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“Gwent” is a card game based on the very successful “The Witcher” series, and it’s being developed by CD Projekt Red. Well, that’s no news to the most of you for sure, but what you might not know is that the game originally started as a fun mini-game inside “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt“. Anyways, “Gwent” was so enjoyable and popular among players that CDPR decided to create a stand-alone version of “Gwent” for PC and XBOX (there is also a PS4 version on its way).

So, how does “Gwent” stand out from other card games? Well, instead of summoning monsters and attacking your enemy, “Gwent” is more about using your cards to build an army and the player with the most powerful army wins. So each card has a value that’s added to your total score, and the player who has reached the highest score by the end of the round wins. However, winning once is not enough though, because games are decided by winning two out of three rounds. So in many cases, you’ll want to lose a round and save your best cards for the decisive round. Managing your cards is also very important since you draw 10 at the start of the game and only a few more in later rounds so you have to think about saving some cards for later. There is potential for bluffing as well since every round is over when both players decide to pass, but deciding when to pass can be crucial. If you pass first you’re giving your enemy a chance to catch up with you.

These are the available factions so far, maybe we’ll see more added in the future.

All these elements make “Gwent” stand out from other card games, and it has a chance of becoming something very big. As the game has been constantly evolving. You see, in early closed beta, the rules were very similar to the “Witcher 3” mini-game. However, as months passed CDPR added more features and complexity into the game while still keeping the same fundamentals. Furthermore, the Open beta seems to bring even more new elements to the table, thus making the game even better.

The game does have some limitations, there is no mobile version and there may not be one for some time since Gwent is more complex than something like Yu-gi-oh Duel Links. In Gwent, you could have maybe 50 cards on the board while in Duel Links you could never have more than twenty for both players combined. However, Gwent does seem like it’s going to be very friendly to new users since Starter Decks will become truly powerful in Open Beta. As for the cards themselves, the cards power is classified between bronze, silver and gold cards, and starters will come with their own silver and gold cards so new players won’t get crushed by veterans.

Additionally, there is a limit to how many gold and silver cards a deck can have so you’ll never find an unbeatable deck with nothing but gold cards in it. Players also expressed positive feedback regarding the little impact RNG has in the game despite “Gwent” obviously being a card game. You have many chances to redraw cards of manipulating your deck to get the most out of it, so while there may be good or bad draws you’ll almost never see a dead draw.

Many characters from the “Witcher” trilogy appear as cards, like Yennefer and Geralt.

One last aspect that seems to be very promising is the single player campaign that “Gwent” plans to offer when the game comes out. That is especially worth keeping in mind since CDPR has had a lot of success with their campaigns for the Witcher series. In other words, CDPR could very well create some really excellent campaigns for “Gwent” as well (with some awesome stories on top of that). Nevertheless, “Gwent” has up to now shown a lot of potential, and there is a great studio behind it. So while hindered by a lack of a mobile version so far. Even so, the game can still grow into something very big since it’s coming out to PC, XBOX, and soon PS4. That is also the reason why I really look forward to doing a review of the full version of the game when it comes out.

Pros:
+ Great graphics and artwork
+ Different from other card games
+ Less dependent on RNG and Ultra Rares

Cons:
– No mobile version
– No single player campaign (yet)

Credit:
Robin Ek – Editor

***Disclosure***
We (TGG) are a part of the GOG family, and we may receive a profit cut out of your purchase via the GOG links in this article.