When comparing HEX: Shards of Fate vs Gwent: The Witcher Card Game, the Slant community recommends Gwent: The Witcher Card Game for most people. In the question“What are the best digital Collectible Card Games on PC?” Gwent: The Witcher Card Game is ranked 1st while HEX: Shards of Fate is ranked 11th. The most important reason people chose Gwent: The Witcher Card Game is:
A good deck synergy and perfect decisions are needed for success in this game.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro PvE campaign
PvE Campaign with a lot of AI encounters and RPG depth.
Pro Depth
Complex interactions between cards and several game phases add a lot of depth to this game.
Pro Cash tournaments
5000$ every two months, 1000$ every weekend.
Pro Will be familiar to Magic the gathering players
Similar to Magic the Gathering but deeper because of digital interactions that are impossible to do in MTG. So those familiar with MtG should feel pretty at home and familiar with the gameplay.
Pro Easy to learn, hard to master
The most rewarding games often share this: it takes some dedication to fully appreciate the depth of the game. There's lots of fun to be had while discovering all the layers though so in my mind it's one of the pros.
Pro True TCG
Cards can be traded with other players and have real-world value.
Pro More complex than other TCG's
Offers many things to do. See also: "Easy to learn, hard to master" in Cons below.
Pro It's basically M:TG for the 21st Century
As in, it uses the digital format really well with mechanics that cannot be reasonably (or at all) be done in a paper game.
Pro Cheap compared to any other TCG/CCG
5 dollar for 500 plat , 1 booster = 17 cards and you can buy for 200 plat, you also get a chest with which you can earn more cards and loot by opening it with a small gold fee.
Pro Solid community
Very friendly community, almost no trolls or bad manner.
Pro Beautiful art
Pro Communicative developers
The CEO posts a forum thread every week, developers give interviews on stream, and community managers are very responsive.
Pro Utilizes the digital aspect completely
For example, changing your own card and enemy cards while they are in there deck.
Pro An ingame chat to talk to other players (instead of basic emote's)
Pro Easy tournament style, you can finish your tournament over multiple days/weeks if its needed
Pro Change the way cards work by adding gems where possible
In PvE you can use equipment to change how cards work. A Johnny player's paradise.
Pro Auction house to buy and sell cards
A huge amount of cards for just a few pieces of ingame currency.
Pro Large variety of gameplay and formats
Between the cash tournaments, the ladder with rewards for both limited and constructed play, draft gauntlets, sealed and evolution gauntlet, as well as the single player campaign, playing the auction house, and the 'sandbox' Frost Ring Arena, there is a lot to engage in.
Pro The feel of your LGS from the comfort of your house
Trading, tournaments, guilds, ingame chat. But you can play whenever you feel like, with the asynchronous modes and even participate in big tournaments wearing your pyjamas.
Pro Can easily maintain 100+ creatures on the board incase its needed (like with vennen)
Pro Good tutorial
There are tutorials in the game that are pretty extensive in teaching one how to play the game. For many TCGs may seem pretty complicated, luckily HEX helps new players get accustomed to the game.
Pro Very profitable compared to other games
Thanks to player Platinum:Gold market, While grinding in HEx you will net around $1/hour whereas in Hearthstone the same time will only see a return of around 20¢/hour.
Pro Very strategic
A good deck synergy and perfect decisions are needed for success in this game.
Pro Unique concept
The mechanics of Gwent are different from other CCGs in which you need to destroy your opponent. Instead, you carefully build your army, while trying to prevent your opponent from doing the same.
Pro People who enjoyed the Witcher games will probably enjoy this one as well
The game was originally built-in Witcher 3 as a minigame. All the cards reference Witcher characters and events.
Pro Easy to build up a collection
Game allows you to get a good 2-3 packs a day, easily get a legendary in 2-3 days of playtime.
Pro Great for Free to Play
The game gives you a lot for free. It's easy to be competitive and it's free to play (F2P).
Pro Limited RNG
Unlike in many other CCGs, luck doesn't play too noticeable of a role in Gwent.
The cards you play and decisions you make create a lasting impact on the outcome of a match. When you lose, you know where you went wrong, and you learn. Matches feel rewarding and fair, knowing you won or lost because of your own decisions.
Pro Beautiful card art
This is the only CCG that can compete with MtG in terms of art.
Pro Players are able to choose the last card of every keg (card pack)
Every keg gives 4 random cards, and a choice from 3 cards. This makes the card pack process significantly less RNG-based, allowing you to more easily get the cards you need without having to craft them.
Pro Feel of making progress
You get new cards every day, get rewards for doing challenges, for leveling, and for ranking up.
Pro Two guaranteed kegs (packs of cards) per day
You can be sure to get 3 kegs (pack of cards) if you play a few minutes every day.
Pro Addictive, has this "one more game" feeling
"Oh, few more games and I'll level up and get a reward. Oh, a new rank is close, I should keep playing. Oh, the daily tier is almost done". You get the idea.
Pro Nice community
The community is usually not toxic and nice to everyone. There is also a lot of discussion about game and strategic aspects from pros, streamers and gamers.
Pro You get to play all your cards, any time
Say goodbye to your opponent defeating you before you could pull off that sweet combo.
Pro Great starting decks
Unlike many other CCG's, the starter decks actually feel very competitive with 4 legendaries each, one from the faction and three neutrals.
Pro Good developer support
The developers of the game are always in contact with the fans and updating the game constantly.
Pro You need to think before you play
Especially when you get to higher rankings, you can't just slap your cards on the table. You have to think before every move.
Pro A single-player story coming soon
While not present in the Open Beta, the game will feature a single-player story after official release.
Pro Generous and skillful developers
The devs are incredibly generous with the rewards for playing daily and achieving ranks in ranked play. Also the ingame skill and the deckbuilding is decisive for success, and not RNG (there is some, but not that oppressive usually).
Pro Great in-game music and atmosphere
The dark atmosphere and the folk music are outstanding!
Pro Gwent is the whole package
For a game that’s still in beta and the first to introduce a new core mechanic, different than every other CCG out there (i.e no previous reference but itself), Gwent has proved to be a skill-rewarding game (both deck building & gameplay). It has RNG limited to a minimum, a very generous free-to-play reward system and still more to come for the official release: from UI improvements to new game modes, to single-player campaigns, all backed up by a dev. team that’s fast on its feet to act and please its community.
Pro Building your own Decks is real fun
Cons
Con Most people will need to spend money if you want to have a robust collection
With new PVP sets planned to hit every 4-5 months, plus new PVE cards throughout the year, it may be hard to keep up as a "Free to Play" player.
Con You'll probably never own everything
Each card has real value. Rare items are EXTREMELY rare. And there have already been one-of sleeves that won't be returning. If one wants to own every card and item that exist in the game and can be traded, they must pay a hefty price.
Con Clunky deckbuilding interface.
While they are updating the deck builder frequently, search mechanics and sorting could be better. Such as the ability to make new decks in campaign, instead of just clicking a button and starting from scratch, you must manually remove all the cards in the deck and then remember to save as a new deck.
Con Animations are lacking
The game board often feels like it is not active enough with animations and movement, this makes for a very static feeling while playing the game.
Con Questionable long-term viability
At this point, hard to see the game ever really taking off. Balancing and card development is increasingly questionable, especially in limited formats (such as the current set emphasizing RNG in the Conscript mechanic as a game decider). The game developers have essentially conceded they can't deliver much of what was promised on the PvE side while also struggling to translate efforts there into income.
The client interface (e.g. chat, auction house, etc.) remains atrocious. Multiple featured tournaments have been compromised by bugs. This seems like a classic case of reach exceeding grasp, and investing heavy resources into the game is probably not the safest play.
Con Boring
It's hard to get excited about any of it.
Con Very long matches
Con It's too MTG-like
The mechanics, type of card, curve of resources.. everything can be related to MTG.
Con Easy to learn, very very hard to master
No instant gratification, which some specific type(s) of players seek in their games. You have to go deep to reach a point where every play will feel like a personal win.
Con Paths on the campaign are hard
Con The coin flip
At the start of each match, a coin is flipped to determine who plays first. Currently, going first is usually a huge disadvantage.
Con Unreliable UI
An obviously console-optimized UI makes some aspects of the game annoying on PC. For example, at the beginning of every round you can mulligan cards; the UI shows 3 of your cards with a barely-noticeable scroll bar to see the rest, confusing many new players into thinking you can only mulligan those 3 cards.
Con If your internet connection is slightly unstable you will have trouble finishing a match
Con Bad "friend" system
Currently, there are no rewards for matches with friends and you cannot spectate your friend's games.
Con Hard for new players to get involved
Initial impressions of this game might be negative due to the way it presents itself at first — it might feel like it's just counting points like in solitaire, when in reality the fun begins once the gameplay becomes more complex.
Con In beta
This game is currently in open beta. This means you may encounter some bugs while playing.
Con Not available on mobile
For players who are used to playing other CCGs on mobile devices, not being able to play a few quick rounds of Gwent while you're out and about may be limiting.
Con Uninteresting cards
Con Feels like two players playing solitaire
Con Greedy pricing model
Con Feels like doing your math homework instead of a game
Con Developers listen to the community too much
The Developers are addressing the feedback received by the community, but they are not filtering it and they are introducing some bad ideas from time to time.