Posted in: Games | Tagged: CD Projekt Red, gwent, The witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Gwent Is Still Stupidly Fun, Even As A Standalone

CD Projekt Red's The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt spawned an unexpected monster: Gwent. Given an incredibly rich and expansive fantasy world, players just wanted to hang out in dingy low-fantasy bars playing a very simple card game. Fans loved Gwent so much that CD Project Red has been making it into a standalone game for Xbox One and PC.

The closed beta is open for registration, if you haven't checked it out already. The beta allows you to play random matches against other players but the full game will have a campaign mode, ranked matches, and challenge modes to keep players busy.

The rules of Gwent haven't changed. It's still a very simple game that boils down to math. Like Magic: The Gathering lite. The tutorial should be familiar for those who played The Witcher 3, as its almost the exact same thing. It's also rather long for a tutorial, but thats a bit nice. It covers everything from the basics to somewhat more "advanced" strategy.

Gwent is a lot like playing a game of poker where you can't see your opponents face.

That said, I've always found this game to be almost stupidly engaging and it still is. They've managed to take the pre-existing game and move it to a separate IP, updating small thing, making a change here and there, but keeping it in the exact same spirit. And that's rather impressive. Sure, they've added a card pack system – where you get cards in kegs – a card crafting system, there's a bit more color on the UI, and they clearly plan on making spaces for Gwent to be competitive and fun and provide something of a story to it. Maybe we'll get the history of Gwent. That'd be pretty interesting. Something tells me, however, that we'll get something far different. But ultimately, this isn't anything new. And it's not trying to be.

I can respect that.

So far it does not have a release date, but that's alright. We'll keep you posted. Check out the gameplay in the trailer below, watch the Nilfgaard faction trailer here, and  you can sign up for the closed beta here. You know you want to.

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