Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales

From my steam review: TL:DR : It's Gwent: Story Mode. The first thing you need to know about Thronebreaker is that it is Gwent, and Gwent is free to play at https://www.playgwent.com/en/ . If you like Gwent, you will like this game, if not, you will hate this game. That being said, Thronebreaker is great for Gwent and Witcher fans alike. The game faithfully fills in the story of the war that is raging in the background of the Witcher books. I played this game while reading the books, so If you are reading the books at the same time, Start this game during "The Blood of Elves". The end of the second to last act in this game is also the end of the book, "Baptism of Fire". Now, note that Geralt only gets a very brief cameo in this game, no matter how much he shows up in the artwork. This is the story of Meve, Queen of Rivia and Lyria. Her tale is told tastefully, portraying her as a strong character, but not as one of the nauseating Mary Sue characters that have infested gaming and movies in recent years. Her tale is one of intrigue, betrayal, and of course, hard choices for the player. She can be an out of control psychopath, a iron-fisted tyrant, or benevolent leader depending on the choices of the player. Choices off the battlefield do affect the course of game-play. The morale system determines the relative strength of your cards. Characters join and leave your army and deck. What surprised me the most is how this game actually felt like I was leading an army through a yearlong campaign, since there was story in between battles to give context to what was happening in the war. 9/10 Must play. My only real negative is that this game is surprisingly taxing on your computer. I had FPS dips often, which don't usually happen on even full 3D games. Weird.

The Story alone makes the game unique and the gameplay is just amazing

Thronebreaker is great, part visual novel, part deck builder. It's pretty much a more advanced version of Gwent from The Witcher 3 with a engaging story with some grueling choices. It is slightly on the easy side when you learn to abuse some combos and you will have far more resources than you will ever need during the game, so in hindsight most of the minor choices where you need to sacrifice one resource during a choice to gain something else matters little in the end, and the morale system is not that impactful since it's a fairly minor boost or debuf. See it as roleplaying instead. The combat is fairly easy, Some combos are clearly broken and if it was the only part of the game it might have been pretty bad, the hardest battles are honestly some of the puzzles where you have a unique hand of cards and need to do a specific task. The story however, is worth it, well written, and in the style of Withcer, pretty much no choice is good, and even if it looks like one is obviously the right, it usually comes back with a vengance and punish you later.

Thronebreaker managed to exceed the expectations, already high, that I had set for it. The game was intriguing enough in the beginning, but the game truly enthralled me by the beginning of its second arc. Truly, the story is the game's selling point. You get to experience from a completely different perspective this time around. Rather than being a bystander witcher, you get to play as royalty this time - Queen Meve. A character somewhat familiar to fans of the Witcher books, she is a fantastic character with genuine humanity at her core. The choices you are presented, in a similar fashion to the main Witcher games, befit the main character. They are also difficult, tie into one another, and often have long-reaching reprecussions. Aside from Meve, there is an entire cast of accompanying characters that you get to spend some time with. All of them are well-written, some on an incredibly impressive level. My favourites happened to be Gascon, Reynard ans Isbel. The plot is captivating and full of twists. It keeps you on your toes and excites you with how it progresses. You get to visit some interesting locations in the world that hadn't been explored before. Throughout all that, the game's tale builds to satisfying conclusions. The gameplay was a great surprise. Thronebreaker is more of a puzzle game, which helps maintain variety and pacing at a steady level. Regular 2/3 Gwent is present and is often more of a pleasant surprise than usual combat. Often, battles have unique conditions and keep the game from being repetitive. That is, until the last 2 chapters, where normal games of Gwent become more and more prelavent, sadly to the game's detriment. By that point, your army is unbeatable and you fight the same decks over and over again. This also hurt the final boss, who presents a signifact difficulty spike I found very unpleasant. Thronebreaker is connected to Gwent MP somewhat and has some rewards for it. But its worth comes from its own qualities. Very good game.

As for me it is may be the best game. As I've been playing games for a long time, and mostly got bored of them. The witcher tales gave me a greaty story. It like living in a book, just perfect for me. Highly recommended if like turn based games with great story