I'll just make my own mountain, with Gwent, and hookers

I was really hoping that The Warlock of Firetop Mountain would be a more dragon-flavored Thronebreaker. Not really.

Complain as I did about Thronebreaker's lack of compelling characters, at least its story was engaging and well-told. Warlock is more like, well, reading a game book. No voice acting, no free-form exploration, limited animations - made to resemble a tabletop game, rather than a fantasy world - and random, bullshit events that would feel right at home in a hackneyed choose-your-own-adventure book.

The combat system includes some tactical quirks that might be interesting, if I really cared about the outcome. That is, hypothetically, trying to predict enemy movements and evading or attacking tactically; these would be exciting if I felt any attachment to the story, or if it seemed like I was actually building up my character. (Are there experience points? It doesn't seem like there are.)

I reached the end of my rope when I fought some monsters, survived, then got whisked away to a scripted event that killed me and put me back to a checkpoint before the monsters. Ugh.

In terms of content and mechanics, I think there's some worthwhile stuff here (aside from the punishing checkpoint system). But the production values, from the chintzy-looking character minis to the boring storytelling, leave me uninterested in delving further into Firetop Mountain.

To be fair, ordering my character to certain death in an orc den could be a ton of fun if I was doing it while drinking with my friends.

Progress: Like 20 minutes in.