Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales

Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales is one of the best-written RPGs in years, with exciting card battles that are kept cleverly fresh throughout.

Addictive and compelling beyond all reason, belief or expectation. Thronebreaker is an epic RPG-Puzzle game hybrid that completely immerses and enthralls, thanks to its impeccable art direction and attention to detail.

Much like The Witcher 3, Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales is a single-player RPG with a high emphasis on player choice. If the world of The Witcher and its lore have captivated you before, there’s no excuse for skipping on this one. The card battle system might take a while to get used to, but friendly tutorials help smooth the way.

Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales takes this genre to a new level of depth.

Overall, Thronebreaker is a revolutionary game within the CCG genre, and I hope other companies take note. With a 40-hour story to support an engaging card game, there's nothing else quite like it, and its unique nature is to its overall benefit. It's made me realize how much I can and do enjoy card games when they're done right.

Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales could have been a lackluster, uninspired spinoff in an attempt to capitalize off the Witcher’s success, but it is so much more than that. Sure, I have some minor gripes, such as the lack of a mini-map and guide markers, or the anticlimactic final battle, but they all seem trivial when looking at what Thronebreaker accomplishes as a whole. The intricately layered story and carefully crafted characters and writing are some of the best I’ve seen this year, and the card play is more rewarding than it’s ever been before. Whether or not you are a fan of the Witcher series, or even card games in general, Thronebreaker deserves your attention.

It may not be The Witcher game you expected, but Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales is an exceptional addition to the series, and a must-play for all Gwent fans.

It is rare that a multi-genre game can be successful in more than one of its mechanics, but Thronebreaker is simultaneously an excellently written story, an entertaining isometric RPG, and an addictive and engaging card game. Finally, for fans of The Witcher universe, it gives us another excuse to live in that richly-imagined world. For me at least, Thronebreaker came out of nowhere and was a very happy surprise indeed.

An exquisite combination of deep storytelling and refined card game combat mechanics, Thronebreaker delivers an exceptional RPG experience that not many developers can achieve these days. It's a pity that Geralt's saga has ended after just three games, but Thronebreaker is definitely going to quench your thirst for anything The Witcher related, at least for a while.

I love that CD Projekt Red’s solution to getting more players on board with its free-to-play card game was to produce a massive standalone RPG with all the spellbinding storytelling that’s become a signature of The Witcher brand. It’s the sort of thoroughness and commitment to quality they’ve built a reputation on, and Thronebreaker now paves the way for an exciting new genre of card games that incorporate a similar design ethos.

This is a must have game for every Witcher fan. Great story with meaningful decisions standing on the shoulders of fun card battles and puzzles and innovative gameplay mechanics.

The Witcher Tales is a strange potion that is surprisingly good. From a logical point of view, a game that mixes so many genres together can’t be this amazing, but then comes CDPR, a company that is just unable to develop bad titles.

Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales proves you don't need expensive graphics to have an impactful story. Just excellent voice acting, writing and a unique card game is enough to make this an excellent title.

The Thronebreaker is not just an expansion pack of Gwent, but also a brand new RPG in Witcher world. Although some cards might be overpower, the overall impression of this game is magnificent. It is a great present to all Witcher fans.

With its excellent story, charming characters, varied and engaging gameplay experience, Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales can be considered a true The Witcher game, despite not being a traditional RPG. The game may be too easy, but this small flaw in no way compromises the game's overall quality.

Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales is another massive achievement for CD Projekt Red. Based on the card game Gwent, the developer has managed to combine an astonishing open world, a great soundtrack and unique role playing and strategy elements into one great package - albeit one very different from what we are used to.

Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales looks like a simple proposal in the beginning, but it feels deep when we explore its guts. A new chapter in the world of Geralt of Rivia in which we will feel the cold breath of war between The Northern Kingdoms and Nilfgaard.

Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales is an excellent combination of art, gameplay and story. A game that imbues care in each of its elements. Meve is the new awesome and badass character in The Witcher universe.

Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales quickly establishes itself as more or less the paradigm of a genre. The alchemy of its RPG roots, addictive gameplay and wonderful story make it a far more fleshed-out package than many may have expected. While non-series fans may not find too much to write home about in terms of the tale it weaves, what remains in terms of gameplay is a fundamentally worthwhile package and one that one will provide many, many hours of entertainment.

Its tale is mandatory if you're looking for more Witcher lore to chew on and manages to engage you with a strong cast of well-written characters and a suitably dark plot that challenges your morals every chance it can.

Thronebreaker combines RPG, cards and an excellent narrative. If you want to know more about The Witcher’s world and like card-based games, this is an absolute must-have.

Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales will dazzle the fans of the universe thanks, especially, to its elaborate and evocative story. And the charisma that Meve lavishes, the protagonist of the game. Reorder the bases of Gwent to provide more packaging to the exciting battles for house brand cards.

A singleplayer version of Gwent, that sounds boring, but it actually is amusing. It's written very well and tactical it knows how to challenge a gamer.

Thronebreaker drifts ever further from Witcher 3 version of Gwent: now there’s only two rows, for example, and victory conditions vary from battle to battle. But on its own, Thronebreaker is a very enjoyable experience. [Issue#234, p.36]

The standalone Gwent release is free on GOG, and I encourage those who enjoy it to shell out the money for Thronebreaker, a strong expansion of both the base game and the Witcher universe. Geralt’s portion of this story may have concluded, but the folks at CD Projekt RED seem committed to sharing more tales from this world, and I couldn’t be more excited.

A strategy / puzzle game masqueraded into a card game, set in the world of Witcher. Only CD Projekt RED could take something phenomenally strange and turn it into such a magnificent and addictive game.

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.

Summary: Thronebreaker is a masterful RPG with a version of Gwent that is well-suited for a single player experience. Even if you aren’t into card games, this one is worth a try for the story and RPG mechanics alone.

Thronebreaker is a pretty decent RPG and an interesting exploration into previously unseen parts of the Witcherverse, but to avoid dullness in the long term it needs to introduce more cards and a greater degree of consequence for player choices, especially those who go in head first, trying to bite off more than they can chew. I think The Witcher Tales will have to resolve the disparities caused by being both Witcher Tales the RPG and Witcher Tales the card-game, to truly achieve greatness in future installments.

The staging is more reminiscent of old-school role-playing games, the quests and storylines could sometimes be a bit more expansive and the balancing needs fine tuning. Nevertheless, I can recommend Thronebreaker in good conscience to every witch fan. I was so carried away by the story about Queen Meve that I gave her two nights in a row with just three hours of sleep - what more could you ask for?

Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales is a tough and pure RPG without compromise, with a great card-based combat system.

Thanks to an engrossing story and some tricky choices Thronebreaker kept us hooked for the 30 hour campaign, even though some of the puzzles can lead to frustration and the map exploration gets old pretty quickly.

A captivating story and varied card battles ensure this light-touch RPG remains entertaining throughout its lengthy campaign.

Thronebreaker is a feast for those collectible card games fans who don’t care for online play or tournaments and instead would like to follow a well-written story that introduces an array of vivid characters and presents you with tough choices. [12/2018, p.56]

A nice combination of RPG, card game and puzzle elements that use the familiar and popular world. Fans of The Witcher will be thrilled to experience the story of Queen Meve. [Issue#290]

CD Projekt Red have delivered an exceptional adventure in Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales. One that any Witcher fan should not hesitate to experience. While Gwent is undeniably fun, it falls short of its full potential in a single-player only game with AI opponents.

It's a spin-off of a spin-off that improbably couples the lighthearted but surprisingly complex mechanics of the free-to-play multiplayer Gwent: The Witcher Card Game with the dark, moral storytelling of Wild Hunt.

Thronebreaker is an interesting spin-off, with a clever puzzle design and an interesting atmosphere. But its story could have been so much better.

Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales is more than just anoter trading cards game, for its story and depth is worthy of any The Witcher game, which says everything.

Thronebreakers: The Witcher Tales is a good addition to the Gwent gameplay and anyone who loves The Witcher's lore, will love the story told in this game.

Thronebreaker is different thing from the good old Gwent. It’s a puzzle adventure mixed with some RPG choice, introducing a spin off story with Meve the warrior queen and many recalls to the main storyline, lived in The Witcher series. As a spin off, it is worth the shot, and the budget price sounds right.

The mixture of roleplaying, card strategy, fantasy and turnbased tactics within the world of The Witcher works surprisingly well.

Thronebreaker is also a fairly problematic title in its card game aspect: artificial intelligence does not prove to be a stimulating adversary and, after a while, the battles are boring because of a variety that is not so pronounced.

If you like storytellers, and card games, you will like Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales.

Thronebreaker is surprisingly simple on medium difficulty, but there is no incentive to play it again on hard. Here, Gwent serves as a distraction from Queen Maeve’s adventures rather than the main course. Under different circumstances, her story could have been turned into a much more ambitious self-sufficient game to rival The Banner Saga trilogy.

Gwent became a means to an end by the finale, a necessary thing to do to unlock the next story segment, and something I would avoid when possible. Its a shame because Thronebreaker does some good work modifying the familiar Gwent rules, they just get easily overshadowed by the main storyline and the various decisions you can find along the way.

With Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales, Gwent evolves through an exciting adventure that brilliantly enriches the Witcher universe in video games. We regret, however, the classicism of sometimes painful exploration phases.

Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales is unlikely to create masses of new fans for Gwent, and its adventure mode effectively admits this. However, it allows those looking for an entertaining tale to enjoy one without letting CCG elements and other gameplay elements get in the way. Meanwhile, fans of Gwent should appreciate the opportunity to apply the game to a wider adventure and be tested with the special scenarios. To those ends, Thronebreaker is a worthwhile endeavour that will please many, if perhaps not delight.

Thronebreaker is a great solution for players that value amazing story and beautiful graphics over everything else. Despite some minor gameplay issues and unrealized potential of the game, players will have a lot of fun. If you miss the world and lore of The Witcher, it's definitely worth to check this title.