[Review] Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales

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Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales is a role-playing video game developed by CD Projekt Red. It is a spin-off of The Witcher video game franchise, and acts as the standalone single-player component for Gwent: The Witcher Card Game. It was initially concieved as a single-player campaign for Gwent: The Witcher Card Game, but repurposed as a standalone game in August 2018. Thronebreaker was released on 23 October 2018 for Microsoft Windows and on 4 December 2018 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

And it’s more than just missing out on another drinking buddy. Access to powerful hero cards is contingent on that hero remaining in your service, and many party members can offer special solutions to certain story events and quest dilemmas that allow you to come out of them with much less blood on your shirt than you would otherwise. Having the monster slayer Sir Eyck lets you bypass having to sacrifice the lives of your men to rid a treasure-laden cave of nasty fiends, for instance. And still more cards and story paths can be unlocked by using shrewd diplomacy and your party members to broker alliances with various factions you meet. I adored the organic-feeling reactivity of this system and how it rewarded or punished me for the values I chose to stand for. Though I only played through once, it seems like the number of possible outcomes available for various quests could be vast. Give Me a Hand The quests themselves and accompanying dialogue are written every bit as well as The Witcher 3, presenting moments of supreme emotional satisfaction and crushing sorrow. And the card-based battle system it all revolves around is a lot of fun as well. Far from playing a couple hundred rounds of standard rules Gwent, nearly every encounter has some kind of unique twist that’s satisfying to overcome. Some commanders have the ability to immediately resurrect any cards you kill, so the only way to win is to whittle them down with non-lethal attacks so your side comes out ahead at the end of a round. Certain story battles require you to destroy a heavily-armored gatehouse before you can attack the units behind it. And the level of deck customization, especially later on once you get the ability to recruit special cards like dwarves and Skellige mercenaries, means you can always change things up if you’re bored or a particular battle is giving you a really hard time. One of the biggest things I missed was a way to save and load decks for specific situations. This was most bothersome in some story battles that had special rules heavily favoring or disfavoring a specific type of card – like a lieutenant who could strengthen his units based on the strength of my strongest unit, encouraging me to only use lower-tier cards.The only way to prepare for such encounters is to manually swap in and out the cards you need one by one. And you have to undo it all afterwards to get back to your “standard” deck. This also discourages experimentation to some degree, since I’d have been much more likely to field some radically different decks if I knew I could easily go back to what I had before if I didn’t end up liking them. Card Conundrums Particularly interesting were the various optional puzzle fights scattered around Thronebreaker's lovely, hand-painted world maps, which require you to accomplish some unorthodox goal using a specific set of cards in a limited number of turns. You might be asked to get a specific card to a certain side of the board using movement abilities, or to raise a card’s power to a target number. Some of them were really, legitimately tough, taking me close to an hour to come up with the right solution. Some were a bit frustrating, but it was always so, so satisfying when the solution clicked. And since they all use pre-made decks, they get around the lack of a deck saving feature. Share Autoplay setting: On Each of the five maps (six counting a brief epilogue) are full of character and style, creatively using parallax background vistas to make you feel like you’re in something bigger than a mere 2D isometric RPG. I especially loved getting to see the snow-swept peaks of the dwarven realm Mahakam, which are unlike any area Geralt’s adventures have taken us to before.The sprites and environments are bursting with character and capture the essence of the Witcher world down to the mud puddles and marauding monsters just as well as those in Thronebreaker’s fully 3D big brother games. And it’s all tied together by an attractive, responsive, easy-to-navigate interface that plays well with either a controller or the mouse and keyboard. The Verdict It’s much quicker to list the few things Thronebreaker gets wrong than the many, many things it does delightfully well. Aside from being one of the best-written RPGs I’ve played in years, the varied ways it keeps its card-based combat from stagnating across a 40ish-hour campaign are admirably clever and well thought-out. Deck building and some light RPG elements that allow upgrading specific cards give a feeling of progression to your two-dimensional army, and expertly crafted companions that aren’t shy about leaving you out in the cold create a satisfying, meaningful feedback system for your actions. If you like a good fantasy RPG at all, even if you’re not normally a collectible card game person, do yourself a favor and treat your inner card-slinging monarch to this one. IN THIS ARTICLE Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales Releases October 23, 2018 PC PS4 XBOX ONE AMAZING Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales is one of the best-written RPGs in years, with exciting card battles that are kept cleverly fresh throughout. 23 OCT 2018 9.4 i BUYING GUIDE POWERED BY IGN DEALS Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales $29.99 GOG SEE IT WIKI GUIDE THRONEBREAKER AND GWENT THE WITCHER CARD GAME ACHIEVEMENTS AND TROPHIES Universe Beta 58 PAGES FROM AROUND THE WEB Sylvester Stallone Becomes War In First Official Rambo 5 Photo Sylvester Stallone Becomes War In First Official 'Rambo 5' Photo Romantic Tips You Shouldnt Take From Video Games Romantic Tips You Shouldn't Take From Video Games This is Why Hollywood Stopped Casting David Schwimmer This is Why Hollywood Stopped Casting David Schwimmer The Top 10 Most Tragic Deaths in Gaming History The Top 10 Most Tragic Deaths in Gaming History Sarah Jessica Parker Doesnt Remember Much Of Hocus Pocus Sarah Jessica Parker Doesn’t Remember Much Of 'Hocus Pocus' Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom May Get Hit with a 10M Lawsuit 'Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom' May Get Hit with a $10M Lawsuit Powered By ZergNet IGN RECOMMENDS Diablo Immortal Reveal Met with Negative Response by Community Diablo Immortal Reveal Met with Negative Response by Community All the News and Trailers from BlizzCon 2018's Opening Ceremony All the News and Trailers from BlizzCon 2018's Opening Ceremony Is Disney's Streaming Service to Blame for Netflix's Marvel Cancelations? 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Gameplay :

Gwent is a turn-based card game between two players, with each game taking three rounds. Each player must play one card each turn from a deck of at least twenty-five cards. Each deck belongs to a faction that offers different play styles. Each faction has different "leaders" who each have individual abilities. As Gwent does not use a mana system like most traditional CCGs, card advantage is often what wins the game. The Homecoming Update, which was released in conjunction with Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales, changed the game in a number of ways. The leader is no longer a playable card; it now gives the player an ability, and dictates how many mulligans are available to the player throughout the course of a match. The limits on how many gold and silver cards can be in a deck has been removed. Deckbuilding now uses a Recruit Cost system. Decks have a Recruit Cap of 165, with each card in the game having a Recruit Cost associated with it. The update also removed the siege row from the play area, leaving only the melee row and the ranged row. A new card type, artifacts, was added to the game. These do not contribute points to your side of the board but offer varying abilities. The goal is to win two of three rounds by playing cards and spells to gain points called "power" on the board. A player wins a round by having more points on board than their opponent. Rounds end when either both players pass to the next round, or when both players run out of cards. The first to win two out of three rounds wins the game. Round wins go toward daily rewards, awarding players with card packs known as "kegs", scraps, meteorite dust, or ore. Players can gain additional cards by buying kegs with ore or through microtransactions; each keg contains five cards, with the upside that the fifth is rarer than the rest and a choice between three is offered. Cards can also be crafted with scraps. Premium versions of cards can be crafted with meteorite dust. Ore is used to buy kegs. The game features several modes of gameplay. The standard Casual Play mode allows players to challenge one another, whereas in Rank Play players compete in order to increase in a tier-ladder system. Ranked takes place across a month-long season, where players aim to increase in rank to increase end-of-season rewards. Player ranks do not degrade once earned, and work on a numerical system from 1-21, before entering into the top 1,000. Players are also assigned an matchmaking rating, which respectively increases or decreases as a player wins and loses games. Gwent has also had multiple seasonal events, inviting players to take part in themed events with premade decks. These events functioned like puzzles, where exact moves had to be made to win. Seasonal events normally award a player profile picture, border as well as a title. Arena Mode Arena Mode functions as a draft mode, where players must build a deck from random cards. The player will pick one of four cards of identical rarity randomly shown. Twenty-six cards are drafted, and then a leader is chosen from 3 randomly shown leaders. The cards shown are from a pool of all cards, meaning decks can contain cards from all factions. There is no limit on how many gold cards or silver cards can be in the deck, and any number of duplicates can be drafted. Arena Mode is themed around The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt character Gaunter O'Dimm, who offers contracts in the arena in exchange for rewards. A maximum of nine wins will award players with a gold card, as well as other rewards including ore, scraps and/or meteorite dust. The arena will guarantee players at least one keg as a reward, even with no contracts completed. Players have three lives and lose a life when a game is lost. The arena run will end when either a player quits and breaks the contact, when all three lives are lost, or when all nine wins are achieved. There are also periodic 'special event' arena modes occasionally available. These have unique drafting rules, such as the Gold Rush, where all cards drafted are Gold cards or Law of the Jungle, where all cards drafted are from the Monsters faction. The special events generally last 1 week, and the regular arena mode is also available to play during the event. Development The game had an estimated 100 staff members working on it. It was released for Windows on 23 October 2018, and for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on 4 December 2018. The standalone single-player game Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales was released on the same dates.

In Thronebreaker's 30-hour long campaign, the player takes the control of Queen Meve, the ruler of Lyria and Rivia, during the events that precede The Witcher. As the leader of one of the northern kingdoms, Meve leads a small opposition force who must battle and build alliances to take the north back. The game has a system of choices and consequences that will shift the story (fully voice acted and narrated by an entity called Storyteller) in a different direction, or affect the gameplay.

The game world consists of five regions never explored in The Witcher franchise before: Rivia, Lyria, Angren, Mahakam and Aedirn. Exploration happens across a number of large maps with an isometric perspective similar to Baldur's Gate. Queen Meve’s army is represented by a customizable deck of cards and combat takes place in matches similiar to "Gwent" with a few differences.

Each player takes a turn to play a single card from their hand, or pass and end their turn. Different cards have different values, some have special abilities that interact in many ways. Whoever has the highest total value on the board after both players hit pass wins the round. After a single round, all played cards are discarded and new cards are drawn instead. The goal is to win two of the three rounds.

Maintaining alliances is crucial to the gameplay. The hero cards are present only as long as allies are with Meve and will leave the deck as soon as they depart the party.

But Geralt isn't the star of Thronebreaker - that honor belongs to Meve, the sword-savvy queen of Lyria and Rivia who's only been mentioned here and there in Witcher games past. She's the kind of regal hero anyone can love: noble, stubborn, never suffering fools but still exhibiting a sharp sense of humor. It is a time of high fantasy war: Meve's kingdoms in the North are being overrun by the ruthless forces of the Nilfgaardians, and she's taken it upon herself to fight back against her people's oppressors despite her army being hopelessly outnumbered. You start with only your trusted commander Reynard (not to be confused with Hearthstone personality Reynad) at your side - but over the course of a sizable campaign lasting 30+ hours, you'll amass a party of quirky, lovable characters who rival any BioWare cast and will constantly be chiming in exactly when you want to hear their take on something. 

Thronebreaker echoes the gut-wrenching decisions and impactful losses of The Banner Saga, chronicling a Lyrian army that's increasingly beleaguered by overwhelming odds, while Meve's closest confidants offer up conflicting counsel regarding the tough calls she has to make on a regular basis. Your options are never explicitly labeled as morally good or bad, or with clear outcomes for those involved; the only certain repercussions pertain to the resources you collect around the isometric overworld, used to upgrade your troops and craft new cards, and a simple morale scale that can strengthen or weaken your forces during the next fight. Oftentimes, judgments you make will come back to haunt you, or result in some unforeseen boon that helps make you feel like you did the right thing. Thronebreaker is constantly autosaving after each and every incident, so you'll need to live with your decisions no matter how much you regret them. For instance, that time I unwittingly turned down a charismatic party member who could've - should've, even - been with me for the entire game.

Part of what makes Gwent so fun in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is how it is contextualized within the latter’s fictional world. Plotlines have you building your deck across multiple matches, and occasional dialogue branches let you settle disputes with cards instead of swords. Thronebreaker, a new Gwent-based campaign set in the world of The Witcher, takes this concept to its logical conclusion, telling a new tale using Gwent as its core. It works surprisingly well, as the story delivers strong political intrigue, character moments, and tough moral choices. These all hold Thronebreaker together as the standard card-slinging gradually falters across dozens of hours.

Gwent retains its back-and-forth gameplay (which has since spun off into its own free-to-player multiplayer game) in Thronebreaker, though it’s undergone several changes from its minigame iteration. Although the objective is still the same (build up an army one card at a time to win two out of three rounds), there are several more card interactions and abilities to consider, and spies are no longer the terror they used to be.

Thronebreaker uses these rules as its foundation, but alters cards to fit the campaign (and even lets you skip battles on the easiest difficulty). Many of the cards from the free-to-play multiplayer have completely different abilities, and several new cards offer some great new challenges. A fight against a griffin involves lopping off its individual limbs (represented as different cards on the board); fending off a group of thieves has one of them invading your side of the board. These battles further cement the importance of certain story beats, it was great to see that facing an opponent the story long foreshadowed didn’t lead to a straightforward match. 

The wide array of medieval problems Meve needs to solve as she explores the varied realms will likely feel familiar - nobles quarreling over land, thieves with a righteous cause, civilians forced to commits crimes in desperation, and so on. But you'll be listening in rapt attention to how these events unfold, as each is grippingly told in ways you're simply not used to. I've encountered plenty of high fantasy racism in my time, but Thronebreaker is the first game to really make me think deeply about my own biases and those of my council. You'll find yourself staring at some decisions for what feels like ages, unsure of what will ultimately sit right with you. It's telling that Thronebreaker's version of Telltale's "They will remember that" recording of major decisions is "You've chosen one evil in favor of another." Not every RPG can make you think long and hard about the ethics of sympathy, vengeance, and the greater good; Thronebreaker does. Yet, for the many somber moments, there's also an impressive array of laugh-out-loud exchanges, including some of the best comeback lines you'll ever hear.

Meve's saga is detailed by a narrator simply known as the Storyteller, who serves as the beating heart of Thronebreaker's immensely enjoyable narrative. The writing in Thronebreaker is immaculate, with the kind of beautifully descriptive language that so clearly sets the scene in your mind, aided by the occasional still image and a masterful ambient soundscape. Everyone's fully voiced, from the cast of characters to the cards themselves, but its the narrator's perfect articulation, impassioned delivery, and warm, rhythmic voice that do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to main story beats and the many memorable sidequests. Listening to the Storyteller spin a yarn recalls all those times your grandparents would read to you when you were a child, and you always wanted to hear just one more chapter. That same desperate need to find out what happened next makes Thronebreaker almost impossible to put down. It's paced in such a way that you can easily dip in for just a few minutes, but that'll often turn into hours as you excitedly guide Meve to the next hard-fought duel, critical decision, or intriguing oddity sitting just off the beaten path.

Several fun puzzles find more creative uses for Gwent’s rules – or break them altogether. I love the way these they tie gameplay to story, like one that has you moving a character across the board to sneak past guards. I ended up liking the variety of these puzzle-oriented tasks more than the standard battles, since it’s easy to build unstoppable decks after a few hours. This makes your victory in traditional encounters a forgone conclusion, which gets dull as the campaign goes on.

Although you spend a lot time playing Gwent in Thronebreaker, the narrative does a great job of propelling you from battle to battle. You play as Meve, Queen of Lyria and Rivia, as she attempts to fend off an impending Nilfgaardian invasion. Meve is a fantastic lead, a defiant ruler who refuses to back down from the overwhelming obstacles she faces even as her subordinates cower before Nilfgaard. Between her steely resolve and her tense, harsh moments with her son Villem, I was captivated by her tale.

She’s joined by a strong cast of supporting characters, such as the conniving-but-lovable Gascon and Brouver Hoog, the strict king of the Dwarfs who forces Meve to play neutral with the Nilfgaardians within his realm. Although conversations play out in visual novel fashion, the animated comic-book style looks fantastic, and the performances and character animations are strong enough that I never felt like I was just reading text.

Choice also plays a large role in how your adventure plays out. As you explore a handful of large maps for resources that let you build up your deck, you come across plenty of moral quandaries. Some are simple, like deciding whether to spend money to bury a peasant to raise your troops’ morale. Others can have major ramifications on how the story plays out, and even if certain party members (and the powerful cards they add to your deck) leave your side. These decisions can play out in various ways, and I was pleasantly surprised when some decisions I was adamant about came back to bite me.

Thronebreaker is a great alternative for fans of Gwent who’d rather not dive into the multiplayer arena. Although some unique twists can’t hold off some late-game tedium, it’s a diverse campaign that emphasizes the strong characters and tough decisions that define the Witcher series, and emphasizes clever twists over turning newcomers into solid Gwent players. Whether you just want to play more Gwent or are simply a fan of The Witcher, playing Thronebreaker is an easy choice.

resentation, are wonderful. All are adorned with colorful, evocative artwork, and many are animated into such lively, captivating scenes that, when paired with feels-like-you're-there sound effects, simply put Hearthstone's golden cards to shame. The collection is rife with delightful signature phrases when a card enters play that only get better with time (a personal favorite of mine: "Got any vittles? Hungry like a wolf I am"). There are many more small details that make Thronebreaker's aesthetic shine, from the way characters subtly sway and breathe during cutscenes (as opposed to the static cutouts of a visual novel), to the points of interest that dot every environment, and even the synced-up mouth movements during dialogue. It's all so wonderful that I can easily forgive the minor moments that made my inner editor cry out, like when a typo would crop up, or there was an errant extra space, or the spoken lines didn't perfectly match up with the subtitles.       

It's as if the folks at CD Projekt Red weaponized a game to specifically target my interests, despite the fact that I've not spent a single minute playing as Geralt. Thronebreaker calls to mind the supreme polish of Hearthstone; Diablo 2's rich isometric worlds; ethereal writing a la inkle's 80 Days; upgrading my base camp in Darkest Dungeon; the hard choices and heartbreak of Telltale's The Walking Dead. I've done my best to avoid any spoilers for Thronebreaker's story and surprise puzzle elements for this review, because you deserve to experience them for yourself. Thronebreaker isn't just a great spinoff of The Witcher, or just an excellent card game - it's a spectacularly crafted RPG that'll delight anyone who loves a good story wonderfully told.

 

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Requirements

Minimum:

OS: Win 7 64
Processor: Intel Celeron G1820 2.7GHz / AMD APU A4-7300 Dual-Core
Graphics: AMD Radeon R7 240 2GB or NVIDIA GeForce GT 730 v3
System Memory: 4 GB RAM
Storage: 15 GB Hard drive space
DirectX 11 Compatible Graphics Card

Recommended: 

OS: Win 10 64
Processor: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz / AMD FX-6300
Graphics: AMD Radeon R7 265 Sapphire Dual-X 2GB Edition or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 v2
System Memory: 4 GB RAM
Storage: 15 GB Hard drive space