Author: TheAleosha

Completed what’s called “Act I”. The game likes to mess with your head. When you start the game, there is no “New Game” button, only “Continue”, which starts Act I. And once you beat the boss, you get “New Game” button in the menu as a reward. But “New Game” starts a completely different game. Arguably, it’s a better game. It’s not rogue-like, nor inspired by “Five Nights at Freddy”. Instead, it feels more like a Pokemon game from the Game Boy Color era. You can repeat the fights as many times as you’d like. And you can also assemble your own deck. Honestly, I wish that this was the real game, and not just a bonus game mode, since I don’t have patience for it anymore, I’m afraid.

As a card game, it’s not very enjoyable. Each player has just 6 HP. Since your opponent doesn’t play by your rules, he can field a 3-blood 3-damage card on the first turn. You need 3 turns to do the same, so unless you are lucky to have removal, you are dead.
For me, part of the fun of boss fights in Hearthstone was building decks to beat them. Here, you need to build a single deck to beat 4 very different bosses, without much control what you put in it. Sometimes, you would just get bad options, and you can’t do anything about it. When I finally beat Trapper&Trader boss, I didn’t feel good about it. I just felt I got lucky.

An interesting mix of different genres. A rogue-like: you get to traverse discrete map with random encounters, and if you die, you need to repeat the process again.

And a card based game: you have classic HP/damage two rows system.

Cards attack at the end of the turn they were placed. Not the turn after, like Hearthstone. I don’t remember Gwent much, and I haven’t played other card games, so I will keep comparing this to Hearthstone, although I haven’t played it for a few years as well.
What’s interesting is that instead of a single resources like mana in Hearthstone, there are two. Some cards need “blood”, which is trading multiple cards for a single card. But some cards need “bones” instead, which you get after your cards either sacrificed or killed.
There is another layer to the game, though, which is an “escape room”. And there are two special cards that talk to you while you play and give you hints on how to escape.

The problem I have with this game is how much it expects you to remember. I feel like I need to keep track of what cards I have in my deck, and what different icons on the map mean, and I need to count the number of bone chips on the table.
Checked the guide, and turns out I either got incredibly lucky, or this game is designed very well. I traded an eye just to win the Prospector boss, and then when I was proposed another eye, I randomly picked the most peculiar one. Turns out that’s exactly what you need to do in order to complete the first chapter.