Having only played a minimum amount of TW3 Gwent before, and a couple of matches of the stand alone game while on early beta, i decied to try the new finaly released game out. My first impresion is it being overwelming and in a bad manner.
The tutorial with its own short story is quite neat and enjojable(made me even consider getting Thronebreaker), and it does an ok job at teaching us the basics... However, it does not even scratches a 1% of what is there to learn.
* Too many diferent terms: deploy, order, resiliance, zeal, summon, reach, lock, charge, spawn, melee, range, etc... with some cards having multiple effects at that, and while some of those terms might seem obious to what they mean, many others are not, the result is an overall confusing and overwelming first experience! Specially taking in consideration the many factions with their respective unique cards that the player is suposed to keep track of.
* Linked to the point above, too many card "powers" and "charges" and too many clicks. I feel as if we are now in some hybrid state where Gwent doesnt know what it wants to be.
Before it was simple but elegant, see card value, play card, with only some "powers" in the form of leader cards and row affecting weather cards that for the most part where one time use. Now with so many "power cards" the game feels less unique, and those cards who lack "powers" feel mostly useless.
* Too many diferent currencies: kegs, ores, dust and shards. I feel its a little confusing and overwelming at first. I am usually of the opinion that less is more and Gwent: The Witcher Card game aint the exeption.
* The new Art aproach. The game no longer feels as an in-world card game. There should be a distinction between Thronebreaker aproach("realistic" battle simulation) and Gwent aproach(tavern card game). Might sound silly, but this is actually a big one for me.
* Bad matchmaking(or low playerbase?). My 3 games so far vs human players, have been me as level 1 vs a level 10 player, me level 2 vs a level 40 player and me level 3 vs a level 24. The question then is, how exactly does matchmaking works in this game? Or are there simply so few players remaining that that is all i am able to find to play against?
* Inconsitent mechanics and lack of QoL:
- For some reason not all cards can be mill or transmuted? So far i have found that each faction has at least 4 cards(even more on the neutral category). This is not explained anywhere and it seems very random, almost as a bug.
- Transmuting only works for 1 card, rather than that card type. I understand that being FTP some grind and/or incetives to purchase things have to be in place, but i find this very unintuitive and dissapointing. I much rather have a sigly nerf on how to gain dust without paying, and all cards of the same type being transmuted, than what we have now.
- Linked to the previous point, transmuting a card should simply replace and remove said basic card(from everywhere), what is the point of being able to craft a basic version of a card when there is an option on the options menu to disable card animations(basicaly making any premium card into a regular one)? Having both versions showing up on deckbuilder just adds cluster in my opinion.
All in all i feel there is too much disconect between TW3 Gwent and this new "gwent". Maybe it is just personal opinion but i found the minigame-gwent to be more enjojable, even if arguably simpler(for the best). The only thing i would say is superior here are the animated cards(wish those were in TW3), and the "provisions" for balance purposes.
PS: What are "spare cards", i have the option to mill them but nowere its explained what cards those are.
The tutorial with its own short story is quite neat and enjojable(made me even consider getting Thronebreaker), and it does an ok job at teaching us the basics... However, it does not even scratches a 1% of what is there to learn.
* Too many diferent terms: deploy, order, resiliance, zeal, summon, reach, lock, charge, spawn, melee, range, etc... with some cards having multiple effects at that, and while some of those terms might seem obious to what they mean, many others are not, the result is an overall confusing and overwelming first experience! Specially taking in consideration the many factions with their respective unique cards that the player is suposed to keep track of.
* Linked to the point above, too many card "powers" and "charges" and too many clicks. I feel as if we are now in some hybrid state where Gwent doesnt know what it wants to be.
Before it was simple but elegant, see card value, play card, with only some "powers" in the form of leader cards and row affecting weather cards that for the most part where one time use. Now with so many "power cards" the game feels less unique, and those cards who lack "powers" feel mostly useless.
* Too many diferent currencies: kegs, ores, dust and shards. I feel its a little confusing and overwelming at first. I am usually of the opinion that less is more and Gwent: The Witcher Card game aint the exeption.
* The new Art aproach. The game no longer feels as an in-world card game. There should be a distinction between Thronebreaker aproach("realistic" battle simulation) and Gwent aproach(tavern card game). Might sound silly, but this is actually a big one for me.
* Bad matchmaking(or low playerbase?). My 3 games so far vs human players, have been me as level 1 vs a level 10 player, me level 2 vs a level 40 player and me level 3 vs a level 24. The question then is, how exactly does matchmaking works in this game? Or are there simply so few players remaining that that is all i am able to find to play against?
* Inconsitent mechanics and lack of QoL:
- For some reason not all cards can be mill or transmuted? So far i have found that each faction has at least 4 cards(even more on the neutral category). This is not explained anywhere and it seems very random, almost as a bug.
- Transmuting only works for 1 card, rather than that card type. I understand that being FTP some grind and/or incetives to purchase things have to be in place, but i find this very unintuitive and dissapointing. I much rather have a sigly nerf on how to gain dust without paying, and all cards of the same type being transmuted, than what we have now.
- Linked to the previous point, transmuting a card should simply replace and remove said basic card(from everywhere), what is the point of being able to craft a basic version of a card when there is an option on the options menu to disable card animations(basicaly making any premium card into a regular one)? Having both versions showing up on deckbuilder just adds cluster in my opinion.
All in all i feel there is too much disconect between TW3 Gwent and this new "gwent". Maybe it is just personal opinion but i found the minigame-gwent to be more enjojable, even if arguably simpler(for the best). The only thing i would say is superior here are the animated cards(wish those were in TW3), and the "provisions" for balance purposes.
PS: What are "spare cards", i have the option to mill them but nowere its explained what cards those are.
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