Honestly, it’s a bit of a tragedy how many people skipped over Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales. When CD Projekt Red first announced they were making a standalone single-player campaign based on Gwent, the collective internet mostly shrugged. "A card game RPG? Really?" But here’s the thing: it isn't just a card game. It is a 30-hour isometric masterpiece that features some of the best writing in the entire Witcher franchise, including the flagship titles.
You play as Meve. She’s the Queen of Lyria and Rivia, and she is a total powerhouse. Forget the brooding, neutral-adjacent path of Geralt of Rivia for a second. Meve is a monarch dealing with a full-scale Nilfgaardian invasion, a treacherous son, and a world that is actively trying to bleed her dry. It's gritty. It's miserable. It’s exactly what a Witcher story should be.
The Gwent Misconception
Most people assume Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales is just a series of standard Gwent matches stitched together by a map. That is completely wrong. While the core "combat" uses card mechanics, CDPR basically reinvented the wheel for this game.
Standard Gwent is about winning two out of three rounds by having more points. Thronebreaker rarely does that. Instead, you get "puzzles" and "special battles." One minute you’re using your cards to represent a group of soldiers trying to stop a massive rolling boulder, and the next you’re playing a game of stealth where you have to move units across a board without being "seen" by enemy vision cones. It’s inventive. It’s actually harder than the base game because it forces you to think about the cards as physical objects in a space rather than just numbers on a board.
The game uses a deck-building system that feels much more like a traditional RPG equipment screen. As Meve travels across the various maps—Lyria, Aedirn, Mahakam, Lower Angren, and Rivia—she finds resources. Wood, gold, and recruits. You use these to upgrade your camp, which acts as your mobile base. If you don't manage your gold well, you can't build the workshop upgrades that unlock better cards. If you lose the morale of your troops through poor dialogue choices, your units perform worse in battle. It’s all connected.
Writing That Puts Other RPGs to Shame
If you’ve played The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, you know the "Grey Morality" trope. Usually, it's a choice between two evils. Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales takes that and cranks it up to eleven because the stakes aren't just about a single village or a monster. They’re about an entire kingdom.
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There is a specific moment early on involving a non-human uprising. You can choose to be "merciful" or "just." In most games, mercy is the "good" path. In Thronebreaker? Being merciful might lead to your supply lines being cut three hours later, causing a permanent death of a beloved companion. It’s brutal. The game doesn't tell you when a choice is important. There are no "Character will remember that" pop-ups. You just live with the consequences until the credits roll.
The companions are the real highlight. You get characters like Reynard Odo, the fiercely loyal but rigid general, and Gascon, a bandit king who is essentially the Han Solo of the Witcher world. They aren't just static portraits. They chime in during exploration, they argue with each other in the mess tent, and—crucially—they can leave you. If you make a choice that fundamentally violates their code, they’re gone. Taking their powerful cards with them.
Exploring the Continent Like Never Before
We finally got to see Mahakam. For years, fans of the Andrzej Sapkowski books wanted to see the dwarven stronghold. The Witcher 2 gave us a glimpse, but Thronebreaker lets us trek through the snowy peaks and political nightmare of the dwarven clans. The isometric art style is gorgeous. It looks like a living concept art book.
The exploration is surprisingly dense. You’re not just clicking on a point and watching Meve walk. You’re hunting for hidden treasure maps, stumbling upon roadside executions, and deciding whether to spend your precious wood to bury dead soldiers or save it to build a better catapult. Every inch of the map feels hand-crafted. There’s no procedural generation fluff here.
Why the Sales Didn't Match the Quality
CD Projekt Red admitted during a 2018 financial call that Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales didn't meet their sales expectations. There were a few reasons for this. Initially, the game was a GOG exclusive on PC. By the time it hit Steam, the hype had cooled.
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Also, the branding was confusing. People thought they needed to be Gwent experts to play. You don't. You can literally play on "Story" mode and skip the card battles if you just want the narrative. But the card battles are the narrative. When Meve is fighting a massive manticore, the card mechanics reflect the beast's wings, its tail, and its venom. It’s an abstraction of combat that works surprisingly well once you stop comparing it to a traditional 3D action game.
Technical Depth and Strategy
For the nerds who actually care about the meta, the deck-building in Thronebreaker is broken in the best way possible. By the end of the game, you can build "infinite" combos. There are cards that trigger based on "Loyalty" (whenever Meve uses her leader ability) and cards that thrive on "Armor."
- Synergy is king: You can't just throw "strong" cards together. You need a theme.
- The Scorch Mechanic: Just like in the original Gwent, positioning matters. If you're not careful, you'll burn your own units.
- Unit Caps: You have a recruit cap, meaning you have to choose between a few "gold" legendary cards or a swarm of "bronze" soldiers.
The difficulty spikes are real. Specifically in the swamps of Angren. If you haven't optimized your deck by then, the Nilfgaardian deck archetypes will absolutely shred you. They use "Coping" mechanics that steal your cards or lock your abilities. It requires a level of tactical thinking that The Witcher 3's version of Gwent never demanded.
The Legacy of Meve
Is it canon? Mostly. It fits into the timeline right during the second Nilfgaardian war. You actually cross paths with Geralt at one point—it’s a famous scene from the book Baptism of Fire—but seen from Meve’s perspective. It’s a brilliant bit of fanservice that doesn't feel forced. It grounds the story in the larger world without making Meve feel like a side character in her own game.
Meve is arguably a more compelling protagonist than Geralt because she has more to lose. Geralt is a wanderer. Meve is a leader. When she fails, people starve. When she succeeds, she’s often hated for the things she had to do to get there. It is the purest distillation of the "Witcher" vibe ever put to code.
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How to Get the Most Out of Your Playthrough
If you’re going to dive in now—and you should, it’s usually on sale for pennies—don't look up a guide. The biggest mistake players make is trying to get the "Best Ending." There really isn't one. There is only your ending.
Stop hoarding resources. The game gives you plenty of gold and wood if you explore. Spend it early. Upgrade your "Tavern" in the camp as soon as possible to unlock the dialogue bits with your companions. That’s where the heart of the game lives.
Pay attention to the puzzles. Some of them are genuinely brilliant logic problems. There’s one involving a group of "Corrupted" cows that is both hilarious and frustrating. If you get stuck, don't just skip it. Solving those puzzles gives you unique cards that make the late-game boss fights significantly more manageable.
Talk to everyone. The NPCs in the world change their dialogue based on your recent choices. If you burned a village to stop a plague, the people in the next town will treat you differently. It’s a level of reactivity that many AAA open-world games fail to achieve.
Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales is a rare gem. It’s a game made with the budget of an indie but the talent and writing prowess of a world-class studio. It’s not just a "card game spin-off." It’s a heavy, emotional, and strategically deep RPG that deserves a spot in your library next to the main trilogy.
To start your journey properly, focus on upgrading your training grounds first to increase your unit capacity. This allows you to experiment with diverse deck types before the difficulty ramps up in the second act. Always check the corners of the map for "Golden Chests," as these unlock vanity items and powerful cards for the multiplayer version of Gwent, as well as unique lore entries. Finally, listen to the soundtrack—composed by Marcin Przybyłowicz—it’s some of the best folk-metal-inspired orchestral work in gaming.