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Gwent: Rogue Mage, continues the franchise’s record of quality, but that’s not to say that there aren’t parts of this deckbuilding roguelike that could be improved. Building on the success of the Gwentmobile game, Rogue Mage gets plenty right, but by honing a few rough edges it could be truly special. Here are some of the biggest fixes the game needs.
8 Better Voice Acting
Gwent: Rogue Mage is not a lengthy, open-world AAA title like The Witcher 3. It doesn’t have the tremendous resources that went into bringing the core games in the franchise to such a high level of polish, and it’s somewhat unfair to expect otherwise. That said, the voice acting in Rogue Mage needs some love.
The problem is one-part uninspired performances and one-part uninspired writing. As a result, dialog falls flat too often. Thankfully, the game is a deckbuilding roguelike, not a full-fledged RPG, so there’s not that much dialog in the first place. It’s just unfortunate that the dialog that is there is so rough.
7 Less Generic Cinematics
Fantasy franchises tend to live or die by the quality of their worldbuilding. Whether it’s the work of Tolkien, George R.R. Martin, or Sapkowski, the best fantasy worlds set themselves apart from the crowd. They capture a tone or an aesthetic that others don’t, and it keeps fans coming back.
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It’s disappointing that Rogue Mage doesn’t do a better job of capturing the magic of the novels and games. Fans looking for more story can find it in the cards’ artwork and flavor text, but there’s just not that much in the main cinematics and dialog to set the world of this game apart from others. The Witcher universe is incredibly bold and deep, but players probably couldn’t tell that from Rogue Mage alone.
6 A Better Tutorial
Rogue Mage is the standalone spin-off of the original Gwent, carrying over most of the rules and mechanics from that title. That’s probably why the tutorial in Rogue Mage feels underdeveloped: CD Projekt Red likely believes that most people picking this game up already know the basics from playing similar roguelikes.
They may be right, but with every new release there are players who are jumping into the franchise for the first time, and they would be better served with a more thorough breakdown of the rules. Not explaining the win condition until the very end of the first battle isn’t a dealbreaker, and neither is failing to explain that energy doesn’t passively regenerate, but explaining details like that would go a long way towards smoothing the experience for new players.
5 Better Onboarding
The issue with a lack of information extends beyond the tutorial. Basic systems such as deck construction and map traversal will feel familiar to players of other deckbuilding roguelikes such as Slay the Spire and Inscryption, but not everyone has a wealth of experience in those games, and being thrown into Rogue Mage without basic explanations of those systems is frustrating.
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The game doesn’t need extensive handholding, since most of its systems are intuitive or at least forgiving of mistakes, but life for new players would be much easier if there were a bit more built-in support for deck construction and other core concepts.
4 Visual Effects During Events
As the player journeys across the map, they arrive at various points of interest. There they may find a merchant in trouble, a magical well, or a mysterious ruin that needs to be deciphered. These sites of interest feed the roguelike formula by offering various risks and rewards, challenging the player to make the best deck and run they can from ever-changing and less than ideal circumstances.
Unfortunately, these events mostly consist of text overlaid on static backgrounds. They don’t need to be as elaborate or expensive as full cutscenes, but more animation and visual interest would go a long way towards engaging the player. The consequences of these events are unique and important, and they should feel that way.
3 More Appealing Map
During the game players make their way across the map, choosing between various routes and weighing the pros and cons of each stop as they go, working their way towards an inevitable confrontation with the boss. The map in Rogue Mage is serviceable at best.
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As games like Inscryption have proved, a map doesn’t have to be hyper-detailed or even realistic to be engaging. What they need is to set a tone and make navigation easy. The map in Rogue Mage is too generic, and the banners and monuments that mark battles, events, and places of power aren’t as legible or distinct from one another as they should be.
2 More Diversity In Routes
Battles, elites, bosses, treasure chests, events, and places of power are the only stops on the player’s way across the map, and since the first three of those things are just different kinds of fights, there are only three types of event for the player to encounter. Other deckbuilding roguelikes have spiced this formula up by adding shops, campfires, other rest sites, and other specialized interactions.
There just isn’t enough diversity in routes. Yes, places of power can be distinguished by color, but that part of the game more or less blends together. The focus remains on the battles themselves, which is as it should be, but it would be nice if the journey itself was more than an afterthought.
1 The Return Of Three-Act Battles
One of the strongest parts of the original Gwent is the three-act structure of its battles: rather than the player with the most points simply winning when there are no more cards to play, matches were best-two-out-of-three contests. This promoted an exciting tug-of-war because even after bad RNG or a brilliant play by the enemy, there was a chance for the other side to make a comeback.
This match structure added another layer of tactical decision-making by forcing players to choose between conserving resources and going all-in for an early win. Losing this format is a considerable blow to the game, and CD Projekt Red should consider adding it to boss battles if nothing else, possibly reducing the overall number of battles to keep the game brisk while maintaining its depth.
Gwent: Rogue Mage is available for PC, Android, and iOS.
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