4 instead of a 5. Until about the 3/5 of the game, the fights are varied and the standrad win 2 out of 3 rounds games are a minority. After that poin however, you'll see a lot more of these battles and the decks you play against will repeat as well, frequent enough for me to not find defeating them fun anymore. The game isn't really difficult. I don't play Gwent, but I never had a problem beating the chellenges or the puzzles, except for one occasion. This however made me not really use the units that you can unlock by the end of the game. The deck that I made by the halway point (with minor changes) carried me through the game. I didn't have the need to adapt my deck for different challenges, which is something I would have liked to do a little more. I loved the art syle and the music. In conclusion, I really liked the game and I hope for a Witcher Tales 2. If you like the world of the Witcher, this is must-buy.