Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales

Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales is a unique hybrid that places Gwent's card system within a full, story-driven RPG featuring open exploration, decisions with moral consequences, and a branching plot. The player takes on the role of Queen Meve of Lyria and Rivia, moves through a semi-isometric world, gathers resources, solves side quests, and leads her army into battles fought precisely through Gwent-style card duels — three rows, unit strength adding up, special card abilities.

Unlike standalone Gwent, however, the card duels in Thronebreaker are not competitions against other players but part of a linear, carefully balanced story — many of the battles feature unique puzzle-like victory conditions, special rules, or scripted situations that function more like thoughtfully designed puzzles than a classic card duel. The player builds their deck gradually from cards found while exploring and rewards for completing quests, so the game links RPG progression with a gradually deepening card strategy.

Visually and narratively, Thronebreaker draws fully on the grim, morally ambiguous atmosphere of the Witcher series, complemented by quality voice acting and music from composers associated with the series, and the decisions the player makes along Queen Meve's journey have a real impact on which characters and locations appear later in the story. Critics especially praised the story's unexpected depth, the quality of the writing, and the boldness of combining two seemingly incompatible genres — turn-based card strategy and a sprawling fantasy RPG with moral dilemmas — which is why Thronebreaker remains to this day one of the most interesting and most underrated experiments with card mechanics within a larger RPG whole. Although it was built on the same engine and set in the same world as standalone Gwent, it works entirely on its own, and no prior experience with the competitive card title is needed to play it.

Why play it: For fans of the Witcher series and players craving a fresh combination of turn-based card strategy with a sprawling fantasy RPG full of moral dilemmas and quality storytelling.