I love it.
Yes it has changed over the time, but with some time you see the good things in it.
The Dev`s also communicate very well with the players and try their best to tell what they want to do.
Free to Play aspect is very good balanced and the animated cards look very beautiful.
The RNG aspect is obviously there, because its a card game, but in a very limited way (eg. lessened through Redraws). Every faction has its own theme and mechanics (more or less).
Gwent has gone through turbulent times. During my 450+ hours in 1.5 years of open and closed Beta I encountered many broken mechanics, but also many interesting ones. I liked the game most just before the feared "Midwinter Update" about a year ago, which shifted the development direction into a direction many players didn't like. So CDPR changed the Leadership and announced an icy 6 Month period with a complete rewamp of the game. The new Gwent could've needed some Months more in Beta, but I can understand their decision to push it to publicity, which probably was a mistake in retrospective.
However, I like the new Gwent better than every iteration since pre-midwinter, and it seems balanced, fleshed out and beautiful. I miss some mechanics and optimisation is pretty bad. But seeing the time and dedication CDPR has put into this game, it can and will become better with time! Deck themes like Nilfgaard Spies or Discard Skellige will come back eventually, missing mechanics will return in a balanced and consistent way, and with Slama in the lead they will reintegrate the good things, but keep out the bad ones, of which there were many. The game was too consistent, often onesided and not very visually atractive besides the awesome card art of course. Coin Flip was a huge issue, as well as too much deck thinning and (debatable) the card advantage Spies.
Sure, I miss the hyperthinning times of tutoring out the whole Deck and gaining +2 Card advantage. But it just wasn't healty for the game.
It IS a different game than we tested, and I understand the frustration that go with it. But I admire the courage of the Team to do several 180 turns to make the possible best game they can think of.
I think the new Gwent is closer to the original Witcher Gwent, but I do wish many elements from the Beta back. I trust in you CDPR, whatever you're doing, you're doing it for us and the game, and not for the Money and this is an attitude not many Studios can have!
After the mulligan changes (patched on January 10, 2019) the game once again feels and plays great. Definitely recommended, one of the best card games on the market with the most f2p friendly business model.
First I have to say a few things..
I'm absolutely loving the new Gwent especially after the Patch realeased today which changed the Mulligan-System. I was a Closed Beta tester in 2016 so I know almost every state of the game with many changes it gone through until today.
Sure the ''old'' Beta Gwent was fun because with a decent deck you could always play out your full deck. On the same side there was little to no option of free deck building because the cards for a specific archetype were already determined and only allowed you to implement a few neutral cards to make a ''unique deck''
Since the midwinter patch (dec.2017) Gwent had become a point slam card game which very much focused on how to abuse the coinflip (Who goes first) and how to gain an advantage out of it.
This isn't a thing in Gwent today!
+The visuals look much better. Also cards dont look like a tiny stamp anymore
+Coinflip got addressed and is more balanced (49-51 percent according to developers)
+New order ability adds variety to games
+New provision system makes it easier for the developers to balance the game.
+Finally the game has a solid build and can go forward (no heavy changes are expected to the core of the game)
+Deckbuilding is more fun with the new provision system.
+There is a reward book which gives you in-game currencies and where you can unlock skins all for free
All in all Homecoming Gwent feels superior to its predecessor once you get into it and give it a chance. It's also important to say that you can play entirely for free and get every card of the game by simply playing it.
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