When it comes to avoiding a game's main plot, there are plenty of time wasters jam-packed into the The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. One of Wild Hunt's most prominent distractions from the campaign was the side quest "Collect 'Em All!", which had Geralt wandering all over The Continent in search of Gwent players to challenge and win cards from, thereby building his very own unbeatable Gwent deck.
For some players, Gwent became such a distraction that they never did figure out what the main plotline of Wild Hunt was all about. CD Projekt (CDPR) proceeded to capitalized on the fans' love for the distraction by releasing a multiplayer game completely devoted to Wild Hunt's most popular mini game: Gwent: The Witcher Card Game, and now they are promising another Gwent spinoff for 2022.
Over the last few months, CDPR has been teasing this new Witcher franchise game. In December they released a glimpse of some of the concept art, but little else, claiming they didn't want to give away too much before the time was right. Currently dubbed Project Golden Nekker, the Gwent spin-off game promises to be a single-player experience.
In 2018, CDPR released Gwent: Thronebreaker - A Witcher Tale, a single player RPG that followed the adventures of Queen Meve of Lyria and Rivia. The developers claim it won't be a Witcher Tale game and it also won't be like Gwent, which begs the question: What can players expect from a new Witcher game at this time?
As mentioned, this game will be a single player experience set in the world of The Witcher and inspired by Gwent. The shared concept art showed glimpses of the Golden Nekker, the Barbarian and some world settings, including an image of the Golden Nekker sneaking into someone's room. While there is little more than speculation about what fans can expect from this new game, one can't help but wonder if perhaps CDPR plans to give gamers a look at the world of The Witcher through the eyes of the dangerous monsters that populate The Continent.
Monsters play a central role in The Witcher franchise, as without them there would be no work for Witchers. While the monster hunting itself often seems to take a backseat to the plot in the games, much of the storylines still revolve heavily around them, like saving the Striga princess in the first game, for example, or protecting the people of Flotsam from the Kayran in The Witcher 2.
Nekkers tend to be pack hunters, attacking in groups. The more of them there are, the more dangerous they can be -- even for an experienced monster hunter like Geralt. A single nekker on its own might get into some mischief, and it might pose a problem for someone who doesn't know the first thing about monsters, but overall, it could be viewed as relatively harmless.
Exploring The Continent through the eyes of a single nekker could have its charms. What, if anything, could a nekker possibly want, especially with regards to a card game? Giving players a whole new perspective on the monsters they spend time hunting as Geralt could breathe new life into a game that people already can't seem to get enough of. As they draw closer to a release date, CDPR will likely offer insight into what they have planned, but for now fans can only speculate.