Clash of Fans: Spintires and Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales
Chris: I have sort of fallen off of collectible card games over the last few years, and in the back of my mind I think they’ve all become variations on Hearthstone. This is wrong, obviously, but it’s taken Thronebreaker to remind me of that. For the first ten minutes I was filtering everything through the question of – how does Hearthstone handle this? But very quickly that ceases to be meaningful.
A few initial observations – there is so much here beyond the cards. The overworld map, the resources and all that jazz, the camps. And the writing. God, so much storytelling all over the place. I am a story-skipper by nature, and you can just about do that here, but it’s clear the care and pride that’s involved in bedding this card game into the Witcher world.
Two more things – the animated cards are absolutely dreamy. I love the lighting and sense of caricature – huge hands and golden light. Then there’s the board. I get the sense that you could almost play this on a pub table with the grain of the wood standing in for the different rows. There’s a lovely sense of a game that has emerged from the stuff you find in a tavern, the stuff that’s lying around.
Bertie: Can I just say I am so glad you’re playing this. Thronebreaker didn’t really make much of an impression the first time around and I’ve always thought that was a great shame. It wasn’t a spectacle like The Witcher 3 and that hurt it. But actually it’s a really indulgent, um, experiment I guess, and you can feel that quality as you explore. I actually think it draws characters as vividly as The Witcher 3 and tells some stories as powerfully, and the way it plays around with the rules of Gwent to keep the combat experience interesting – particularly in the puzzles – is masterful. There’s a lot of love and care in this game.
Chris: It’s definitely got that thing I love about card games in that it feels like as much as you’re making a hand you’re designing and programming a little machine to do in the enemy for you. I also love that the battles themselves really do a good job of making you feel like you’re moving an army around and dealing with lots of units on a battlefield.
Overall I prefer the puzzley battles to the main events. There’s something really gripping about dealing with boulders falling towards you in the first one of these I played. I love that this game is about tweaking the rules of a game that’s already established. I think I would get a lot more out of it if I’d encountered Gwent in The Witcher 3. Just that opening up of the potential of something, that messing around with the boundaries that have been established.
What I’m left with most is what you mentioned – the care and enthusiasm that has gone into this. I appreciate the game itself and I can imagine wanting to really learn it and understand all the nuances. But more than that, I am moved by how much the developers clearly love what they’re doing. Thronebreaker feels like a game that’s been over-delivered in the best way. They couldn’t stop adding story or little flourishes or little puzzles that momentarily turn everything on its head. In that respect it’s properly a game that comes from the best places: love and enthusiasm, a developer that can’t help itself, that’s properly under the spell of its own work. You know this team – do I have that understanding of the game right, do you think?
Bertie: Over-delivered is a wonderful way of putting it – that’s exactly what it feels like! And I’m glad you clicked with the puzzles because they’re my favourite. They’re like riddles in how they give you everything you need to solve them but you need to work your brain to get to the solution. I love that feeling, especially when you eventually nail it.
I don’t know if you’ll have time to get to it but a few hours in the game takes a wonderful turn. I remember feeling a bit nonplussed by Thronebreaker. I mean, it was nice but I wasn’t bowled over. Maybe it’s because I had trouble relating to a monarch’s storyline. But then it all changed.
