Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales

To be honest, I didn't expect much of Thronebreaker, though most of my hesitancy came from how CCGs usually hande DLC content. However, this game is no DLC. It swallows you with its deep, character driven narrative, accompanied by wonderful graphics and beautiful soundtrack. It's a breeze to get through and super fun to play. Not nearly as stressful as Gwent and such an amazing experience. My only real "complain" is the lack of New Game+, even though there is a morality system is in place and you end up wondering what would happen if you took a different decision. Still, it's a great game in its own regard.

a slightly unconventional view of the witcher universe. interesting and challenging puzzles. it's a pity that it sold poorly, and no add-on came out.

It's a hidden gem. I like the game a lot - the writing is great, graphics style is original so is the gameplay overall. It's not Witcher's 3 Gwent, but is a nice game nonetheless. I didn't like the puzzles tho, I'm building my deck for a reason, I don't want to solve some generic pre-defined problems with only one possible solution.

...which is basically Thronebreaker. You explore a world, have a card-duels/battles and improve your deck. However, Thronebreaker brings quite a plotline in contrast to Shandalar. It uses Gwent rules-frame as is some familiar cards, to bring a detailed story about Meve, Queen of Rivia. Story is well done, and while at global level someone may notice clearly used tropes, its' mini-stories - related to encounters are place where Thronebreaker shine. Aside of this - you really need to like Gwent :) because it takes most of the time. Some appeal may find also players who like puzzles, because some encounters may be won, only by very unorthodox tactics (i.e. attacking your own cards). Most of them are pretty challanging. There's also strategic layer (certain structures in army camp, resource management), set collection quests (find 3 card pieces) and roleplay-ish choices system - which are supposed to have consequences. When it comes to outcomes you basically have a couple of endings with some minor permutations. Another thing - maybe coincidence - is that main protagonist (Queen Meve of Rivia) potrayed here reminds strongly of Cassia from Blackguards2 - strong, royal, female character with handful of loyal (or not) friends. P.S. If you are fan of witcher, unfortunately there are only couple of cameos, mid-late in the game, so use of witcher in it's title is rather marketing tactic. You may meet however other characters from the books (like a Narrator :) )

A game that tries to satisfy both "The witcher" fans, and the Gwen card game fans in the same game... And fails at both. 3/4 of the actual card battles don't follow Gwent rules at all, and said rules are bent by the AI all the time to the point I can't tell if it's cheating or if this consistent mess is part of the game's features. And while the story itself is quite good, it's always cut by these goddam card battles that are more annoying than fun since there is no consistency in the rules, thus no chance for you to learn them and start appreciating them. Gwent is fun as a mini-game, and this game proves that trying to make a full game out of it is a bad idea. I give 1 star for the story, it would deserve 3 but I can't objectively give more due to how often it gets interrupted for a card battle.