The Witcher Adventure Game

The Witcher Adventure Game is fun once you figure out what the heck is going on. The makers of the game assume players already know about this sort of tabletop board game, so they fail miserably at helping new players learn how to play. Its tutorial videos and extensive rule book do nothing but throw a lot of information at you without helping you truly absorb it. This results in a complex game that feels like it's playing itself until the meaning of its arcane dice rolls, drawn cards, mechanics, and interface finally become apparent. That requires patience and spending time in the offline single-player mode to understand how you perform actions such as completing quests, developing new abilities, and engaging in combat. Skip this step, and not only will you become lost, you'll also get crushed in online games, assuming you can find others to play with.

It's unfortunate, because the game does have a lot going for it. Conditions for each play session are completely different each time you hit start, which reduces boredom and repetition. Each hero has unique abilities and skills that make him or her better-suited to winning the game by various methods, such as strategy or combat, so you can really test your plans next to your luck at rolling dice. On top of this, the nice-looking graphics and expressive musical score make it an atmospherically beautiful game to play. Overall, The Witcher Adventure Game is a gallant but flawed attempt to transfer a real-world board game into a digital format. Although it looks and sounds great, newbie board gamers likely will be discouraged. We can only hope the next Witcher Adventure Game is a bit more accessible.