Thronebreaker: A Gwent Filled Adventure

I've just freshly finished playing through the campaign in Thronebreaker:  The Witcher Tales and now my brain needs a rest from all that strategizing--phew!  I'm not just talking about the puzzles or the battles...there are so many very difficult decisions to make.  The good news is that I had a blast playing Thronebreaker and would love to hear there are more games like it in the works (I mean...when they're done with CyberPunk 2077 because...that first, of course).

Thronebreaker:  The Witcher Tales tells the story of Queen Meve of Rivia as she faces many challenges to her rule.  She faces treachery from some of her closest, most trusted advisors, a Nilfgaardian invasion, and all the difficulties of trying to regain her rightful place.  This story plays out with a combination of point and click adventuring, Gwent battles, and puzzles.  Throughout that story are many, many choices that could potentially have a serious impact on the outcome...or on the characters themselves.

My first playthrough consisted of completing the main storyline, side battles, and puzzles.  One of the more interesting and challenging aspects of Thronebreaker is the fact that you can choose to skip out on many side battles.  In fact, there are definitely times when skipping side battles could be beneficial--you don't always end up with a positive outcome; even after winning the game of Gwent.  One of the dangers of skipping the side battles is that you could possibly miss out on unlocking new cards to supplement your deck.  Mostly, I fought the majority of them.  The final clock for my playthrough was 59 total hours.

Pros:

+ Familiar, but still unique.  If you played Gwent in The Witcher 3, you will immediately understand how the games/battles work.  In reality, it's much, much more like the online multiplayer card game Gwent--each card/card type has its own unique ability and learning those abilities and how best to counter/utilize them is much of the challenge.  It takes a bit of getting used to (for non-Gwent players), but manages to be both fun and challenging.

Players of The Witcher series will recognize the names, settings, enemies, and characters from the RPG or from the short stories.  There's some comfort in the familiarity, but again, it feels fresh.

+ Gorgeous artwork.  I've always loved the look of the artist designed cards in Gwent and that same artistic flair is obvious throughout the game.  The cards themselves are fabulous--some have static art, while those for special abilities or characters are animated.  The art also puts a new twist on some of the enemies and characters that are already known.

Much of the story is told through still drawings accompanied by voiceover by a narrator.  The drawings are also very, very cool and give the story the perfect punctuation.  I also really liked the maps for each zone--each one had a very medieval feel and illustrations that were pertinent to the story in that specific zone.

Choices, choices.

+ In typical The Witcher style, there are many choices to be made.  These choices are never easy and are generally a lesser of two evils kind of situation.  The choices you make can also have a very serious impact on the story/your deck.  If you choose a path that a character doesn't agree with, they might suddenly leave your party--this means you lose access to a powerful gold card with its valuable ability.  More story-based choices could see losses of valuable resources needed to build up your camp or deck.  I loved the fact that every choice felt impactful and that eventually you get to see how your choices play out.

There are also choices to be made while exploring the map--lesser decisions are scattered around each area and they can impact your troop morale.  Keeping morale high is vital as it directly impacts the power of your units--low morale means that your troops face each battle at lower power.

+ Strategizing/deck building.  There are numerous enemies with differing abilities--various monsters, Nilfgaardians, Scoia'tel...a regular Witcher mish-mash.  Picking cards and strategies to best counter each type is a learning process.  There is much flexibility in planning out your deck and through utilizing resources you can expand the total number of cards you can have.  Part of the fun is figuring out the best way use cards in combination.

+ Easter eggs.  I generally think of The Witcher as a fairly serious series, but there are numerous humorous tidbits scattered throughout the game.  Many of these are tied to other games--there is the powerful relic known as "the stick of truth;" there's the suspicious dwarven inn called "Stone Hearth" where you play a Gwent version of Hearthstone (it will make your brain hurt--but it's silly and fun); and then there's the village of Ravenholm...we don't go there anymore.  I appreciated these goofy moments in an otherwise serious game.

+ Features characters from The Witcher series.  This doesn't necessarily mean that they play a big role, but I liked seeing them and getting insight into their back story.  One of the notable characters is Black Rayla, who players will remember from the original The Witcher game.

+ Meve.  Lately I've really felt positively about the female characters in video games and Meve definitely continues this trend.  She also has an awesome braid (braids are cool--I mean, Kassandra from Assassin's Creed:  Odyssey and Black Rayla also sports a saucy braid-hawk thing--BRAIDS ARE THE NEW BLACK!).  I liked the fact that Meve felt regal and strong, as a queen should, but she also had very human moments that were relatable and added to her personality.  Scars are also cool and Meve earned a particularly nasty one.  She's strong, she's tough, but she can be merciful and understanding.

+ Puzzles!  They are presented as special scenarios with specific cards and outcomes for victory.  Puzzles vary in complexity and rely on knowledge of cards and how to utilize them in each scenario.  Their difficulty ranges from silly match-3 games to more complex combinations and strategies.  They are also completely optional (but you will definitely miss out on resources and possibly cards by skipping them).  *I would like to publicly admit here that I had to look up solutions for several of them (the ghoul/alghoul puzzle, the corpse puzzle, and the Beast puzzle).

+Replayability.  The decision-based nature of the story means that there is much replayability.  I made some extremely dumb decisions and absolutely would like to go back and change them.  There are also multiple difficulty levels.

+ Story.  Thronebreaker has a great choice driven story.  The story takes Meve to several different areas and each presents its own challenges.  The choices you make along them way influence the ending you can get.  There are some big twists along the way (one especially that I didn't see coming).

+Great voice acting.  There are many familiar voices from The Witcher, but all the characters are acted extremely well.  Meve is fabulous.

Cons:

- Performance.  Throughout the game I ran into weirdly hitchy performance--laggy bursts while exploring the map and especially while messing around with deck building in camp.  I was puzzled because there's not a lot of uber-graphics (I can understand the card animations possibly being taxing) when you're just out wandering on the map.  It never officially crashed, but it was really obnoxious, and particularly bad toward the end of the campaign.

- Probably not challenging enough for uber-Gwenters.  (*It seems as though a patch in December adjusted the difficulty--there were many complaints prior to this that the battles were way too easy)  If you're just in it for the Gwent and not the story, it would be best to just save yourself the time and invest in card barrels for Gwent.

-+ No manual saves. (Honestly, this could be a pro or a con depending on how you feel about this particular issue.  I liked that it gave your decisions finality--you couldn't just reload to make a better choice)

-Lingering bugs.  In the same patch that adjusted the difficulty level, they also fixed quite a few bugs (it was quite buggy at release) but there are some that persist.  I ran into one that will mess up your battle/puzzle if you look at your deck--your cards go blank and do a bunch of weird things requiring you to reload and retry.  There wasn't anything devastating or gamebreaking, but again, minor annoyances.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Thronebreaker--the blend of Gwent and story-based elements works well and I think anyone who likes a good story will enjoy playing.  Having read the short stories, I enjoyed the way that Thronebreaker fleshed out the story of Queen Meve and the Battle of the Bridge.  It's nice to see the universe of The Witcher expanded and I really hope that the Tales become multiple stories.

TL:DR

Recommended for:

--Fans of strong storytelling filled with impactful choices

--Fans of The Witcher universe who want a new experience filled with new and familiar characters

--Gamers who enjoy strategy and puzzles

Not Recommended for:

--Uber-Gwent players.  The difficulty has been adjusted, but it's probably too easy for you.

--People hoping for lots of Geralt.  He plays a very minor role in the story, but he's not a main character.

--People hoping for an RPG.

--People who hate puzzles.

  

It's in the Cards

I've played so much Assassin's Creed lately that I've decided it's time to for something that is decidedly different.  Thanks to the Steam Holiday Sale, I picked up a couple of good candidates that I've been waiting to check out--Thronebreaker:  The Witcher Tales and The Banner Saga 3.  I decided to start with Thronebreaker and save myself the pain of making horrible decisions in The Banner Saga 3 for later.

Thronebreaker was a bit of a surprise to me.  I had no idea that CD Projekt was working on another The Witcher game and, as a fan of the series, I was excited to check it out.  Thronebreaker is set in the Witcher universe, but isn't an RPG in the style of the three The Witcher games;  it is a story-based adventure game that is told through the card game Gwent.  You play as Meve, queen of Lyria and Rivia, as she attempts to return home from a trip abroad.  Meve wants to get home, but her travels reveal that all is not well in her kingdom--the land is plagued by bandits and monsters and her son, who is supposed to be ruling in her absence, has obviously not tried to address these issues.  (The story gets much, much more complicated, but I don't want to spoil it)

A view of a city post-battle.

Each area presents itself as a large, medieval style map.  Players guide Meve around the map with simple point and click commands.  Exploring the map reveals resources that can be picked up; these resources are used to improve your camp, to create new cards, or for special optional story-based situations that can also be found on the map.  There are also many different special locations found on the map--puzzle-based challenges that have specific conditions that must be met (you play with a different special deck on each puzzle); special, optional story battles--a scenario is presented and you can choose to battle it out in a special game (usually there are special rules and you play with a set deck, but sometimes there are more standard games); and main storyline quests.

Everyone knows that trolls are friends and should always be helped.

One of the things that I'm really enjoying, and it's something that has always been great in The Witcher series, is the choice-based story.  Each scenario throws you into a unique situation where you are forced to make a decision--and, in true Witcher style, your choices are never clear cut or easy;  all too often it's a "lesser of two evils" thing--the choices you make do have an impact on what happens.  I've been playing Meve as an honorable ruler who strives to do the right thing.  Sometimes doing the right thing doesn't have the positive outcome that you want--rescue a group of peasants and gain a drain on resources; show mercy to a group of conquered enemies and have your troops lose morale (which has an impact on the number of hitpoints your troops/cards have in Gwent battles) because they believe those enemies should be eliminated.

The Gwent battles are more akin to the online, multiplayer Gwent than they are to the Gwent from The Witcher 3.  If you haven't played Gwent, it might take a little while to get used to the differences.  My advice is to take your time and read the abilities on each of your, and the enemy's cards.  The first few conflicts on the map serve as the tutorial and the game does a decent job of walking players through the basics of the game.  Meve/you start with a basic deck, but cards can be gained through solving puzzles and winning optional story battles or through the main storyline.  Players can also make camp at any time and use resources to craft additional cards and alter their deck.

One of the easiest choices to make.  Who leaves a cute dog?

As you progress the storyline, things happen that can alter which cards you have access too.  Just as you're starting to feel confident in your current deck...BOOM, things have changed and you just lost a bunch of cards and gained a whole new set, with completely different abilities.  This change of pace keeps the game challenging and doesn't let you get too comfortable.  Depending on the choices you make, certain characters (who present in Gwent matches as powerful gold cards with special abilities) can choose to stay or leave (which means you lose their card and its abilities).  I was feeling really good about my deck and had a strategy built around a certain character...then that character decided to leave due to disagreeing with choices that I had made; now I'm trying to rebuild my deck and find a new strategy.

Despite the fact that early on in the game my brain kept thinking in Hearthstone mode (I was so confused as to why my cards weren't getting to attack--I don't understand why this happened because I've played way more Gwent than Hearthstone), I'm having so much fun with Thronebreaker.  The story is great, the choices are difficult, and the puzzles and battles can be downright devious (but feel so good to finally solve or win).

*Special note--if you're hoping for some Geralt or that Thronebreaker will be very obviously tied to the RPG's....so far (I've played for 22 hours), those clear cut links are mostly elusive.  The enemies and story elements are very much a part of The Witcher universe.  Meve's story is linked to Geralt's (if you read the books/short stories, you learn that Geralt was actually knighted by Meve as a reward for saving her life during a particularly hairy altercation on a bridge--this is referenced in Blood and Wine when Geralt uses his knightly title to enter into the tournament) and you do actually run into some characters who are a part of the RPG's (one features rather prominently in the early story).