In a very welcome bit of surprise news, the team at Nerial has announced a new Reigns spin-off, adapting the weird and wonderful world of The Witcher novels and TV series. This upcoming release, set to arrive on 25 February for PC and mobile devices, puts you in the shoes of tenured bard Dandelion as he sings epic stories concerning Geralt, the titular Witcher.
It’s a lovely housing narrative that allows you to embark on various runs through magical circumstances, discovering all sorts of odd endings, without the baggage that would come with a more canon-beholden adventure.
Thanks to Nerial and Devolver Digital, ScreenHub recently got hands-on with this game, playing through its opening chapters – with plenty of murder and mayhem discovered along the way.
Reigns: The Witcher preview – quick links
Dandelion’s songs chart mysteries, battles, and betrayals
As you roam through Reigns: The Witcher, you’ll experience a passing array of alternate universes, where your choices inspire your final end. The whole point of the game is to experiment, with each choice revealing more about recurring characters, or otherwise pushing Geralt towards one fate or another.
The setup reflects the other Reigns games – all of which task you with flipping cards and making binary choices about what to do next – while also balancing set needs, in this case, the needs of citizens, the need to fight and the needs of magic.
You must help Geralt deal with an array of quests, following his latest destiny until you reveal more secrets, finally conquer challenges, or die.
As you journey, you’ll encounter folks including magical creatures, people and horses, who all have their own unique requests. One lady wants to battle a super-powerful troll creature. Should you meet her request, or suggest a lower-level creature for the same rush, but less danger? Choosing wisely will add to your people-pleasing tally, and allow you to continue on your journey.
What’s most challenging in Reigns: The Witcher, as with other Reigns games, is the need to ensure balance in all choices. Sometimes, the moral choice is to introduce the lady to a lesser creature. But if that would max out your people-pleasing total, then you actually need to send her to certain doom. If any of the core metres are completely full, or empty, you’ll immediately lose the game and Geralt will die.
Each choice is a layered matter: consider the needs of the people, consider their secrets, and then figure out which choices you can make to ensure you stay alive, while also reaching for the solutions to your quests.
On death, Dandelion will simply start the song over with new quests but there are still high stakes to each and every run-through. The more quests you’re able to complete – by investigating thoroughly and making clever choices – the more experience Dandelion will accrue, which unlocks new pathways and new songs.
Each story is filled with twists and turns
Over the course of the game’s first hour, I was sent down many rabbit holes in my quest to keep Geralt alive and solve the first of the game’s overarching mysteries.
The first big mystery was the identity of a serial killer in a local village, who is only uncovered by travelling down the correct dialogue paths.
To solve this quest, you must pay close attention to citizen behaviour, seeking out discrepancies or oddities with any stories. Eventually, you will uncover the mystery, following various paths that spiral towards the killer’s true identity. Of course, this puts Geralt at risk – but then the game starts over, and you can feel safe as you gather new knowledge.
Beyond being a bright, funny adaptation of The Witcher, this Reigns spin-off also has plenty of other quirks to discover in these early phases. The story in this game is relatively rich compared to other Reigns games, with a map of songs to conquer as you work your way through Dandelion’s latest deranged plots (starring witches, bath time, talking horses and more).
There are also elements of active combat. When you max out your combat/danger level, you’ll enter a real-time skirmish where Geralt skips his way across a game board and you must send him left or right to avoid the attacks of enemies, and perform his own.
I’m not so enamoured by this combat system, although I put this down to personal teething issues, and because it’s so different to the rest of the gameplay in Reigns: The Witcher. You need to be locked in to ensure you’re making the most of the system, watching for beats to flip and roll Geralt through attacks, while avoiding a cascade of enemy movements.
It does get easier as you play, as you eventually unlock magical signs which can be walked through to either push back attacks or protect Geralt. But this is a snappy, fast-paced experience that does feel different from the rest of the game, and requires a sharper skillset and good timing.
At the very least, the relative difficulty of wrapping your brain around the movements, and the need to focus, does motivate being more careful in the story segments, as you’ll want to avoid dying randomly because you missed your cue on the board.
I’m leaving room to feel differently after more time with the game, if only because my frustration was tied to a lack of ‘getting in the flow’ in the first hour. Even in saying this, I can see how combat adds drama and flavour to the adventure, and keeps players on their toes – and I want to get better.
Reigns: The Witcher is riddled with threads worth unravelling
My first steps into Reigns: The Witcher have inspired a longing for more. So far, it’s a worthy and light-hearted adaptation of The Witcher, with fun cameos from fan-favourite characters, and a gameplay system that remains snappy and ultra-fun in this form.
More than anything else, I’m excited to see how Dandelion’s tales evolve in the next stages, and to see how far this Reigns spin-off will dive into deeper Witcher canon.
Reigns: The Witcher is set to arrive on 25 February for PC and mobile devices.
A PC preview code for Reigns: The Witcher was provided to ScreenHub for the purposes of this review.
