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 possibly can think about. You may suppose I’d be bored of all of it by now, however one of many beauties of this 150+ hour RPG (of which there are various) is that the depth of each single quest within the sport –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 in regards to the high quality of The Witcher 3’s quests. You’ve all heard that ramble many occasions over by now, I’m certain. Quite the opposite, I haven’t even been taking part in many quests for this specific playthrough — not the normal variety, 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 received into on my second move. Shortly after, my girlfriend performed The Witcher 3 and beloved Gwent simply as a lot; then, she purchased us precise real-life Gwent playing cards that we nonetheless play in nation pubs collectively to today. See, I advised you I’m a Witcher nut.
However there’s a wee drawback with Gwent in its unique type. It kinda sucks. Effectively, it doesn’t suck; it’s simply not correctly balanced in a approach that any collectible card sport must be and can be if it wasn’t, nicely, a mini-game in an already monumental and sophisticated 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 primarily based fully round “correct” Gwent known as Thronebreaker, which, by the way, I reviewed again in 2018 and completely loved.
Gwent clearly has a large following, not simply the new-and-improved spin-off variant however the unique sport 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 approach again when Wild Hunt launched in 2015 but additionally as a result of there are numerous Gwent overhaul mods obtainable for the PC model of the sport. They’re extraordinarily widespread.
I’ve performed a number of of them, truly, they usually rebalance Gwent in intelligent ways in which make it infinitely superior. There’s much less luck concerned; the talent ceiling is increased, and several other of them introduce new and thrilling playing cards to gather.
However none of that’s obtainable within the current next-generation replace I’m taking part in 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 may 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, among the high-resolution textures within the sport are group 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 not too long ago launched an growth known as Rogue Mage earlier this 12 months.
Possibly the higher-ups at CDPR thought-about 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 not less than was thought-about, although, as a result of if it was fully ignored, that’s a crying disgrace for console gamers — particularly for the reason that standalone Gwent console model was truly nuked a few years in the past by CDPR.
In any case, I can inform you 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!