..is sexy Meve. Or perhaps I just have a thing for ladies of queenly disposition.
In all seriousness, Thronebreaker is one big bravo from me. I originally bought it out of gratitude for all the good stuff the devs have given us in the past and kept playing because it's that good (to me) and because you can tell it was made with love. Some of that love extends to Gwent Multiplayer (or "Homecoming"), which has a better art style than any CCG out there that I am aware of.
Alas, this is where the comparisons stop.
I've been playing HC pretty much every day since it came out, trying to get into it, trying to make it work for me. But I must say that all my fears for this project have come to life, and have done so in a way even worse than I expected.
In no universe is this game better than even late beta and in no universe is it Gwent. It is basically like a demo version for what we had before. Why? Because everything is sooooo restricted.
- I am not gonna get into the debate again, about why 3 rows is better than 2, but you cannot seriously make the point that the game plays better on two rows or even the same. There's less row stacking vs row spreading decisions (because you have one less dimension to run into) to be made, rows are truly meaningless now beyond these little "place here get ability A, place there get ability B" mechanics - because you might as well put your units anywhere. Make power plays for big points, you will not escape Geralt: Igni, no matter which row you play in. Spread out your points, fall victim to horizontal damage (Regis, crushing trap, lacerate, etc.). Vertical effects are almost completely extinct and weather has become an absolute joke. It had to, because imagine the chaos proper weather would cause on two rows. Believe what you will, but moving to two rows will be the death of this game, and I WILL be back when it happens to say "I told you so".
- the playing for smaller points decision was also terrible. It just limits design options so much. Back in beta, you never knew what wonky combination your opponent was gonna pull next and hit you with, I don't know, 23 points out of the blue. It was a great deal more exciting than 2 point swings, and we mostly had the tempo options to deal with it. Imagine, with all the point variation before, I would still frequently tie, or lose and win by 1 or 2 points.
- deckbuilding is an absolutely sh*t experience, namely because of these provisions and because the game was rushed and there aren't enough synergies to choose from. Back in beta, you could come up with all these wild ideas, pick four golds that you wanted at the core of your strategy and add on top of that. Even silvers and bronzes had super-interesting effects - like when someone discovered you could Mandrake shield your units off Ocvist. Even in a climate of netdecks that people were always complaining about, unexpected little gems could come up and sometime even take over the meta - like ST Shupe, which wasn't taken seriously at first, but became very strong in time. I personally made an ambush deck combined with Crow's Eye - regardless of the fact that it was an incomplete archetype - and still managed to sail pretty effort free to Rank 18, where I hit a dead end. And that's just because I was really stubborn about including all the ambush cards (some of which were under performing) - I could easily have replaced some cards and turned that deck into something much more deadly. Right now I can't make anything original that will get me past new Rank 16. Before, you picked your ideas from a vast pool and made sure you had at least 25 cards, no more than 4 golds and 6 silvers. Now it's like picking them from a teaspoon, because you have to include all these 4 provision and 5 provision cards that you don't want!
Yes, it wasn't perfect before - but at least it felt like playing in a pool. It feels like playing in a little shot glass now. The game is so claustrophobia-inducing, I can barely believe it.
I've deleted all my decks, and am a hair's breadth away from deleting the game.
Love you CDPR, but this new Gwent is a truly terrible experience for me, and I sincerely hate it. I do not believe the game will survive more than a year if lessons are not learned and a positive approach is implemented, but I wish you luck nonetheless.
Now I think I'm gonna go and play all the Gwent quests in Witcher 3 and feel better. Only heartbreak lies ahead with online Gwent, I'm afraid.
In all seriousness, Thronebreaker is one big bravo from me. I originally bought it out of gratitude for all the good stuff the devs have given us in the past and kept playing because it's that good (to me) and because you can tell it was made with love. Some of that love extends to Gwent Multiplayer (or "Homecoming"), which has a better art style than any CCG out there that I am aware of.
Alas, this is where the comparisons stop.
I've been playing HC pretty much every day since it came out, trying to get into it, trying to make it work for me. But I must say that all my fears for this project have come to life, and have done so in a way even worse than I expected.
In no universe is this game better than even late beta and in no universe is it Gwent. It is basically like a demo version for what we had before. Why? Because everything is sooooo restricted.
- I am not gonna get into the debate again, about why 3 rows is better than 2, but you cannot seriously make the point that the game plays better on two rows or even the same. There's less row stacking vs row spreading decisions (because you have one less dimension to run into) to be made, rows are truly meaningless now beyond these little "place here get ability A, place there get ability B" mechanics - because you might as well put your units anywhere. Make power plays for big points, you will not escape Geralt: Igni, no matter which row you play in. Spread out your points, fall victim to horizontal damage (Regis, crushing trap, lacerate, etc.). Vertical effects are almost completely extinct and weather has become an absolute joke. It had to, because imagine the chaos proper weather would cause on two rows. Believe what you will, but moving to two rows will be the death of this game, and I WILL be back when it happens to say "I told you so".
- the playing for smaller points decision was also terrible. It just limits design options so much. Back in beta, you never knew what wonky combination your opponent was gonna pull next and hit you with, I don't know, 23 points out of the blue. It was a great deal more exciting than 2 point swings, and we mostly had the tempo options to deal with it. Imagine, with all the point variation before, I would still frequently tie, or lose and win by 1 or 2 points.
- deckbuilding is an absolutely sh*t experience, namely because of these provisions and because the game was rushed and there aren't enough synergies to choose from. Back in beta, you could come up with all these wild ideas, pick four golds that you wanted at the core of your strategy and add on top of that. Even silvers and bronzes had super-interesting effects - like when someone discovered you could Mandrake shield your units off Ocvist. Even in a climate of netdecks that people were always complaining about, unexpected little gems could come up and sometime even take over the meta - like ST Shupe, which wasn't taken seriously at first, but became very strong in time. I personally made an ambush deck combined with Crow's Eye - regardless of the fact that it was an incomplete archetype - and still managed to sail pretty effort free to Rank 18, where I hit a dead end. And that's just because I was really stubborn about including all the ambush cards (some of which were under performing) - I could easily have replaced some cards and turned that deck into something much more deadly. Right now I can't make anything original that will get me past new Rank 16. Before, you picked your ideas from a vast pool and made sure you had at least 25 cards, no more than 4 golds and 6 silvers. Now it's like picking them from a teaspoon, because you have to include all these 4 provision and 5 provision cards that you don't want!
Yes, it wasn't perfect before - but at least it felt like playing in a pool. It feels like playing in a little shot glass now. The game is so claustrophobia-inducing, I can barely believe it.
I've deleted all my decks, and am a hair's breadth away from deleting the game.
Love you CDPR, but this new Gwent is a truly terrible experience for me, and I sincerely hate it. I do not believe the game will survive more than a year if lessons are not learned and a positive approach is implemented, but I wish you luck nonetheless.
Now I think I'm gonna go and play all the Gwent quests in Witcher 3 and feel better. Only heartbreak lies ahead with online Gwent, I'm afraid.