Oh man! Just as I was really getting into Gwent Beta, CDPR changed everything. Differences between Gwent: Homecoming and Gwent Beta are as drastic, as those between Beta and The Witcher 3's version of Gwent. It's a completly new game. And for every change that I could get behind, there's one that ruins the fun for me. Now, I want you to take everything I say with a grain of salt. As I mentioned before - I really liked the previous version of Gwent, so forcing me to learn all the cards again has irked me a bit. Perhaps new players will have a different experience. That being said - boy, do some of the changes suck. Now, I'm the first one to admit, that scaling down the number of rows and making them matter was a good thing. But the new look of battlegrounds lacks any elegance of the previous iterations of Gwent. It looks muddy and cheap, like a mobile game. I dislike the new mechanics, with the emphasis on charges. On one hand abilities seem to be less innovative, on the other - keeping track of them is just so tedious. Of course I haven't discovered all the synergies yet, but for some reason those that I know just don't work for me. Oh, and one more thing. How the heck did someone manage to screw up the new ranking systems? It used to be crystal clear, now it's just confusing. And those are just a few gripes that I have with Gwent: Homecoming. To sum up - Gwent needed evolution, but it got a revolution. The game I liked is gone, the game we got in return isn't bad, but just doesn't do it for me. I currently sit on over 50 thousand pieces of cards that I could use to craft new ones and 1500 gold that I could buy barrels with, but I just don't see the point. In fact Homecoming made me second guess my previous willingness to buy Thronebreaker. After the last two days I'm just a bit tired of Gwent. So, I'm probably going to take a break for a couple of months and then give the game another chance. Perhaps it will become something I could enjoy again.
A brilliant game. More of a spin-off than a sequel to the original, but truly great regardless. It lacks the terrifying and oppresive atmosphere of the first Alan Wake, but it makes it up with the grotesque violence of Mr. Scratch. Tons of fun and quite a few scares.
