Crown Gambit Review

When it comes to dark fantasy, there’s no doubt that Celtic and Breton folklore is something of an untapped market. However, the most recent game from WILD WITS, Crown Gambit, wants to take you into the dark. The question is whether this title should be added to your deck, or will it fold on release?

Crown Gambit is certainly one of the more unique games that I’ve ever played due to its focus on card-based combat. At first, you might think that it will entirely be about gathering a deck, but there’s an intense story that revolves around murder and messing with forces that you don’t understand. You take control of three paladins who must navigate both the kingdom of Meodred, mystical forces, and the political machinations of potential royalty after the murder of the current king. The actual plot starts simply, but you’ll be making choices that directly affect how your paladins will act alongside what events will occur on your journey.

For instance, at the very start of the game, I encountered a knight who heard something he really shouldn’t have. I had the option to kill him to keep the secret, trust him, or force him to take a vow of silence. I opted for the vow and then later found him saving people on the main road from bandits. Each of your choices will also affect your paladins, maybe pushing them to a more dogmatic mindset or even breaking them.

However, this is no Sunday stroll, so you will be getting into combat a fair amount and here’s where Crown Gambit tries to separate itself. Essentially, each battle takes the form of a grid-based area where you can set down your three paladins. Each one has a set number of AP points that they can use to move, attack, buff a friend, or use one of the cards taken from your deck. These cards offer a variety of effects, such as damaging or healing, but usually feature caveats or additional damage. 

For the most part, the combat works well, but it does take some getting used to. Thankfully, you will constantly get new cards, and you can build the decks to fit your playstyle. With that said, at the start of the game, the enemies can take a surprising amount of punishment, while your paladins really can’t. As you slowly level up, this does change, but for the first few hours, you’ll find that fighting can be a real challenge. 

However, using the powers afforded to your paladins comes with its challenges and a negative impact; this is where the Ancestral Grace comes in, which in battle takes the form of massive attacks that can do lots of damage. While they are useful, the more you rely on them, the more it will affect your character. It can also come into play during narrative sections, with the power pushing the paladins to the extreme of their personalities. It’s a nice idea, but honestly, I never really felt I needed to use it in battle much, and the narrative occasions were more for idle curiosity than anything else. 

Honestly, the real pull for me was the art style, which is partially thanks to the input of the artistic Director, the French artist Gobert. The character portraits are bursting at the seams with, well, character. Each one looks unique, while the world is suitably dark and weird to the degree that I just wanted to keep exploring. Not only that, but the attacks are also all beautifully animated, which helps to add a sense of variety. However, this is where the slow start rears its head, as you will be seeing the same attacks for a while. 

With all that said, I found the actual fighting to be the most boring part of the game. It all works mechanically, and once you have a decent deck, it’s entertaining, but that takes a while. I wanted the fighting to be over so I could go back to the plot. This problem is twofold: the first is that no matter how interesting an attack looks, it’s still pretty static when done in card format. Turn-based card battles are also inherently slow and struggle to keep up a pace. There are some other mini-games added in, such as chasing people by spotting which card they’re hiding under from three options. It’s nice to see some additions, but honestly, they’re more frustrating than fun. 

There’s also an inherent problem that comes with cards, namely that you have no control over which cards are drawn when. Here’s the thing: you draw a set number each turn, and only a few of those are held onto when you end your turn. Now, there are ways to increase how many you're going to draw, but the issue is that you can lose out on being able to do certain combos due to just not getting what you need at the right time. 

With that said, if you’re a fan of card games, dark worlds and a little bit of fantasy, then Crown Gambit is not a bad choice. However, if you’ve never played one of these kinds of titles before, then I would recommend trying something else first to see if it's an experience that interests you.