Gwent: Rogue Mage, a deckbuilding roguelike set in the world of The Witcher, is out tomorrow

Last January CD Projekt Red confirmed that it was working on Project Golden Nekker, the codename for a standalone, single-player Gwent game that was going to be available that year. Six months later, the Polish studio returns to offer news about the title to announce that its name is Gwent: Rogue Mage and it will be available tomorrow, July 7, on PC, iOS and Android for 9.99 euros. We still don’t have a trailer for the game, but we do have all the details to learn about the new proposal from the creators of The Witcher.

Gwent: Rogue Mage is a standalone expansion for Gwent, the multiplayer card game based on The Witcher universe, featuring a single-player campaign that mixes deckbuilding with gameplay. roguelike, a combination that has been giving very good results lately, as shown by Inscryption and Slay the Spire. CD Projekt Red’s goal with this new title is to offer a Gwent PvE (Player versus Environment) experience that is more like the original The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt minigame.

In Gwent: Rogue Mage, players start with a dozen cards, and more can be added by exploring the map. As IGN explains, the game is designed not to overwhelm the player, so the cards are handed out one at a time, but its mechanics are a bit more complex than in the multiplayer version of Gwent. As they complete runs, players gain experience, level up, and increase the power of the cards in their deck. The title has dozens of modifiers that can increase the difficulty.

Gwent: Rogue Mage is a title that prioritizes gameplay over history. The campaign takes place hundreds of years before the birth of Geralt of Rivia, when the wizard Alzur, our protagonist, attempts to create the first warlock in history. As Alzur, players will move around a procedurally generated map and complete walkthroughs as they face enemies, a final boss, and moral decisions. You also interact with places of power to strengthen your card collection.

“Although we have a story to tell about Alzur’s obsession with creating the first witcher, we don’t treat this expansion as an official addition to The Witcher story,” says Vladimir Tortsov, director of Gwent: Rogue Mage. “Our goal with the Rogue Mage story is to give players enough context about who Alzur is, what his motivation is, and the general setting of the world he lives in.” According to Tortsov, to experience everything that Gwent: Rogue Mage has to offer, it will take about 30 hours.