The game is a cozy interactive novel with great modern slice of life storylines with fantasy races. The story keeps you coming back, atleast I couldn't stop after getting hooked on it. This game isn't for you if you're searching for a gameplay focused game. There are limited amount of gameplay moments, when a customer asks for a drink (sometimes a specific drink), which might require some experimentation with different combinations. The main story lasts for around 6 hours, but if you want to 100% the game it can take you up to 10 hours or more. I highly recommend playing the game with a hot drink.
Because this is an old game I feel like I have to say that I have no experience with this game before the remastered version which I managed to play for half an hour about two years ago, before finishing it in one sitting. When you first start the game you will notice that the attacks feel light and the enemies have mild reactions to them making the combat system seem unfinished, but it gets somewhat better when you get used to it. Rayne also gets some upgrades throughout the game such as; new moves that increase your mobility, new guns to shoot with (dropped by enemies) and more melee combos. Thanks to these upgrades, there's some depth to the combat system that makes combat feel pretty good. The story is okey. It can feel a bit confusing at the beginning, but it gets better closer to the end. The length of the first playthrough is somewhere between 4-6 hours depending on how much you explore. Overall the game is okey/good depending on what you were expecting. If you can't appreciate the charm of older games, you may want to skip this one. Also this game has boob physics
... this game's story telling is on point which hooks you in and hopefully keeps you from doing anything else for the next 50 or so hours. Just like Witcher 3 this game has some bugs and at this point I haven't seen game breaking bugs just... how should I put it annoying at worst. For example some times trees render through walls, some dialogs bug so it sounds like the character is next to you when in reality they are in another room and some times something funny happens while you're in cutscenes (and in a car).
I'm not a big fan of card games but I enjoy playing them. This said the problem with card games for me is if you had bad luck opening card kegs (packs) and try to play with fun decks there is big chance of you losing to "try hard" decks. In card games large amount of players copy decks from the web. Gwent is different card game and that's something I can respect. Both players have 2 lanes in the game board melee and ranged. Both lanes have benefits some cards have special effects when you place them in melee lane, some cards have range of how far they can target their special attack, some cards have passive ability and so much more. Pretty neat. But how do you win the match (?) by having more "damage points" than your opponent and winning two rounds out of three. There's also arena mode. Visually this is the best looking card game from the menu to the battlefield.
Let's begin with positives first it's a game, it plays well with mid build PC and it has quite an interesting setting and story going for it possessing legendary warriors or goblin like creatures with little worth. And here starts the downfall the game is just a shell of an action role-playing hack and slash dungeon crawler game. Shadows: Awakening mechanic of traveling between "spirit" realm and "living" realm is one part that feels unfinished and is draging the game in to the depths (and makes it harder to find what you need to do and where you need to go). Biggest problem of the game are the controls themselves, they felt like I was playing a game from the early 2000s... run away hit couple of spells run again hit some spells and wait till you've more mana and repeat (atleast in boss fights). Skills felt like they were lacking power. When I'm playing game about legends I'm expecting some powerful spells, skills etc. I don't want to bash the developers, I can feel how they cared about this game and wanted to give it their all, but they should have spend more time in the drawing board. I did manage to play this game for about 3 hours... I know it's not much but atleast I tried (I did not find the next objective).
If you like Gwent and CD Project Red's story telling then this game here is made for you. The game has quite a lot to offer, rich story, secrets to find that also give you some Gwent cards and borders, dialog options that do matter, beautiful art for your eyes to fall into, "small" perk tree that allows you to make your game experience more enjoyable.. hopefully, puzzles... before you roll your eyes let me tell you more about these puzzles. They are pretty easy, they are optional part of the game and when you've completed couple of them you can complete most of them. And lastly Thronebreaker holds up to 40 hours worth of gameplay, according to IGN's article about Thronebreaker. If you are worried about the cards in Thronebreaker let me say you shouldn't. CD Project Red has tweaked the cards from Gwent multiplayer game quite a bit. Thronebreaker brings something new even to Gwent veterans.
