Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales

Genre: Turn-Based Card Game

Players: 1

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Review:

Thronebreaker is a Card Game set in the same universe as the Witcher series, with rules inspired by (but not quite the same as) Gwent, the minigame from within that series. However, don’t mistake that to think that Thronebreaker is just a glorified minigame – not only is the gameplay here a good deal more complex and involved than Gwent, but the game includes a full proper story worthy of the universe it came from, albeit one that is not focused on series protagonist Geralt of Rivera.

Rather, this game’s story focuses on a queen named Meve, newly returned from signing a peace pact with neighboring kingdoms only to discover her own kingdom ravaged by a pack of savage bandits calling themselves the Strays. Just as in the Witcher series proper, the story is one of this game’s biggest selling points – it is extremely well-written, and has some truly fantastic voice acting. This is no mere cash grab on a popular license – Thronebreaker does a good job of not just taking from the lore of this series, but enhancing it.

Graphically, Thronebreaker looks very good for a card game. The cards themselves are enhanced with animations that make them come alive, and progression through the game is measured through a journey around a 3D world map. Everything is slightly-stylized, but they still bear the slightly gritty aesthetic of the Witcher series. There’s nothing here that’s anywhere near as ambitious as The Witcher 3, of course – this is a card game, after all. However, for what this is, the visual presentation is solid.

For the gameplay here, I feel like there’s something important that deserves mention – this game is not Gwent: The Standalone Game. While the rules of this game have similarities to Gwent, the way it plays is quite different in a lot of ways, and those expecting to be able to jump right from one to the other will find themselves unprepared for the added complexities of Thronebreaker, as well as the differences in strategy.

Thronebreaker still has players strategically placing cards on one of multiple rows (two instead of Gwent’s three), and still has them carefully considering whether to concede a defeat in one round to conserve cards for later rounds, but this game adds a great deal of additional rules and variety on top of that, bringing it a bit closer to Collectable Card Games like Magic: The Gathering and Hearthstone, although the goal in the end is still to overpower the enemy forces, not to destroy them or get past them to damage the enemy player. I would almost call Thronebreaker itself a Collectable Card Game due to the similarities, except there are no microtransactions here, and players don’t collect cards so much as deliberately craft them as they see fit.

There’s also a lot more variety here than just playing match after match of the standard card games. For starters, much of what you’ll be doing is moving around the world map, talking with various people, investigating areas searching for information and resources. You’ll be using these resources to build up your camp, which in turn can be used to enhance and grow your card collection, giving you a wider variety of cards to choose from. The card battles themselves are also varied – at times, you’ll be using your custom-made deck to take on various opponents in a normal battle, but more often than not you’ll find yourself in a battle with unique circumstances, unusual win conditions, or be provided a specific set of cards to complete a goal, making it a puzzle of sorts.

I found this was a double-edged sword. I appreciated that the different card game types added to the variety, but I found it made it frustrating when I kept running into puzzles at a time when all I wanted to do was test out my newly-enhanced deck against opponents. Likewise, the amount of artifice all of this stuff adds on top of the card game makes it feel a bit over-complicated at times, and really made the game’s tutorial section drag on for quite a while. And where Gwent was mostly fairly simple once you got the hang of it, Thronebreaker can get confusing and complicated, even early on – this is not a good game for those who are not already familiar with Collectable Card Games.

I also have a bone to pick with the game’s controls on the map screen, where players guide around Meve, who represents the player’s war party. Unfortunately, Meve is cumbersome to control as she turns slowly, which doesn’t detract from the gameplay too much but is still an annoyance. There is also a complaint I have about a missed opportunity here – the Nintendo Switch version of the game does not include touchscreen controls, which seems like a pretty natural thing to include on, you know, a Card game. And for a competitive card game, it feels like a huge oversight that there’s no multiplayer.

In the end, Thronebreaker does a lot of things right that you wouldn’t expect it to, and bungles a few things you’d think it would get right. For a Card Game, Thronebreaker has an absolutely fantastic story and wonderful presentation, and does a great job adding depth and variety to sustain a full campaign. Some of that complexity is a bit of a mixed bag though, making Thronebreaker lose much of the elegant simplicity of Gwent. In addition, some cumbersome controls and the lack of multiplayer and touchscreen support seems like a big oversight. In the end though, if you’re a fan of The Witcher, Thronebreaker is a must-have, and if you enjoy Card Games, it’s definitely worth trying.

tl;dr – Thronebreaker is a Card Game set in the Witcher universe and based on the card game Gwent (though this is a much more complex game than Gwent). The presentation here is fantastic, with excellent writing and voice acting befitting the Witcher universe, but the game can get a bit over-complicated at times, and the lack of multiplayer and touchscreen support is disappointing. However, it’s still a must-have game for Witcher fans, and a good choice for fans of Card Games.

Grade: B

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2020 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Best Strategy Game

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