There are some games you could play with anyone at any time. This is not one of those games. But, with the right group, you are in for such a good time. The Single-Player Experience In this competitive adventure board game, 2-5 players travel across a vast map, embarking on masterfully penned quests, encountering and making ambiguous moral choices, fighting monsters – and sometimes brawling with other witchers to defend their school's honor! To win a 5-player game, you need to be the first to four trophies. Trophies can be earned by being the first to max a skill by doing Witcher training or defeating a monster. These goals take a long time to achieve, but they’re easy to understand. I have a profound bias to The Witcher universe having read and loved Sapkowski's novels and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt becoming my favourite game of all time, so naturally this game got me curious. In this competitive adventure board game, 2-5 players travel across a vast map, embarking on masterfully penned quests, encountering and making ambiguous moral choices, fighting monsters — and sometimes brawling with other witchers to defend their school’s honor!

It is unfortunately a long game. With four players it’s nearly unbearable, though it sits much more comfortably with two or three. With this reduced count, the naturally thin systems at work tend to yield their best results, allowing for an experience that is relatively fast and surprisingly satisfying. The Witcher: Old World Expansions In The Witcher: Old World, you become a witcher – a professional monster slayer – and immerse yourself in the legendary universe of The Witcher franchise. The Witcher Old World is a really good game. It’s not as difficult as it looks, there are a lot of funny moments, and while the turns are unwieldy and can take forever, it gives you an opportunity to socialise with the other people at the table. It’s an ideal way to get a handle on how the game plays before taking it to the friendship group, or maybe to try out some different tactics, or if this is your favouritest game ever and just want to keep on playing. But it’s not a game you’d buy for the solo experience because it’s very one-note. The Witcher: Old World verdict Image provided by Alice Clarke

Should I Buy The Witcher Old World?

The solo game really only works as a teaching tool or for people with the game as a hyperfixation. You play multiple turns to defeat monsters, and then the game ends. There is no way to lose the solo game, and your only aim is to win in as few turns as possible. Phase 2 gives you the choice between battling a Witcher or monster at your location (more on this in a sec) or exploring either a city or country location. Exploration is pretty fun because the player to your right reads out the card and gives you options to choose from without knowing the potential consequences.

I don't mind games that last a bit longer. And I don't mind games that are a bit more lightweight. And I've already come up with several house rules that will add more complexity after my friends and I have played through the main game a few times. Because The Witcher: Old World is set a few hundred years before the stories and tales involving Geralt, he's not a playable character in the game, but there is a Witcher from the School of the Wolf, along with the Bear, Cat, Griffin, and Viper, each with their own special ability. The Witcher: Old World standard edition comes with tokens for the monsters, whereas the Deluxe edition upgrades them to miniatures. What's The Difference Between The Witcher: Old World Standard And Deluxe Editions? Mages adds some interesting ways to experience the game, adding a little to the replayability of the game, but there's not the same depth that the Skellige expansion has. What Does The Witcher: Old World Legendary Hunt Add To The Game? Set years before the saga of Geralt of Rivia, The Witcher: Old World explores a time when monsters roamed the Continent in greater numbers, creating a constant peril that required the attention of expertly trained monster slayers, known as witchers. The difference between the Standard and Deluxe versions of The Witcher: Old World is the inclusion of 28 miniatures to replace the tokens in the standard edition. Both editions include miniatures for each Witcher school. The Witcher: Old World plays on a map with locations that fans of the franchise will find very familiar. What Are Our Final Thoughts On The Witcher Old World?I like the narrative aspect of it, it's the Witcher after all. It should have little mini stories and quests. That was a big chunk of the video games. In The Witcher: Old World, you become a witcher — a professional monster slayer — and immerse yourself in the legendary universe of The Witcher franchise. Set years before the saga of Geralt of Rivia, The Witcher: Old World explores a time when monsters roamed the Continent in greater numbers, creating a constant peril that required the attention of expertly trained monster slayers, known as witchers. Five competing schools trained their adepts through brutal regimes, and once fully prepared, these now-recognized witchers set off to explore the land, seeking trouble and adventures and helping others for coin. In this competitive adventure board game, 1-5 players travel across a vast map, embarking on masterfully penned quests, encountering and making ambiguous moral choices, fighting monsters — and sometimes brawling with other witchers to defend their school's honor!

You can also play The Witcher: Old World solo. I recommend doing this before playing your first multiplayer game (one of our group did this, and I played my solo game after) because it’s a good way to get a handle on the rules and will make you a better teacher when the time comes. The Witcher: Old World Skellige expansion adds an entirely new area to the game, including 3 islands to explore and new exploration and event cards, which also include additional islands that can be discovered. Travel to the islands takes place using the ship miniatures included in the expansion, and each time the players travel by sea, the difficulty increases and Dagon may emerge for the players to battle. A Dagon miniature, along with all the cards required to use them are included in the expansion. Set years before the saga of Geralt of Rivia, The Witcher: Old World explores a time when monsters roamed the Continent in greater numbers, creating a constant peril that required the attention of expertly trained monsters slayers, known as witchers. Five competing schools trained their adepts through brutal regimes, and once fully prepared, these now-recognized witchers set off to explore the land, seeking trouble and adventures and helping others for coin. Some of these big games with many moving parts can require your full concentration at all times, and some are good for providing structure to a social experience. The Witcher: Old World lands in my ideal middle ground.You get to read (occasionally terrible) flavour text in dramatic voices. There are monsters to slay. Everyone gets to make decisions that make big changes. And I don’t feel like I’ve even scratched the surface of what can be done with the game. Old World does an impressive job of putting its players into the shoes of an amoral travelling monster hunter – although some exploration and quest cards can lean a little too hard on the ‘edgy’ side in ways that are at times cringe, and at others, outright problematic.