Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales

Amazing story-telling, and gwent gameplay.
First couple of hours could be boring, other than that the game is a must play.

I've finally gotten around to playing Thronebreaker after adding it to my Library awhile ago. With the recent Witcher IV trailer, I've been wanting some more Witcher content and Thronebreaker is helping with that a bit. As most reviews already comment, it's got a nice story and the gameplay is casual. I don't mind the mechanics of walking/exploring around the map for resources and progressing the story via Gwent-based card battles.

Masterpiece.

Despite Thronebreaker being a deck-builder, this game's story, characters, art design and soundtrack are just as brilliant as the main Witcher trilogy. I genuinely hope we see more of Queen Meve in the Witcher 4!

10/10

Recommended. Its gwent with a story-line. Lots of fun with lore. Can be played through multiple times to get your desired results. Kill all non humans or ever the friend of elves and dwarves.

Absolute masterpiece that blends storytelling, strategy, and the rich lore of The Witcher universe into an unforgettable gaming experience.

From the moment I stepped into Queen Meve’s shoes, I was captivated by the beautifully crafted narrative, complex characters, and moral dilemmas that genuinely made me pause and think. The writing is phenomenal—every decision feels weighty, and the consequences of your choices ripple through the game in unexpected and impactful ways.

The card-based combat system is a refreshing twist on traditional RPG mechanics. It’s easy to learn but offers a surprising amount of depth, requiring clever strategies and adaptation as the game progresses. Even if you’re not a die-hard Gwent fan, the unique puzzles and battles will keep you engaged.

The visuals and music are another highlight. The hand-drawn art style is stunning, bringing the world to life with vibrant landscapes and atmospheric details. The soundtrack complements the tone perfectly, enhancing the emotional weight of pivotal moments.

This isn’t just a card game or a spin-off—it’s a fully fleshed-out adventure that stands proudly on its own. Whether you’re a Witcher veteran or new to the series, *Thronebreaker* offers a gripping, emotional journey that’s worth every minute.

Highly recommended to anyone who loves great storytelling, strategic gameplay, and a touch of magic. CD Projekt Red has once again outdone themselves!

Storytelling is excellent. Really appreciated the depth of choice making. Often time I found myself choosing between 2 difficult decisions. Should I let the thief go to get that extra resource my army needed? Should I allow a massacre to happen to keep my units? There is a great guide on steam community that outlines all the consequences of choices.

Gameplay is very good. I had a lot of fun with all the puzzles, side quests battles, and story battles. The card games are designed to fit the story narrative. I still remember that memorable battle defending Aldersberg or the initial fear when I first saw a Leshy. Because the card game emphasized on storytelling, it is more like "a game with Gwent cards" than "a Gwent game". I finished the game on the hard mode.

The protagonist is a queen, and the story is about Nordling politics. After finishing the game, I understand the Nordling in the witcher universe better than playing the 3 witcher games. The game should be called Thronebreaker: the queen tale, but I doubt people will buy it if they don't put witcher somewhere in the title...

Wasn't expecting this entertaining story from a Gwent game. But then i wasn't expecting an entertaining in-game card game in Witcher 3 either.

If you play Gwent this will give you a nice addition to your card pool. Aside from that it is a very interesting blend of gameplay inside the Witcher Universe. Quite enjoyable, especially with recent sales prices of under 5 Euro.

Stunning cards with animation and an attention-grabbing story

A game with immaculate writing and suprisingly fun combat even for non-card game fans. A must play for any witcher fan.

Excellent story, very engaging especially when you consider none of the main characters from the witcher games are in it. Adds a lot to the lore of the Witcher series.

Only downside is the rng heavy last boss fight with the general's card that he can play to draw three more cards including a copy of the "draw 3" card up to 5 times. It ends in a lot of resets and should be removed, it also devolves into 5min cutscene of him playing cards until he beats you when you had him beat by a massive margin because of it.

I've tried to get into this game multiple times but just can never seem to get to the point where I'm enjoying it. It seems well polished and the story is interesting but I'm just not really enjoying the puzzle style game play. I'm sure I just suck at it and haven't put the effort to learn the meta for the cards and enemy patterns but sometimes I feel like I'm just throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. I think I could also just be learning that I'm more into rogue-like deck builders like Slay the Spire and not a traditional deck builder.

great game. but texts are kinda small in steam deck oled

[h3]If you don't mind card fights and like interesting stories, then this is the perfect choice.

Surprisingly good game! Was sceptical of the combat being basically a Gwent inspired card game. But I thoroughly enjoyed this game.

Ah what a ride it has been, I can’t stress enough how great the writing is. Treading on gray areas and being forced to question your moral compass with so many decisions and there is always a consequence be it on the game or your conscious. Queen Meve has become one of my all time favourite characters in fiction, probably the greatest female protagonist ever. The game doesn’t stop at that and offers such a complex and compelling range of characters with their own unique heartfelt stories and how it came to formulate their world view and ideals.
The eerie environments, fun puzzles, again the choices and consequences, all out large political conflicts and the way it get stripped all the way down to the very human nature, and the music… god that’s a product of love and you can feel it every step through the way.

I am filled with gratitude for the developers and all the work they put into this towering monumental work of art.
I truly hope there will be a sequel or another spinoff on the witcher series in gwent formula

PS:I already played the game on gog

Considering this game is coming from CDPR I had high expectations and I was not disappointed. This game is a gwent card game based in the year 1267 on The Continent where the northern kingdoms defend against the Nilfgaardians waging war against them. You play as Meve, queen of Lyria and Rivia, and throughout the gameplay you acquire allies, upgrade your war camp, explore other kingdoms, encounter puzzle like fights, collect and expand your gwent collection. With a bird eye view gameplay and drawn, Borderlands-like graphics, it can really captivate your attention. This game is also directly tied to CDPR's game GWENT and in my own example I've gotten every achievement for Thronebreaker and completed 100% of everything and gotten near 100 gifts in the GWENT game. I would recommend this to Witcher fans, ty for reading.

Pros:
Incredible story
Beautiful Soundtrack
Art is amazing
Voice acting is great
So much passion and for a game card too
Choices actually have weight to them

Cons:
Terrible marketing, and there probably won't be another game like this one because it didn't sell well.

Impeccable storytelling. If you liked Gwent in Witcher 3 it's a must have.

Really good game is you liked Gwent in Witcher 3. Story is unprecedented for a card game, never seen anything like it.

Gwent and art style were good, and the story was fine, but gameplay outside of gwent was boring and even annoying. Hated the resource management aspect.

Played for the addictive card game of the Witcher 3.
Stayed for the amazing story.

I gave it a negative with a heavy heart. Only because I feel like the game is half finished.
The game is not that expensive, and it offers hours and hours of fun to casual players who love the Witcher universe. Even though the game falls short in my eyes, we know who the developers are. They brought us a lot of joy over the years. If you are well off, and you want to support the developers, you could pay full price for the game
But, veterans, who are looking for depth, and well-thought-out game mechanics, will be disappointed. Because of that, I cannot recommend paying full price for the game. I bought it on sale, and I am glad that I saved some money because I did not enjoy the game.
I thought I was overthinking and judging it harshly, but after I finished the game, I saw that only 20% of the players had that achievement, I realized that I was not alone.
Halfway through the game, playing it started feeling like a chore, and I only persisted because I wanted to see the story through, I grew quite fond of Meve and her companions.
I have to give credit where it is due, the art style is very appealing, the story is quite interesting, and the characters you meet along the way have depth to them. I enjoyed the dynamic and banter between Meve and her companions. Another big plus are the choices you are presented with throughout the game.
Now, I have to talk about negatives, SPOILERS AHEAD!
The maps are huge, and lovely to look at, but they feel empty. They put some loot around to give you the incentive to explore every nook and cranny, but the reward system for that is half-baked. 1. When you find some loot on the ground, you get a miserable amount of wood/gold. You can find maps to hidden treasures, but guess what is in those chests, Cards and UI changes for ONLINE play, I was so disappointed, that I stopped caring about the biggest "reward" system in the game.
The actual fights were quite rare and boring for the first half of the game. After Mahakam, I was ready to quit, but things heated up when I visited the swaps, and that was a welcome change.
The puzzle fights are a good idea, but needed way more work put into them. At least half of the puzzles feel like they were thought of in one afternoon. There are also some puzzles that force you to follow a certain pattern to the letter, a lot of math and logic involved. It might infuriate a good number of people.
The deck I used during my 40-hour playthrough did not change once, that tells you a lot about the fights you encounter. I played on the highest difficulty too. I kept the banner that reduces leader cooldown, and I used the flail that does damage and moves units around. As for units, I used Scythemen/Bombers/Slingers/Strays, 4 cards, that is it. Every fight leading up to the finale was a joke for an experienced player.
In the final battle, it felt like the difficulty went from 1 to 100. It took me by surprise, and I can see how it stops a lot of people from finishing the game. I was lucky because there was no need for me to spend resources, I had 17k gold, 13k wood in my stash. I had to experiment and it took me a few hours to beat that one fight, crazy. Considering there is no manual saving, people who mismanaged their money would be blocked from finishing the game, which is a shocking game design.
I could go on and on, but I will just say, that this game feels half finished. They did a great job with the art, story, and characters, but it is like they didn't give actual gameplay a second thought.

Nice CRPG. Great story and battles.
I just don't liked the puzzles. Seems a waste of time.

Gorgeous Game, I've never thought playing a iso view game. Loved the art style of this game, could have made a manual save slot but its okay i could choose decisions more wisely
Welldone CDPR

An okay story let down by mediocre deckbuilding, easily exploitable decks, and pointless fluff. I wouldn't recommend this game even on a sale. How long to beat says this takes about 28 hours to beat and I finished it in about 17 (I had some offline play time). The world map serves absolutely no purpose other than to pad the length of the game. They could have easily built a linear line based system with branching puzzles but instead chose to make you tediously walk from place to place. After the third chapter of this and the pathetic "rewards" (mostly multiplayer cards and UI elements) you get for going off the beaten path I gave up and only did mandatory card battles.

The deckbuilding in this game is pretty lame. My deck changed exactly 3 times. Once when I got some clearly overpowered cards, once for a boss that required very specific actions, and once for the final boss who is extremely cheap and only difficult because their deck has 90 cards and a dumb ability they use every turn. The deckbuilding has no ability to save multiple decks which makes swapping decks a hassle. There is also no deck selection or building based on the encounter so you have to reload to before you start the fight. Absurdly there are also a few fights where you can't redraw so you have to forfeit to try and get a more balanced hand of cards which is silly.

It feels really half baked and even without taking advantage of the exploitable cards/combos it's pretty boring. The enemy decks aren't varied (you fight the same 3 decks with small variants over and over) and the game has to resort to cheap tactics to try and win. Once you have decent cards there is no reason to do side content or grab resources because you don't need them any more.

I'll also add that there is a very annoying bug where the game doesn't always launch on the same monitor so if you're playing fullscreen you have to manually move it between windows every time the game launches. How this wasn't patched I have no idea but it's annoying to deal with and further sours me.

The story is good but that's about all I can say. If this game had cut all the pointless repetitive fights, the dumb content that only unlocks multiplayer related aspects, and the world map walking which contributes nothing the game would be about 6 hours long. I wish it had been as that would have kept it fresh and fun the entire time. Sadly that is not the case and thus this game has to get no from me.

This game... is masterpiece

Beatiful story, writing, soundtrack, voiceacting and characters.

best locations and the hardest decisions of all witcher games.

if you do not like gwent you can choose the easiest difficulty to skip battles that you are having difficulty with

What i love most in this game?

difficulty of decisions and their non-obviousness i mean sometimes decisions may be "good" at first but after couple of hours we may get bad consequences by making this choice

Raynard and Gascon and their total different personalities, way of speaking and way of commanding

Moment when Demawend III heroically defended brothel at aldersberg against the nilfgaardians

Beating the nilfgaardians ofc

and beauty of dwarven women with beards

It's just a shame that this game is little known despite that it's no way inferior than the first two witcher games.

Masterpiece 10/10

With just over 70 hours of gameplay and still wanting to play it a second time, this game kept me busy with puzzles that range from easy to medium, and the difficult ones that caused me a little frustration, but didn't make me stop playing. The story is captivating, in a way it makes you understand certain aspects of The Witcher universe. The characters were well structured, comprising the charismatic ones and those that make you angry, the game mechanics, at least for me, didn't leave anything to be desired. Bugs... at least that I noticed, was a "disappearance" of one of the chests that wasn't visible to me on the map, other than that... smooth gameplay. The game itself isn't difficult, I believe it's average, due to some puzzles that can be a bit of a headache. Overall, a GREAT GAME!!. 😊 9/10

Single player deck builder that is not a ******* roguelike, 10/10

Also incredibly clever gameplay and narrative.

it’s an essential for any fans of The Witcher and Gwent.

After finishing the game, you will finally understand why Geralt is called Geralt of Rivia. And you will have a lot of information about the Witcher world and the Nilfgaardian War and characters.

advantages:

disadvantages:

Great game, love it, story, writting, presentation.

I had only one major bothering issue. Puzzles. Some of them are great, they are easy enough, are just fun or have many solutions to a same problem. Great. But some ... they feel like chores. Hard chores. YouTube will solve them for me hard kind of chores. They make me dread every puzzle as I see it on the map, which one it will be? The one which tells me I am too stupid or the one that I have a lot of fun with (trol soup, dog treats etc.).

Also, game feels a little bit too long. Many fights and puzzles starts to feel like chores once you get to the 3. chapter, can still be fun, but they do start to feel too repetitive. Nothing big, but it is a reason why I probably tried to play this game cca more than 10 times before I finished it (I might have way more playtime than Steam is able to record). It feels too long, mainly due to the time those puzzles and (often quite generic) battles sap away.

One of a kind. The quality is top-notch, I truly enjoyed the stylized graphics, voice acting, and the soundtrack. The core deck building and combat mechanics are solid, and it's really interesting how the engine was pushed to its limits to support various puzzles and unique encounters. Even though I didn't feel the need to replay the game, I think it's worth the purchase just to enjoy the whole story at least once.

Probably the weakest set of rules for Gwent yet, but it's still a pretty good time if you're addicted to it like I am. The ending was really abrupt, but still worth your time. Meve is pretty badass, not gonna lie.

Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales is an absolute gem of a game that pulls you right into the gritty, fascinating world of The Witcher. You play as Queen Meve, a total badass ruler navigating wars, betrayals, and tough moral decisions that really make you think. The mix of storytelling, exploration, and card-based battles is so addictive—it’s like every choice and every fight has real weight. The hand-drawn art is stunning, the characters are unforgettable, and the soundtrack? Just chef’s kiss. If you’re into strategy games or love The Witcher universe, you have to check this out. It’s an adventure you won’t want to end!

While I enjoyed the story and the matches of Gwent (puzzles included), I cannot recommend this game as it punishes you way too much for playing it like an RPG.

Resources are finite and very hard to come by. If you misspend your money then it's gone, no vital building upgrades or unit unlocks for you. The decisions you make in the game can also cause you to lose characters permanently, which wouldn't be a problem if those characters weren't also vital in your ability to beat the game.

I didn't play the game optimally, I mismanaged my eco, I made choices that caused characters to leave and I was left with a selection of cards that made it impossible to beat the game and worse yet, I couldn't do anything about it. I couldn't make any more money, I couldn't get those characters back - I was stuck. I could reload an old act (there's no manual saving, it's ironman - but allows you to restart at the begginning of an act) but why should I have to do this if it's an RPG?? It should be possible for me to make non-optimal choices and still beat the game.

Idk, maybe skill issue.

What a masterpiece!
Beautiful art, truly a great story and great characters development with amazing voice acting, the soundtrack are top notch, even tho it's just a card game, some of the battle feels so intense and impressive with all the unique soundtrack for every group or character you againts. The environment, ambience in each map are beautiful as other witcher game. The morally ambiguous choices it's what make it always interesting, some of it have consequences and impact of losing a companion card.

I doubted this game at first, but ended up really liking it and having a blast. The gwent quite different from Witcher 3 gwent, but still enjoyable. Wish they make another Witcher Tales game for other character, group or kingdom.

Graphically a bit simple but if you like the Witcher story, you will enjoy this!

This is one of those games you have to replay every few years. The story couldn’t have been told any better, and the art, stakes, and choices you make all come together to create one of the best video games ever made. I’m definitely going to 100% the achievements, or I won’t be able to live with myself.

If you like Gwent (the free solo game), this one will be fun for you. Its more grounded in the story created by the polish author of the books, sipping on the background stories that made The Witcher such an interesting and immersive world to explore via the RPG games.
With that said, if you dont feel the need to play it through steam, buying it or getting it for free (there were a lot of promos in the past) via the GOG app is my recommendation for new players

Enjoyable gameplay accompanied by an Incredible story, characters, voice-acting, music, art, etc. Even if you aren't into card games you're depriving yourself of a great narrative not trying this. This game deserved better.

As a rule, I don't usually like masculine female characters in games. They often feel forced and artificial, which is why I think the current "woke" direction in culture is bad for the gaming industry. BUT Queen Meve is one of the best-written characters I know. I really enjoy playing as her, despite her being quite masculine (proud, courageous, etc.).

Best story game I've played in a while. The writing is just so good ,and the voice acting is top notch. The gamplay is simple and enjoyable ,but may not be for everyone.

If you want to experience a great story with great characters neglecting gameplay. Then you must have this.

This is probably best single player card game I have played so far. Beautiful art style and very engaging gameplay

bought it on like a 90% discount or something just to get items in gwent, its not bad but you really have to follow a guide if you want the items for the choices atleast then check youtube for chests before advancing, i got everything in first try but i would never ever get it if i was playing blindly, you need to make some very specific choices or you just won't get stuff, how am i supposed to know if i don't take a bad deal in the middle of a swamp i will be locked out of a chest? take gold with you? locked out of getting a great companion and item/achievement. don't commit ALL possible war crimes? you can't get maybe the best companion in the game. trust me, guide is your friend

I liked this more than I thought I would. The story is the main pull. It is tied to the Gwent card game. Completing some tasks adds cards to your card inventory in Gwent.

its ok and might be worth picking up for $4, but I was really disappointed with this game and ultimately didn't finish it. I really enjoyed Gwent in Witcher 3, so I was just looking for a way to play Gwent in a single-player standalone game. While this has some Gwent-like gameplay, that is a minority of the overall gameplay. I really didn't enjoy the puzzles or traversing the maps, and I disliked the the overall art style and story.

Hi;

Placing you in the role of Queen Meve, the formidable and sharp-witted ruler you explore several maps. I like the base card game in the withcher 3 RPG, still prefer it but this new styled card game does offer a lot of fresh and unique gamestyle, few notes:

Pulling you deep into the political intrigue, moral dilemmas, and war-torn landscapes,You genuinely feel the weight of your choices, as many decisions have unpredictable consequences.

The map design is visually captivating and rich, allowing to freely explore expansive regions within the game. Each area is beautifully crafted and filled with points of interest, hidden treasures, and lore-rich encounters.The environmental design and attention to detail make the exploration feel rewarding and impactful.

The battles or encounters are filled with in the map, exploring all of them is a must to get the most out of the chest and lore wise texts. Winning battles even tho give you very little in gold are all mostly unique, some of them are puzzle or even straight up other card games filled in the game.

combining strategic gameplay with a story-driven RPG experience. It’s a must-play, try it on the hardest difficulty, I played it 2 times trough both on the hardest difficulty, There is nothing to mention negativly it is a solid game.

If you ever enjoyed single player TCGs like Pokemon, Yugioh or MTG Shandalar, this is for you. I haven't had a game captivate me to the point of losing sleep in a long time!

A military campaign may sound like a boring plot with a clear enemy, but we shouldn't be in the world of The Witcher, where black is only found on the armor of Nilfgaardians and white cowers in fear somewhere under a root in Brokilon. The palette of shades of gray combines more than fifty, and right after the first decision, the narrator informs you that you have just "chosen one evil over another."

In addition to war, the region is plagued by all sorts of other verbez - bandits, scavengers feasting on decaying bodies, the forests are under the thumb of dormant Squirrel cells, and even the raiders of Skellige have heard rumors of easy looting.

You recruit characters to your party, i.e. card deck. Some are untrustworthy at first glance, but with a heart of gold, others look solvent and stab you in the back as soon as you turn around. Almost the entire story revolves around betrayal, and at the same time it introduces the possibility to regularly change the composition of cards, because new units are added with the change of sides.
Loyal soldiers of the Northern Kingdoms collect bonuses for loyalty to the queen, i.e. for using her leadership ability. After one twist in the story, her army takes on more of a guerilla character, and after another, she expands with devious elves and steadfast dwarves. In addition, you have a circle of loyalists around you, with whom you can discuss in one of the camp tents, but their loyalty is conditioned by the decisions you make.

You can usually go through the main quests like a knife through butter, but the maps hide many other secrets and heaps of detours. The optional puzzles will tease your brain because you will be given a specific task and have to solve it using a pre-made deck. For example, when the Nilfgaardians drop cow carcasses on the city and you, in addition to destroying the catapults, make sure that no stinking corpses are left on your side of the board at the end of the turn. Or you have to sneak through a city symbolized by cards (how else) of dark alleys with patrolling dwarves.
The puzzles are very diverse and you will be amazed at what you can come up with with a rather banal playing field with four rows. Solving them can be quite a chore, but finding the right trick with a satisfying result will bring sweet rewards in the form of powerful artifacts, so it's worth thinking about.

An indisputable must for every fan of The Witcher, a pleasant surprise for veterans of all card games. 40%

Great game. Well worth grabbing if you're a fan of the series and Gwent.