The Witcher: Old World

Old World takes place long before the saga of Geralt of Rivia, which we have been able to immerse ourselves in through the fantastic TV games, books and TV series. Old World reflects a time when monsters were more widespread across the world.
In the role of a new Witcher, the goal is to train your skills by slaughtering monsters, completing quests and going on adventures.

I'll start with a boring point. The version I've played includes the base game, all expansions and miniatures. In total you end up with 1088 different cards and unfortunately it's you as the player who has the incredibly awful task of sorting everything. Normally I don't mind such a task but unfortunately the instructions are very scarce which led to YouTube clips and various posts on forums to help me in my attempt to get everything in order. If you buy each game and expansion separately, you probably won't have to struggle with this bit and it's almost something I can recommend.

When everything is in order, you can boast a gigantic box on your shelf where everything related to the game fits. But I really would have liked it to be better organised from the start. It's not too much to ask when you're talking about such an exclusive and luxurious edition of the game. Because if you look past those problems, everything is of very good quality. The cards are sturdy and well-designed. All the boards and accessories are properly sized and breathe quality. The same goes for the huge amount of miniatures that vary in size but all of them - be it a Witcher, a horse on a small house or a creepy monster - are very nice. In the edition I received, they are also 'shaded' which means that they have been given a dark wash that makes them look slightly shadowed. Very nice!

It's worth pointing out that if you buy the base game, you don't get all the miniatures. They are not needed to play the game but can be replaced with small markers instead. But you certainly don't say no to miniatures. Other things that are included in the edition that Go On Board sent me are a large neoprene mat that serves as a playing field, coins made of metal and extra dice. Then a lot of other stuff like Kickstarter-exclusive minis and expansions. If you want the exact same edition as the one you see in the pictures, you will have to pay a hefty sum.

Enough about storage, quality and crates in general - what kind of game is this? In short, I would call it a boss battle game with elements of hand management, dice rolling, deck building and minor elements of role playing. It's a pretty savoury mix, but I think it all flows together into a nice whole. The cards work in two different ways - both as the only way you can travel across the continent and as the cards you use when fighting enemies and other Witchers. It's a neat solution and means you need to think about which cards to add to your hand to both slay enemies and get where you want to go.

The map features a whole bunch of towns and places you'll recognise from the video game. Vengerberg, Kaer Morhen, Novigrad and Cidaris to name but a few. Each place allows you to do different things when you visit them. Some house the location for a game of Witcher poker, others allow you to spend coins to level up any of your abilities and then there are those that allow you to change what the range of cards will look like when you reach the phase where you buy a new card.

Here are a few things I need to go into a little more detail about. I'm not going to hyper-focus and go into all the details, but in order for you to be able to grasp - somewhat - how it works, I need to explain a few things in more detail. Firstly, let's look at levelling up. The Witcher you choose to play as has four different areas that you will upgrade during the game. Defence, combat, alchemy and then a final one that is different for all selectable characters. As you level these up you get positive effects such as gaining more armour points, drawing more cards during battles and also using more potions during battles. These go up to level five, and your general Witcher level is raised after everyone has reached one level higher - that is, if you have combat, defence, alchemy and your special ability at level two, your general level is also raised to two. You cannot 'level up' more than one level above the general level.

When playing The Witcher: Old World, you go through three different phases. First you travel across the continent, then you choose to either go into battle or choose an event card, and when you're done with those, you buy a new card. You buy the cards with the cards you already have in your hand. When you have used a card, you put them aside in a pile (discard pile). Each new round, you pick up three new cards along with the ones you already have in your hand. So a bigger hand results in more things you can do on your turn. Therefore, you have to analyse and spend some time thinking about how many cards you need for the next round and whether it is worth putting up to three cards aside to get that really nice card at the top of the board. The cost of the cards depends not only on what they say but also on the order in which they appear on the board. The ones at the top always cost one more coin while the one at the bottom is discounted and costs one less coin than usual. So you either have to be patient and wait for the cards to travel down (you remove cards, draw new ones and let the old ones slide down a notch each round) or you chop right away and get a quick round next turn. It's an interesting trade-off and a mechanism I like.

What about event cards? Well, this is where we find the role-playing elements and the possibility to 'go on an adventure'. You choose to either read a card associated with cities or cards that are more wilderness-orientated events. Most of the time, you are presented with some choices where, depending on what you choose to do, you are rewarded or penalised. If you are lucky, you can find equipment and weapons. Unfortunately, the chances of doing so are quite low as this part of the game unfortunately feels somewhat obscure. It's well written and interesting but it swishes by far too quickly. There are also a lot of cards so the risk is that you do not come across those cards that are extra fun.

Then we should take a closer look at the battles. The cards you have in your hand have different colours and links. You can do combos with other cards to do more damage, increase your armour points and also draw more cards next time it's your turn to fight. The enemies have a number of cards depending on how much health they have and the same applies to you - your cards are the ones you fight with but also the number of life points you have. If your opponent causes damage, you lose cards that you cannot use again during the battle. The monsters you face are different in strength depending on their level. They go from level one to three, with the latter, of course, having higher health and greater ability to harm you.

But what's the point of all this? Fighting, playing poker, levelling up and drinking potions? Well, to win in The Witcher: Old World you have to collect four trophies and whoever gets the fourth first wins. These are collected through combat and meditation. Meditation is related to the special ability and is the only way to raise it to level five. Once you've learnt the game, it's both easy and fun, but unfortunately the path to get there isn't exactly straightforward.

Unfortunately, I felt that it was sometimes difficult to find answers to questions in the rulebook when you ran into trouble. Instead, I had to turn to the internet and forums once again. Overall, the rulebook is good and clearly explains what to do and when to do it. There are also a bunch of cards that you can leave next to it as support, explaining the main points. But sometimes, as I said, the answers are not there and after all the googling I've had to do I've found that many people agree.

Then there's the matter of expansions. This review doesn't touch on the expansions, focusing only on the base game, but it's worth pointing out that the experience, along with the Monster Trail and Wild Hunt expansions, for example, raises the entertainment level at least a few notches. There are elements that almost feel like they should have been incorporated into the base game from the start. The battles against the monsters and the thematic stuff both get more fun with the expansions. I haven't tried the Skellige and Mage expansions yet but I'm sure it's the same there.

To summarise, I'll say that I really like The Witcher: Old World. It looks fantastic, is fun and offers lore and exciting enemies as well as a good opportunity to play Witcher at home in the living room. You recognise yourself from the games and it is clear that CD Projekt Red has been involved in the creation of the game. But then there are flaws that in some cases could have been avoided. The rulebook should have been better, more focus should have been put on the role-playing elements and what pulls the rating down a bit more for me is the knowledge that The Witcher: Old World will be much better together with at least one expansion. But it's still a really good game and it works fine with the regular edition without miniatures and all the other nonsense. But if you want to spend a little extra, it gives a little extra icing on the cake.

Rating: 8/10

Game Information
Recommended age: 14+
Average playing time: 90-150 minutes
Number of players: 1-5
Price: £60-140