CD Projekt Red has released another entry in its series of The Witcher games. The studio is billingGwent: Rogue Mage as a single-player expansion for Gwent, but it's sold separately. It's out today on PC, iOS and Android for $10. A $20 premium edition comes with perks for Gwent.
Rogue Mage was announced earlier this year under the working title of Project Golden Nekker. It takes place hundreds of years before the birth of Witcher protagonist Geralt of Rivia. You'll play as the mage Alzur, who is attempting to create the very first witcher to protect humanity from an onslaught of monsters.
Don't go into it expecting a ton of details that will play into the next mainline Witcher game, though. "While we have a story to tell about Alzur's obsession to create the first witcher, we do not treat this expansion as an official addition to The Witcher lore," game director Vladimir Tortsov told IGN. "We hope that players will get enough immersion to complement the gameplay-first formula, but we do not expect the story to be the main reason for players to appreciate this release."
The game is a roguelike deckbuilder. You'll move around a procedurally generated map and take part in card battles based on mechanics from the original Gwent. You'll be able to upgrade your army by collecting more cards and gear. There are dozens of difficulty modifiers too.
Tortsov says it will likely take players north of 30 hours to do and find everything in Rogue Mage, which is designed for gameplay sessions that take up to an hour. The game can be played entirely offline, though there are online features like leaderboards and cross-saves, so you can continue playing where you left off on other devices.
CDPR debuted the original Gwent in 2016. It's a free-to-play multiplayer title based on a minigame in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Rogue Mage isn't the first single-player take on Gwent, though. CDPR previously released a single-player campaign called Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales.