Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales

 PC
User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 665 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 518 out of 665
  2. Mixed: 61 out of 665
  3. Negative: 86 out of 665

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  1. bronzi
    Dec 12, 2018
    7
    Great storytelling and dialogue, and meaningful decision-making.
    The game overstays it's welcome by about 20 hours, and the puzzles require a great deal of patience. I ended up using a walk-through for many of the puzzle encounters, as I couldn't be bothered to even attempt them.
  2. Zloybig
    Nov 11, 2018
    6
    I have played for Thronebreaker and Gwent card game for last 5 days... Thronebreaker has an interesting story mode. Ordinary fights are quite easy but puzzle quest let your brain start working)
    For the music no comments... it's just awesome. What I don't like that cards in TB game and cards in Gwent is different, have different power and different skills. Some of the cards you found in TB    I have played for Thronebreaker and Gwent card game for last 5 days... Thronebreaker has an interesting story mode. Ordinary fights are quite easy but puzzle quest let your brain start working)
    For the music no comments... it's just awesome. What I don't like that cards in TB game and cards in Gwent is different, have different power and different skills. Some of the cards you found in TB can be used in Gwent game, frames etc.

    This game should be exclusive on GOG only, bought it for 199 Yuan(29USD), then I found that in 5 days TB has released at Steam and price is 128 Yuan( 18 USD).    … Expand
  3. ArminW
    Nov 14, 2018
    6
    It's actually... quite OK. No more, no less.
    And I personally consider The Witcher 3 of of my favorite games ever and played Gwent in that almost obsessively...
    The story is, indeed, very good. As are the handpainted visuals and the music. Gameplay, however, was disappoining. They bastardised the original card game into something that fits all, puzzles and story battles and normal    It's actually... quite OK. No more, no less.
    And I personally consider The Witcher 3 of of my favorite games ever and played Gwent in that almost obsessively...
    The story is, indeed, very good. As are the handpainted visuals and the music. Gameplay, however, was disappoining. They bastardised the original card game into something that fits all, puzzles and story battles and normal battles, and lost the basic idea behind it.
    The most important thing is: in a card game, I want to know the rules. In Thronebreaker, they are contantly changed, completely wanton, and the opponents never play by the same ones as you. Deckbuilding is oversimplified (No "theme" decks as in Witcher 3, just one in which you mix units for maximum cheese...).
    The results from battles have no meaning whatsoever for the story campaign (just "win" or "lose", it makes zero difference if you win by 1 point in the 3rd round or steamroll your opponent by 83:0 and 167:0). No difference for morale, losses or resources spent.
    Economy is meaningless, you just pick up resources like in a bad mobile game, buy every upgrade available and have tens of thousands of gold and building materials in the final chapter with nothing to spend it on.
    MANY descriptions of special rules for puzzle battles are vague, unhelpful and sometimes plain misleading. And, all things considered, the balance is quite bad. Most battles are trivially easy, once you found the cheese in your deck, some puzzles are completely obscure, and the final battle is the utter opposite: A complete and totally ridiculous bag of silly cheats for an opponent, who breaks EVERY rule of classic Gwent, replaces every destroyed units immediately from a 90-card deck, randomly boosts his troops and conveniently draws an extra card-card or a silly, all-immune 75 power boss whenever needed. Can actually be beaten, by simply replacing the deck with a special flavour of cheese, but is, to me, no fun at all.
    As I said, it's not bad, just...a bit disappoing compared to what i've come to expect from CDPR.    … Expand
  4. ConcernedAlien
    Nov 6, 2018
    6
    Pros: Some puzzles are interesting and offering real fun. Early story plot. Letters that appearing in game makeing story more interesting.
    Cons: No need to adjust the deck (except final battle). You can play anything on hardest level. Lots dialogues you want to skip without reading, especially later in game. Story is linear, your choices doesnt affect the story. It is only about what card    Pros: Some puzzles are interesting and offering real fun. Early story plot. Letters that appearing in game makeing story more interesting.
    Cons: No need to adjust the deck (except final battle). You can play anything on hardest level. Lots dialogues you want to skip without reading, especially later in game. Story is linear, your choices doesnt affect the story. It is only about what card you keep in deck and what card will "leave" you, and summary narration at the end of game. Many invisible walls makeing game "longer". You don't need to worry about resources, you ending game with zillions of gold. (hardest level). Dont have to craft like 70% of cards, you will win anyway. Camp improvements are mostly meaningless (army limit you dont need to rise, cards you dont need to craft). You will win anyway.    … Expand
  5. ForeverRev
    Nov 9, 2018
    5
    Fantastic story and well-written characters without a doubt. Game is incredibly enjoyable and would recommend for a great and interesting story. However, I will focus on the negative parts of this game:
    - No firm strategy: when you enter battle, you get a hand of random cards with the option to shuffle a few times. Since the cards drawn are all random, there is no decisive strategy to it.    Fantastic story and well-written characters without a doubt. Game is incredibly enjoyable and would recommend for a great and interesting story. However, I will focus on the negative parts of this game:
    - No firm strategy: when you enter battle, you get a hand of random cards with the option to shuffle a few times. Since the cards drawn are all random, there is no decisive strategy to it. The randomness offers a lot of variety without a doubt, but it kills the need of a well-thought out battle plan. Instead, you end up forfeiting and resetting until you get the cards that you just need for the coming battle. There is an ambush-aspect in this game which should have been the only aspect that offer random cards. RNG is most notable during the final battle, where you need those specific cards you'll rarely get.
    - Can't experience it all in a single run: if you prefer to fully experience a game in a single run, then this game is not recommended for you. In certain situations you are presented with multiple choices, however choosing one option will autosave the game after the short narrative ends. Although this forces the player to properly think through every choice, it doesn't offer the full game experience. There is no quicksave and quickload option, meaning you are not able to find out what would happen if you chose option B instead of option A. There are choices that will impact you later in the game, however that is another matter and cannot be changed.
    - Repetitive: this game offers a steep learning curve for new players, but it gets easier to master after that. Once you've got a full grip of the mechanics, done quite a few puzzles and battles, it ends up becoming rather stale. The first few puzzles you solve gives you an amazing feeling, but as you continue to encounter them, it becomes bothersome and pointless.

    - Minor issues: conscripts that are given in abundance when you have no use for that many. Few bugs, none too concerning.

    EDIT: the battle "upper keep" (final mission) is almost entirely RNG-based. You cannot win unless you get those lucky cards, and the opponent doesn't draw a card worth 75 and boosts by 10. Doesn't matter how well you've played, since luck is the only way you'll win and it is frustrating.    … Expand
  6. BLADELING
    Nov 16, 2018
    6
    It's a visual novel with card game elements. Not even remotely a RPG.
    interactive audiobook component: trivial plot offset by a very charismatic protagonist.
    Card game component: some interesting puzzle but casual mechanics.
    it's very similar to a mobile game, it could be a GWENT DLC.
  7. ivandrago80
    Nov 1, 2018
    5
    Game is quite slow and boring. Very easy as well. I finished in couple of days. Only time I had to adjust my deck was for the final battle. The puzzles are quite good and only nice thing about the game. The story is painfully linear and I found myself skipping some dialogues as they add nothing to the game.
    Very average game, I was expecting much more.
  8. raadoo
    Oct 28, 2018
    6
    i don't know. i've finished the first map and fought a few battles on the second one. so far, the story is linear, predictable and unimpressive, dialog choices don't seem to make a difference. fights are easy (on normal) and you can replay them anyway without any penalty. exploring the map to collect loot gets boring and tedious. basically, you walk around a map, encounter map markers thati don't know. i've finished the first map and fought a few battles on the second one. so far, the story is linear, predictable and unimpressive, dialog choices don't seem to make a difference. fights are easy (on normal) and you can replay them anyway without any penalty. exploring the map to collect loot gets boring and tedious. basically, you walk around a map, encounter map markers that either trigger a dialogue or a card game. you click through the dialogue or beat the card game (most of the time it doesn't really require much thinking) and you're back to the map looking for another marker. maybe the story will get better in time but i don't really feel like checking that out...… Expand
  9. dylem77
    Oct 28, 2018
    5
    Mediocre indie game based around a dull CCG. After reading the good user reviews on Gog.com and on metacritic, i decided to buy the game. I like ccg's like hearthstone and MTG, i like RPG's like DOS, DOS II, Dragon age and i prefer single player games above multiplayer, so i thought Thronebreaker would be an ideal combination for me. After playing the game for a few hours, i still have toMediocre indie game based around a dull CCG. After reading the good user reviews on Gog.com and on metacritic, i decided to buy the game. I like ccg's like hearthstone and MTG, i like RPG's like DOS, DOS II, Dragon age and i prefer single player games above multiplayer, so i thought Thronebreaker would be an ideal combination for me. After playing the game for a few hours, i still have to find out what's even good about this game, i'm not intrigued by the story, the map makes it look like a game from a decade ago and the main thing: the card game is just boring and gives me a feeling of waisting my time.
    I'm wondering where all those 10/10 reviews come from?    … Expand
  10. DoPatStem
    Oct 23, 2018
    7
    I was hoping for a bit more. The card battles aren't as good as they could be. It's still a good game but not a great game.
  11. alen1988
    Dec 13, 2018
    7
    Would have been a 10/10, the minus is on the buggy-as-hell PS4 version experience. A crash can be expected every hour of my game play, should have waited for sales (so that it would be fully patched)!
  12. MeritCoba
    Feb 13, 2019
    7
    You know, I feel underwhelmed by Thronebreaker, a game that plays like a gard-came that is packaged as a role-play game and presented as a graphic novel.. Due to space constraints I focus most on its most praised element ; the story.

    The story is praised for being well written, but I beg to differ. I will not go into all the details, as there are many flaws and space is limited, but    You know, I feel underwhelmed by Thronebreaker, a game that plays like a gard-came that is packaged as a role-play game and presented as a graphic novel.. Due to space constraints I focus most on its most praised element ; the story.

    The story is praised for being well written, but I beg to differ. I will not go into all the details, as there are many flaws and space is limited, but one example has Geralt of Rivia(the witcher guy) knighted by Meve for helping out in a battle. There is nothing leading up to that moment. A group of strangers helps out with a battle and Meve knights one of them out of the blue. Why is nobody else knighted? Perhaps she got the hots for him, but if so, it isn't told.

    The story is riddled with these nonsensical moments that are made worse by the incessant betrayals. The art of writing a good story is not to attribute inhuman behavior to people, but to make them fail because they are so human. Take count Caldwell. When faced by a perceived unbeatable enemy he chooses to submit. Instead of making him a person who has to make a very hard decision, he is painted as a traitorous self-serving coward who is fat and lives in luxury. Why is not more made of the dark side of Meve? When she liberates her own country she might eventually cause the utter ruin that Caldwell tries to prevent. But no, at the end it is written that the Nilfgardian empire is unable to due to being overstretched. And with this the story has hit an iceberg and sunk. Meve was right from the start, for even after taking heavy losses, the much more powerful force that is about to fall upon her weak army disappears from the story. She didn't even need to have the magic ring drop into the volcano. A much better story would have been if Caldwell had been right after all and the enemy retreats because of civil war or the death of a ruler, or the effort is just not worth it, or the big baddy has too many enemies at the court.. The writers might even have presented the count as the one who actually caused the enemy to retreat by fostering that civil war or knowing well that their emperor was about to die. But the writers butcher all of this because they have to provide the audience a story in which the good are good and the bad are bad and invasions are prevented by miracles.

    As a card-game the game doesn't excel. Your deck consists of only two smaller decks that you can expand upon and nothing more.You do get sets from other decks, but you cannot add to these or change them. What other cards you can acquire are tied to a handful of characters or the occasional special events.

    As a role-play game the game is weak. Your character, queen Meve is a given. Options are often offered in a black and white manner and boil down to: attack or not attack, punish A or do not punish A, trust B or do not trust B. You are never informed beforehand about the consequences and you do not get the ability to find out more. You have to make a uninformed decision on the spot and hope for the best. Appoint a gnome as mayor to a town and he is as likely to burn it down as to make it wealthy. Invest money in an enterprise, you might see a tenfold profit or loose the whole investment. Trust an elf and he might reward you for it or lead you into an ambush. It is all a shot in the dark based on little information with no ability to find out more and with an arbitrary outcome.

    The weakest aspect of the game is the warfare-element. Warfare is about making tough choices because you have limited resource.s The only choice you get to make is what cards you bring to the table in a battle and these are distributed not as a result of your choices, but as the game progresses. There is no strategy in this game. During the game you are a times informed that some battles come with heavy losses. However, you never see the effect of these losses . I was expecting to having to suffer a tremendous loss in men and means, to make hard choices, but these moments never came. As a wargame it isn't challenging.

    Thronebreaker is not a bad game: it is a luxurious card-game, but it isn't as good as as it is made out to be. As such it is a good investment if you can get it for bargain. Maybe 10 dollars/euros?    … Expand
  13. CaioBolado
    Jun 3, 2019
    7
    Jogo muito bom, porém a campanha é bem limitada de cartas então fica sempre as mesmas batalhas com as mesmas cartas, mesmas cartas adversárias, mesmas estratégias sempre, porém é mt boa a história, as escolhas, as consequencias das escolhas, não sei o multiplayer pois joguei de forma ilegal, mas a campanha é muito boa tirando a batalha final do boss lá, aquelas cartas dele não tem no jogoJogo muito bom, porém a campanha é bem limitada de cartas então fica sempre as mesmas batalhas com as mesmas cartas, mesmas cartas adversárias, mesmas estratégias sempre, porém é mt boa a história, as escolhas, as consequencias das escolhas, não sei o multiplayer pois joguei de forma ilegal, mas a campanha é muito boa tirando a batalha final do boss lá, aquelas cartas dele não tem no jogo e são muito apelona, é quase impossível vence-lo,admiro quem conseguiu tal proeza no mais dificil eu infelizmente abaixei a dificuldade pro normal pois cansei de passar noites em claro tentando vence-lo.… Expand
  14. LoadOfRubbish
    Jun 17, 2022
    6
    Любителям Гвинта с Ведьмака 3 понравится. Игра сделана по мотивам вселенной ведьмака, это история королевы Лирии и Ривии, у котрой просто "украли" государства, и она собрав небольшой отряд верных ей солдат, начала путь по их возвращению.
    В игре будут встречаться много персонажей, которые могут присоединится к вашему отряду, но если вы совершите поступок, который придёт им не по нраву, они    Любителям Гвинта с Ведьмака 3 понравится. Игра сделана по мотивам вселенной ведьмака, это история королевы Лирии и Ривии, у котрой просто "украли" государства, и она собрав небольшой отряд верных ей солдат, начала путь по их возвращению.
    В игре будут встречаться много персонажей, которые могут присоединится к вашему отряду, но если вы совершите поступок, который придёт им не по нраву, они покинут его. В игры сюжет неплохой, довольно интересный, но эти диалоги всё портят... Даже не верится что эту игру делали Поляки! Диалоги уж слишком детские, даже не для подростков, будто были написаны для детсадовцев!
    По геймплею, это обычная ККИ с элементами приключенческой игры. В игре есть парочку головоломок, опять же для детей. Графика просто ОК, не режет глаза и норм.
    Даже не знаю, что говорить про эту игру, вроде всё отлично, в подобном жанре игр мало, сделано всё качественно, но игра СЛИШКОМ детская. 6/10    … Expand
  15. FRIST_008
    May 8, 2023
    7
    Такс. Кровавая Вражда.

    10 часов спустя Что это такое? Гвинт? Извольте, но нет. Карточный аналог харстоун где нужен менеджмент карт? Та не... Так что же это такое? Карточный пазл? Вероятно да. В 50% боёв тебе дают вообще не твою колоду, и ты должен решить карточный пазл с 1-2 вариантами решения. На такие пазлы уходит от 10 до 15 минут. Они интересные, а русский дубляж придаёт    Такс. Кровавая Вражда.

    10 часов спустя

    Что это такое?

    Гвинт? Извольте, но нет. Карточный аналог харстоун где нужен менеджмент карт? Та не... Так что же это такое?

    Карточный пазл? Вероятно да. В 50% боёв тебе дают вообще не твою колоду, и ты должен решить карточный пазл с 1-2 вариантами решения. На такие пазлы уходит от 10 до 15 минут. Они интересные, а русский дубляж придаёт ведьмачьего настроения всему этому,

    А свои карты колоды? Забей. Прошёл 1/4 игры и не трогал колоду, Карты которые получаю я вообще хз нах нужны. Базовая колода ТОП.

    А что же сюжет? Интересный? Да, сюжет как раз тут залипательный, хотя игровой процесс и не позволяет играть за раз в игру больше 2-3 часов, но именно сюжет заставляет тебя сюда вернутся. Кучу сайдов, кучу серой морали, отсутствие чистого добра в этом мире, вечные ножи в спину и тд. Но есть одно НО. Ощущение от сюжета и его подачи как от очень дорогой и качественной аудио книги с картинками.

    Что в итоге, сюжет и ветки его круты, это прямо строгие 10 балов. Но геймплей приедается достаточно быстро, за 2-3 часа, но потом опять как по новой. То есть на 40ч, на которые расчитана игра его вероятно не хватит. Такому геймплею я не даю больше 6 или 7 балов.

    В сумме и в среднем у нас выходит 7-8 с копейками балов.

    Теперь надо просмотреть мою систему оценки:
    10 шедевр
    9 рекомендую всем и каждому
    8 мне понравилась игра, но говорить я о ней буду только если со мной о ней заговорят.
    7 к игре есть много мелких или один большой вопрос

    Кровавая вражда особенно из-за геймплея не игра для всех и каждого, но она строга важна всем кто любит сюжетные игры и особенно ведьмака. Потому, так как геймплей они явно не до жали, от меня игра получает лишь 8 балов.

    P.S. По завершении игры мнение особо не поменялось. Но стало больше выборов меньшего из зол. Скажем так, игра раскрывается тем больше, чем большее в неё играешь в плане сюжета и решений принятых ранее.    … Expand
  16. IamNader
    May 9, 2023
    7
    I like GWENT card game and this is the GWENT game with a pleasing Witcher universe story so I bought it - 7/10

Awards & Rankings

22
#22 Best PC Game of 2018
31
#31 Most Discussed PC Game of 2018
37
#37 Most Shared PC Game of 2018

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
85

Generally favorable reviews - based on 51 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 47 out of 51
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 51
  3. Negative: 0 out of 51
  1. CD-Action
    Feb 13, 2019
    80
    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]
  2. Worth Playing
    Jan 18, 2019
    90
    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.
    Read full review
  3. Gamer.nl
    Jan 2, 2019
    85
    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.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »