Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales throws you right out of the frying pan and into the fires of the Northern Realm’s war with the Nilfgaardian Empire in this hybrid strategy/collectable card game (CCG)/choose your own adventure-gamebook style game. I’m a little late in getting this review out, but with the release of Netflix series and renewed interest in all things Witcher, here we go! This review is pretty in-depth so if you just want “The Skinny” go straight to end the of article.
The true shining element in Thronebreaker is the story and the characters. It has all the elements present in the Witcher RPG series with monsters, magic, and races like elves and dwarves, but the primary focus is on the humans. And what a brutal medieval style world it is. It reminds me the most of Game of Thrones if it was played with cards. Is there betrayal? Check. Court intrigue? Check. Humans, who are more monsters than the monsters? Check. Where Thronebreaker expands upon this newly popular genre is in bringing in racism and all its nasty consequences. I won’t spoil the story, but let’s say there are difficult decisions that have no easy answer and they leave you feeling like a racist bastard – and that’s fantastic! It’s not for young gamers or those who only want to play the hero – did I mention it’s like Game of Thrones?
Thronebreaker has a distinctive and pleasing graphic novel-ish art style. The overworld map is nicely drawn and uses overlain environmental effects, like blowing snow or creeping fog, to create atmosphere. The dialogue screen features semi-static characters bantering back and forth, and takes a little getting used to, but does its job well enough in an animated comic book way. The cards themselves are excellently rendered, with animations and vibrant colors. The sound is excellent too, fully voice acted with atmospheric music. It is quite a pretty game, especially on larger screens. That said, there can be some dissonance between the art style and the more serious subject matter in the story at times.
Thronebreaker reminds me most of Heroes of Might and Magic or King’s Bounty, especially its use of an overworld map. The leader represents your “army” as it moves around the map finding resources, in this case, men, material and money and different battles to fight. Unlike these games the battles you fight are static, meaning the enemy doesn’t move. You identify the type of battle, puzzle, unknown, story, etc… and then choose when to engage in it. You then switch to the card-battle mode, with your cards as units and your hero being able to use special powers to affect the battle. The greatest difference from Gwent, the CCG Thronebreaker is based on, is the use of four lanes instead of six. Each “hero” gets two lanes, one melee and one ranged. Those terms don’t mean much though since you can put your cards in either lane, it’s more important how cards move between the lanes. For modern gamers, the choice when and where to attack may feel liberating, but there is also something to be said for enemies that move around the map or even random encounters since these keep you on your toes and force you to constantly upgrade your deck and strategies.
While Thronebreaker stands firmly on its own two feet, it’s also designed to lead you into playing CDPR’s free-to-play CCG, Gwent. Once you finish the game you may want to go back and see how some decisions play out differently or to find that one hidden chest, but largely its feels pretty final at the end. Unless you want to put all those newly gained skills to use in an online player-vs-player card game and I probably just turned off some you with that description. However, Thronebreaker released at probably just the right price and is constantly on sale, so there’s really no excuse for checking it out. I think there is something for most gamers to enjoy in this game if you don’t mind feeling like a card-flinging bastard.
The Skinny
I would give this game a SOLID recommendation (if curious what that means see our About TBG post). It definitely innovates on the card/deck-building genre by melding RPG, strategy, and gamebook elements combined with a fantastically presented story. You may only play it once, but you will definitely feel the whole journey was worth it.