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Here’s how it works. 65 Reigns: The Witcher review Toss a card to your witcher. Reviews By Jody Macgregor published 25 February 2026 0 Comments Join the conversation (Image: © Devolver) Our Verdict A casual timewaster for people who are into the Witcher enough to get the references, but not married to the idea every Witcher game has to be a big RPG. PC Gamer’s got your back Our experienced team dedicates many hours to every review, to really get to the heart of what matters most to you. Find out more about how we evaluate games and hardware. Need to knowWhat is it? A randomized choose-your-own-Geralt adventure.Release date: February 25, 2026Expect to pay: $6 / £5Developer: NerialPublisher: Devolver DigitalReviewed on: Windows 11, Intel Core i9, 32GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 4060Multiplayer? NoSteam Deck: VerifiedLink: Official siteDandelion sure does spend a lot of time imagining colorful new ways for Geralt to die. He also seems to know a lot of details about Geralt’s sex life? Let me back up and explain what’s going on here.The Reigns series started in 2016. It’s a survivor from the era when paid mobile games could still compete with free mobile games, a golden time that turned out to be a mere blink of the gaming industry’s leviathan eye. In Reigns you were a king presented with binary decisions about how to rule, which you’d choose by swiping left or right. The consequences eventually led to a colorful “off with your head” scene appropriate to those choices, and you’d begin again as the next king in line.Sequels and spin-offs became more complicated, and found homes on other platforms. There’s been a sci-fi one, a Chinese one, a Game of Thrones one, and now a Witcher one. Instead of being an heir to the throne trying to navigate coronation ceremonies and diplomatic affairs, you are the Geralts who exist in Dandelion’s songs—trying to stay alive long enough to achieve the three random goals you’re given each run, like winning a certain number of duels or making sweet love down by the fire, which is where Dandelion knowing way too much about what Geralt gets up to at night comes in. Related articles The next Witcher spin-off game is about Dandelion sharing his version of Geralt’s adventures with the world: ‘you might encounter a stuffed unicorn’ Get ready to battle bruxae and swipe sorceresses in Reigns: The Witcher, out next month Death Howl review: A brilliantly abrasive hybrid of deckbuilder and soulslike Eventually the ballad ends, not always in death, and your score is tallied while the quest-completion sound from The Witcher 3 plays and confetti shoots up, with a final blast based on how long you lasted. Sometimes, when you’ve had a real short run, the pitiful spurt of confetti comes across kind of sarcastic.Of dairy and darknessOne of those choices lets me steal cheese from a tyromancer (that’s someone who divines the future from dairy, a deep-cut reference to a Witcher 3 sidequest), which I could give to a halfling chef, making the non-human community like me more at the cost of angering the magical community. To win back their hearts I might refuse a noble’s request to knock down a mage’s tower for being taller than his, but doing that will annoy the human community. The three bars measuring these reputations fluctuate constantly and unpredictably, and if any get too high or low the ballad ends. Most of mine end with Geralt being hanged for fraternizing with the Scoia’tael because I maxed out the non-human bar by accident. (Image credit: Devolver)I’ve also had my blood sucked out by multiple vampires and been shot by a dryad, as well as having ballads end where I re-skilled to become a baker or retired to the country to judge beer competitions. Avoiding those endings is a real balancing act. The fourth bar measures your commitment to the Path of the Witcher, and if you spend too much time on diversions it’ll drop so low Geralt abandons the job altogether. Filling it up isn’t a game over, though. Instead, it triggers combat.Combat uses a system that’s new to Reigns. Where the original had a clumsy duelling minigame and follow-ups have tried alternatives like the card game in Reigns: Three Kingdoms, here it’s an arcade thing where Geralt hops left and right to dodge falling claws and fists while trying to land on swords and signs. Monsters might block columns with fiery breath or a sonic attack, while landing on an igni sign can burn away a few of their a
