When CD Projekt Red announced that Gwent was getting a full game at E3 earlier this year, I went crazy. I spent hours in the Witcher 3 challenging every person that I met to a match of Gwent. I’ve been playing the Gwent: The Witcher Card Game closed beta on Xbox One and it’s everything I hoped it would be.
When you first boot up the game, you are greeted with several tutorials to help acclimate you to the game. After a couple tutorial rounds, you are allowed to play against either the AI or opponents playing on both PC and Xbox One. The gameplay is very similar to the in-game version of Gwent, but several things have been added to beef up the experience. Some cards can now attack and remove strength from opponent’s cards, you now draw two cards at the start of round 2 and one card at the start of round 3, and new cards have been introduced. The in-game animations are much larger now and when you play a card, they have a little voice over. The game is even more fun now that you can play real people instead of just the AI. This has proven to be a lot more interesting due to not being able to predict what the AI will do next and I find it slightly addicting!
The music is awesome and includes several tracks from the Witcher 3, but also has a couple new ones. You are given four decks to choose from and modify. The only deck missing is the Nilfaargian Empire deck, but it is being added soon per a in-game banner. Microtransactions are included, which are kegs that give you new cards, but you can earn kegs by playing the game as normal.
Right now, it’s pretty bare bones, but that’s what betas are for. The closed beta is slated to continue all the way up to launch in early 2017 and the developers have stated that more people will be added as launch approaches. The game will incorporate cross play between PC and Xbox One and also will be included in the Xbox Play Anywhere program.
Have you had a chance to participate in the closed beta? Let us know what you think in the comments below!
Jonathan was a regular ICXM contributor between 2015–2017, publishing 57 articles across opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news. Their work focused on hands-on reviews, platform commentary, and breaking-news reporting during the Xbox One X launch year and Microsoft’s wider Play Anywhere / UWP gaming initiative. They post on X as @jtainsworth13.