GWENT: Rogue Mage

GWENT: Rogue Mage is an independent addition to the card game based on the Witcher universe, built on the principles of roguelikes. Before each battle, you need to build a deck for a specific opponent, and the battles themselves take place in the usual format: cards are laid out on the field, and the winner is determined by the final score in the rounds. The main difference from the main game is the structure of the passage. There is a map along which the hero moves from one battle to another, collecting cards, artifacts and upgrades. Decisions influence the further path: somewhere you need to take a risk and go against a difficult opponent for the sake of a reward, but somewhere it is wiser to save energy. Roguelike mechanics force you to rethink your usual tactics: the deck is assembled anew every time, and strong cards are rare. This makes even familiar fights tense, and makes losing painful because you have to start over with a different combination. It is also worth noting that the game allows you to replay an unsuccessful battle: after a defeat, your allies offer to start the journey again, but with different rewards. This reduces the frustration of failure and allows you to try different tactics. This is rare friendliness for card roguelikes. The visual style and music correspond to the universe, and between battles a small story about the hero himself is revealed. For fans of The Witcher and card games, this is a reason to return to a familiar world from a different angle, without betting on live opponents.