Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales

Ten years since i were introduced to Gwent, and now im still admired it. The story and settings of the game really makes it unique Hope for the next witcher tales to be brought in the same style as this one, hopefully even if we can get ones. Thanks for the experiences and nostalgia 10/10 Long lived The Rivia and Lyria.

-100%ing took roughly 52 hours to complete... just so folks know- This game, overall, is good enough for me to recommend giving it a try. The voice acting and storytelling are practically second to none but as to be expected from CD Project Red... most of the time, lol. That said, also as per usual with them, they make some very odd design/gameplay choices that threaten what would otherwise be a perfect experience. The overly hindering save system is typically unnecessarily oppressive, especially in a game with choices. Just let people save and load where they want. Movement on the map is unsatisfying due to how slow it is and how they artificially restrict the player's movements (such as having you go all the way around for something that you would be able to walk right up to in real life under the same circumstances). Even with both upgrades to map movements speed, I didn't notice the difference. I played on controller and there were questionable button assignments and unnecessary separation in function such as "A" sometimes being continue but also "B" was to continue at other times. While I prefer games with meaningful choices, this game would have likely been better without any choices at all given how poorly this mechanic was executed. Some choices seemed wrong but they were ones you HAD to make in order to 100% the game such as "show respect to the dead/I won't have my men defile the dead." or "Loot it all!" So one could say that the achievements weren't the best but that wasn't the only issue with "choices". Multiple times they called a decision evil and one of my criticisms of CD Project Red is how sometimes they seem desperate to just have the player make no win decisions to where they don't always make sense that there was no clean solution. With this game, it was so bad, they were calling every decision evil just about. Then there were other "choices" where either only one decision made any kind of sense and or there were two choices and one was clearly a terrible one that made you think someone would literally only choose it to see what happens. The times where a choice was grounded and complex was extremely rare in my opinion. Going back to sometimes having to choose the clear wrong choice to 100% the game, there's a part in the game where this person is CLEARLY setting you and going to kill you. One of the people in your party even says you shouldn't accept their invitation but if you don't, you don't get a weapon. Rewards should ALWAYS be possible no matter the choice even if it changes how you obtain it and it certainly shouldn't affect one's ability to obtain an achievement. I admit, I was skeptical about a Gwent game working outside of the Witcher 3 for me, but this did an excellent job making this a game about war but Gwent reflects the battle rather than it being a card game thus making Gwent make more sense narratively speaking than it did in the Witcher 3 where people just had cards of actual people just living their lives. In this, you're fighting battles (most of the time) and the cards represent those actual units and or heroes. They also found ways to get creative with engagements with their being special battles with special decks and you fought only 1 round. This was brilliant as the game would have been an awful slog if you had to play full battles every single time and only with the standard cards you have. And while I can imagine some people pulled out their hair and or punched a baby, I personally very much enjoyed the puzzle style gwent engagements as they offered a different kind of challenge. I'd say, and this is just my opinion and I understand the validity of disagreeing, but I felt that it was not good to be so limiting in the solutions. There were times I felt I had come up with something that should have worked but the game was like nope, do it exactly this way or else. Very much loved playing Gwent of course and was happy with myself when I made my "murder deck". I called it that because it doesn't try to score a lot of points, but instead focuses on killing units. How did they not have 40 achievements, btw, with one of them being win a round or a standard battle with your opponent having 0 points? They had one for scoring 300 points, seems this would have just made sense. My focus on murder rather than scoring did me in quite badly during one of the final battles. Lol, it was like the devs knew there would be people like me and made a battle specifically to counter me. *raises a glass* Kudos Another issue was how some card/battle mechanics were not explained well, sometimes not explained at all, but you would be at their mercy. There were times I was like "why did that happen?" and there was nothing no matter what card I examined or leader, to satisfy that curiosity. The characters were amazing and well acted, however, they had no room for growth and it just felt like this was done unnecessarily to limit the player's options or what have you. So, even with all my criticisms, this is easily one of the best and most enjoyable games in my opinion. It is, what I would call a 1 and done game, meaning there's no need to immediately replay it and I like that... a lot. So do it. Get the game. Try it. Love it... but if you hate it, forget I said anything. That wasn't me.