Hello, fellow Gwent players.
I am reviewing the latest expansion for our favourite card game.
I have seen a few articles and posts already, made by single players or teams, that address a few aspects of the expansion, most of which are focused on evaluating the new cards. In this review i will try to address ALL of the aspects i consider relevant, in a multi-part article.
"But the expansion isnt even finished yet, there's still Part 3 left, coming in a couple of months."
That is true, however patience is not one of my strengths and i feel like most of the stuff i want to discuss is already 'set in stone' and wont change with the last part of the expansion, Sub-Exp 7.3. At that time, i will update this review, possibly with new review posts, if i feel that makes the most sense.
Without further ado...
GWENT - PRICE OF POWER (POP) EP 7.1 + 7.2 REVIEW
PART I - EXPANSION SYSTEM SHIFT: DIVIDING EXPANSIONS IN THREE PARTS
Gwent was officially launched (out of betas) in late 2018 - 'Gwent Homecoming'.
Throughout 2019 and 2020, 6 expansions were released, all with the same format and similar in scale - 70-90 new cards were added on release.
Early 2021, there was a developer stream where the game lead announced they were moving away from this format, and instead the new system would see each expansion divided in 3 equal parts, each launched every 2 months. 'Price of Power' is the first expansion with that format.
By now, we have received the first two sub-expansions: 'Once Upon a Pyre' and 'Thanned Coup'. We can witness the cards of each faction share a theme, aesthetics and mechanics, usually supporting a single archetype of that faction. It definitely feels like one cohesive expansion. Some might argue it could have all been released at the same time...
It could, but i believe this decision by the dev team, to divide the expansion in smaller parts is one of the best they made in years, and i hope they stick to this new system.
When a new set of cards is released, the meta changes very chaotically. Its an exciting period to play, where there's more experimentation and deck variety. Usually, the bigger the new set, the longer that period where the meta feels fresh and isnt settled yet, however there are other factors in this equation, like how complex the new cards are - complex cards, that open up many possibilities might take longer for the playerbase to figure out and optimize.
In the past, there were expansions with only 2-3 months inbetween - for example EP 2 (Novigrad), 3 (Iron Judgment) and 4 (Merchants of Ofir) were all released in the span of 6 months, one can argue there wasnt even enough 'breathing space' between them.
However, that is not the problem, the problem resides when there's 6 months between expansions, which leads to a "drought" of new content, with very long periods of 'stale meta' and where a good portion of the players isnt having fun with Gwent.
This new sub-expansion system keeps that from happening, at least in such a large scale - the meta may still become stale in the last 1-2 weeks of a season (month), but that is way more tolerable than consecutive months with the same metadecks.
Also, the month inbetween these sub-expansions can, and fortunately is, being used to introduce balance patchs, with adjustments to the new cards and buffs to underused old cards.
I do think there is still a lot to improve in the Gwent expansion development, and longstanding issues to fix - however most, if not all, already existed in previous expansions and arent related to this new format.
I definitely approve this format shift, i think it will benefit the game in the longterm, making the meta "stay fresh" more often, which is more important to the health of the game than some might think.
And hope the Gwent team doesnt lose this momentum, and isnt afraid to implement such high-level structural shifts to other flawed systems that could use an upgrade.
I am reviewing the latest expansion for our favourite card game.
I have seen a few articles and posts already, made by single players or teams, that address a few aspects of the expansion, most of which are focused on evaluating the new cards. In this review i will try to address ALL of the aspects i consider relevant, in a multi-part article.
"But the expansion isnt even finished yet, there's still Part 3 left, coming in a couple of months."
That is true, however patience is not one of my strengths and i feel like most of the stuff i want to discuss is already 'set in stone' and wont change with the last part of the expansion, Sub-Exp 7.3. At that time, i will update this review, possibly with new review posts, if i feel that makes the most sense.
Without further ado...
GWENT - PRICE OF POWER (POP) EP 7.1 + 7.2 REVIEW
PART I - EXPANSION SYSTEM SHIFT: DIVIDING EXPANSIONS IN THREE PARTS
Gwent was officially launched (out of betas) in late 2018 - 'Gwent Homecoming'.
Throughout 2019 and 2020, 6 expansions were released, all with the same format and similar in scale - 70-90 new cards were added on release.
Early 2021, there was a developer stream where the game lead announced they were moving away from this format, and instead the new system would see each expansion divided in 3 equal parts, each launched every 2 months. 'Price of Power' is the first expansion with that format.
By now, we have received the first two sub-expansions: 'Once Upon a Pyre' and 'Thanned Coup'. We can witness the cards of each faction share a theme, aesthetics and mechanics, usually supporting a single archetype of that faction. It definitely feels like one cohesive expansion. Some might argue it could have all been released at the same time...
It could, but i believe this decision by the dev team, to divide the expansion in smaller parts is one of the best they made in years, and i hope they stick to this new system.
When a new set of cards is released, the meta changes very chaotically. Its an exciting period to play, where there's more experimentation and deck variety. Usually, the bigger the new set, the longer that period where the meta feels fresh and isnt settled yet, however there are other factors in this equation, like how complex the new cards are - complex cards, that open up many possibilities might take longer for the playerbase to figure out and optimize.
In the past, there were expansions with only 2-3 months inbetween - for example EP 2 (Novigrad), 3 (Iron Judgment) and 4 (Merchants of Ofir) were all released in the span of 6 months, one can argue there wasnt even enough 'breathing space' between them.
However, that is not the problem, the problem resides when there's 6 months between expansions, which leads to a "drought" of new content, with very long periods of 'stale meta' and where a good portion of the players isnt having fun with Gwent.
This new sub-expansion system keeps that from happening, at least in such a large scale - the meta may still become stale in the last 1-2 weeks of a season (month), but that is way more tolerable than consecutive months with the same metadecks.
Also, the month inbetween these sub-expansions can, and fortunately is, being used to introduce balance patchs, with adjustments to the new cards and buffs to underused old cards.
I do think there is still a lot to improve in the Gwent expansion development, and longstanding issues to fix - however most, if not all, already existed in previous expansions and arent related to this new format.
I definitely approve this format shift, i think it will benefit the game in the longterm, making the meta "stay fresh" more often, which is more important to the health of the game than some might think.
And hope the Gwent team doesnt lose this momentum, and isnt afraid to implement such high-level structural shifts to other flawed systems that could use an upgrade.