The Witcher 3’s next-generation replace has me on my fourth playthrough of the sport. I’m a little bit of a Witcher nut, as you’ll be able to think about. You would possibly assume I’d be bored of all of it by now, however one of many beauties of this 150+ hour RPG (of which there are lots of) is that the depth of each single quest within the recreation –most important, aspect, contract, and scavenger hunt– is such that even the smallest exercise looks like an epic journey.
Don’t fear, although, I’m not right here to blather on concerning the high quality of The Witcher 3’s quests. You’ve all heard that ramble many instances over by now, I’m certain. Quite the opposite, I haven’t even been enjoying many quests for this explicit playthrough — not the normal form, anyway.
As a substitute, my Geralt has put his seek for Ciri on the again burner and has as an alternative been distracted with a Gwent marathon. He and Roach have been galloping throughout The Continent, difficult each blacksmith, innkeeper, and idle guard they’ll discover for Crowns, playing cards, and glory!
Gwent needs to be among the best mini-games in an RPG ever. It’s one thing I truly ignored in my first-ever playthrough of the sport and solely obtained into on my second go. Shortly after, my girlfriend performed The Witcher 3 and liked Gwent simply as a lot; then, she purchased us precise real-life Gwent playing cards that we nonetheless play in nation pubs collectively to at the present time. See, I advised you I’m a Witcher nut.
However there’s a wee drawback with Gwent in its authentic kind. It kinda sucks. Nicely, it doesn’t suck; it’s simply not correctly balanced in a means that any collectible card recreation ought to be and can be if it wasn’t, properly, a mini-game in an already monumental and complex RPG.
Gwent has, after all, since been re-imagined by CDPR with its personal fully-fledged spin-off. There’s even a single-player 20-hour standalone RPG based mostly completely round “correct” Gwent referred to as Thronebreaker, which, by the way, I reviewed again in 2018 and totally loved.
Gwent clearly has a large following, not simply the new-and-improved spin-off variant however the authentic recreation built-in into The Witcher 3. I do know this not solely as a result of I bear in mind the fever-pitch hype of excited gamers raving about it means again when Wild Hunt launched in 2015 but additionally as a result of there are numerous Gwent overhaul mods accessible for the PC model of the sport. They’re extraordinarily common.
I’ve performed a number of of them, truly, and so they rebalance Gwent in intelligent ways in which make it infinitely superior. There’s much less luck concerned; the talent ceiling is larger, and a number of other of them introduce new and thrilling playing cards to gather.
However none of that’s accessible within the latest next-generation replace I’m enjoying on PS5. The Gwent marathon I’m on this time round (which I’ve performed earlier than if it wasn’t already apparent) is simply the vanilla model. I might simply play it on PC utilizing mods, certain, however I don’t actually perceive why CDPR didn’t embody an overhaul with the patch.
From what I perceive, a few of the high-resolution textures within the recreation are neighborhood mods, so why not embody one thing like Gwent Redux or Gwent Plus with the replace too? It looks as if an enormous oversight to me. This might have been an enormous draw to get individuals not solely again into The Witcher 3 but additionally the Gwent standalone itself, which just lately launched an growth referred to as Rogue Mage earlier this 12 months.
Possibly the higher-ups at CDPR thought of such an thought, or maybe there have been points integrating such a mod into the video games formally. I’m unsure. I actually hope it at the least was thought of, although, as a result of if it was fully ignored, that’s a crying disgrace for console gamers — particularly because the standalone Gwent console model was truly nuked a few years in the past by CDPR.
In any case, I can let you know one factor with absolute certainty: if some type of Gwent isn’t included in CDPR’s upcoming The Witcher video games, I’ll riot, and I received’t be the one one!
