Witcher 3 Mod Replaces Combat With Gwent
Whistful thinking
I am the worst Witcher. Don't get me wrong - I'm very good at the actual hunting and preparation part of the monster-slaying business, so it's not all bad, but when it comes to the actual killing part, I am terrible. Rolling around in circles and trying to time attack animations just right is my least favourite part of The Witcher 3 [official site], a game that unexpectedly stole my heart. I'm over the moon to see the Hearts of Card mod, which replaces all combat with rounds of its card game Gwent.
What you're seeing there is version 0.2 of the mod, sped up so that you can get the gist without watching an entire game of Gwent. That's the version available to download right now and here's what it includes:
0.2 - Added basic scaling system and better recognition of enemies. The decks do slightly scale on selected game difficulty, so be aware of that. The campaign should be fully playable.
0.1 - Gwent game is triggered by an enemy or the player taking damage. Enemy deck is fully randomized. On win, all enemies within 30 units are killed. On loss, player dies.
Essentially, the mod does the bare minimum at the moment, swapping out combat for Gwent and ensuring that you don't have to fight every member of a mob individually. Future plans include a complete Gwent-based economy, with a tiered loot system that scales to enemy number and type, special drops for boss encounters and the possibility of booster packs in shops.
I'm still making my way through my first playthrough of the game so I'm not going to install Heart of Card just yet but it's almost certainly going to be my mod of choice if I make my way through the game again.
Spotted at Kotaku.