People love to play card games. For over 20 years the most popular collectible card game was Magic: The Gathering. I can mention Pokemon: TCG as sentiment also, Yu-Gi-Oh! and others. For few years the electronic card games gains popularity. The leader is obviously Blizzard’s Hearthstone. It is de facto simplified version of Magic: The Gathering game. The mana “lands” were conjuncted into one type, game phases got combined and the card effects made easier to understand. It all helped to make this game easy to start for new players and get most fun from their play. People can play Hearthstone on PC or mobile devices, anywhere and anytime.

Here comes new card game called Gwent. It is Witcher card game set in universum based on books written by Andrzej Sapkowski. For last year it was in closed beta and got very good reviews from players. This month Gwent was released as public beta - available for everyone. Can Gwent dethrone the king of electronic card games - Hearthstone? Let’s compare them.

Detailed universum

Hearthstone is set in a world of Azeroth known from Warcraft series. Cards lore are based on characters from Warcraft game. It has nearly 2 decades extensive story. There will be no problem for developers to invent new cards in the future from already created Warcraft world.

Gwent world is a little different. There are also fantasy races like dwarves and elves but story tells about war between nations of Nilfgaard, Redania and other parties. Sapkowski’s world is dark, gloomy and full of evil monsters. Very similar to Game of Thrones political-heavy intrigues. It is definitely an ecosystem for older audience compared to Hearthstone.

New type of gameplay

Gwent is very different from traditional mana-based card games. Imagine there is no card-costs - every turn each player plays one card. There is no opponent hero to “kill” like in MTG or Hearthstone. Instead, players are building army on each side of the battlefield. The one which is stronger in points win the round. Important fact: You have to win 2 out of 3 rounds to win a match! And there is no drawing card every turn… Did I mention there are 3 rows (melee, ranged, siege units) on each side?

All above is very new idea into card games. At the beginning it reminded me of classic War card game. Who draw better scored cards, wins a game. But this is more complicated, because cards have unique abilities, when combined together they can turn the tides of the battlefield :) Every match is like chess play evolving into intense thinking skirmishes. Gwent is all about building good deck synergy for every round and taking right decisions to win.

Card game without RNG?

Most hated card in Hearthstone

In classic card games known fact is luck is more rewarding than skill. Poker and Hearthstone players strategy depends heavily on probability. Even the best players has only about 60% win ratio. Hello Yogg-Saron :) This drives people crazy in Hearthstone.

Witcher card game is the first one trying to make games fair and much less RNG important (RNG - random number generator). Only a few cards abilities are random targets. Best-of-3 round match is definitely going to balance card draw randomness. Player has to plan his strategy for many rounds, so he need more than one combo in his deck. The only RNG factor is card draw. However few months ago developers released mulligans. Player can redraw up to 3 cards from starting hand! Additionally, every round he can redraw 1 another card from his hand. This turn the tides in the direction of good deck building! Even one out of 5 cards can be rechosen while opening bought keg with cards. It looks like Gwent is most skilled card game right now.

Players community

I can say that both games fan base is very consistent. Thanks to subreddits of /r/hearthstone and /r/gwent both communities are growing very fast. At twitch.tv we can see similar relation of popularity. I am sure in the future people will divide into Warcraft vs Witcher fans, if they are not divided yet. In the table below I compared both titles by their community size. For now the community scale can be compared as 10:1 for Hearthstone.

	Gwent: The Witcher Card Game	Hearthstone
/r/subreddit subscribers	43 474	455 628
twitch.tv observers	4 244	58 110

Date comparison: 09.06.2017

Esports

Electronic sport computer games becomes very popular these times. Many chess and poker players are migrating into card games, where they can compete for ever more expensive prizes. Why don’t combine pleasant with useful? Grinding in card games is easier than in chess or poker because there are many more players we can compete at our level. There are also many more events and tournaments where players can show their skill.

Gwent’s best-of-3 round matches helps very much in being fair esport game. Even in closed beta there were few tournaments organized by CDPROJEKT RED. This proves that developers think in esport direction. Comparing Gwent to Hearthstone, collecting cards is much faster without buying them. Blizzard pushes heavy for buying new cards in the shop. Playing without paying real money takes weeks to complete good deck. In Gwent we can build pretty nice deck just after few days of play. Cheaper Gwent cards also means players can get into competitive scene much easier.

Multiplatform

Talking about multiplayer games in XXI age we have to count it’s mobility and console compatibility. Hearthstone and Gwent took different ways here. Hearthstone is definitely mobile-direct right now. It is available on PC, iOS and Android mobile devices. On the other hand, CDPROJEKT created game for PC and console gamers like Xbox One and PS4. This is very interesting move, but the REDS announced also they plan moving into mobile market as soon as beta phase ends. For me I can’t imagine playing Gwent on <10 inch screen. The gameboard is so huge and it could be nearly impossible to fit all game elements on small screen.
Interesting fact is that both games are written in Unity Engine. It is high portability engine, easy to convert between many operating systems.

Graphics and cards artwork

Many players pay attention to game design and card’s art. There is no doubt that Magic: The Gathering UI is old and complicated. It is very hard for new players to read all what is written at the obverse of the card. I don’t say the art drawing is ugly, but the whole card border isn’t that catchy. Hearthstone and Gwent are definitely much simplified. Modern UI with detailed animated drawings really attracts the eye. But between these two there are other differences. Hearthstone style is very colorful and sugary, while Witcher is dark and musky. I can compare Gwent’s art to old Diablo games style.

Hearthstone compared to Gwent artwork

Sitting here I can’t ignore moody fantasy music which is great in both games :) The mellow horns, mandolins and violins creates great atmosphere in the background.

Predictions

For me both electronic card games are very comparable. They will be definitely top card games in the future. I can predict that USA could be bastion of Blizzard’s game while Europe+Russia+Asia could be taken over by Gwent. These are the markets where cheaper Gwent could attract people with its political-based murky storyline. This expansion would be very great success of CDPROJEKT. Who knows how this game will look like when beta phase ends in few months?