Buy GemCraft - Chasing Shadows

Spent like, $150 in the '15 Fall sale. Best purchase was for $2.49: This game.

Figures.

Prepare to be addicted!

A tower defense game with a dark, gritty atmosphere and tons of choices for upgrading skills, choosing which types of gems you prefer to use, as well as extra stuff like spells, shrines, etc. A map that lets you choose your path, and even replay levels to your hearts content. And best of all, tons of achievments that actually give you in-game bonus points to use in upgrading your skills. Finally, we achievment hunters can have a legitimate reason for getting achievements!

Now I must warn you that I have not completed the game yet. But 20 hours in and I haven't seen anything to change my mind that this game is highly reccommended.

Ok, so this is tower defense. You build towers (traps, too!) and hope that they kill off the incoming line of enemies. Only in this game the towers are powered by gems. Each color does something different. The green poison gem is my current favorite. The red chain hit one is good too. There's gems that steal mana from the enemy, deplete enemy armor, prevent enemies from regenerating their health, and more.

Gems are created with mana. You start with some mana but also gain mana slowly and by killing enemies. Use the mana to create more gems or upgrade your existing gems to higher levels. You can have gems from levels 1-12, but so far I have only been able to afford up to level 8. Each level costs more than the previous level to create a gem. You can also move gems around, but there is a short wait time for the gem to socket before it can start attacking. Gems can also be used to bomb enemies with wasp stings, but I haven't found that very effective.

Each time you complete a level it unlocks one or more new levels. Map sections are hexogonal and eventually it opens up two pathway options. So the game is not completely linear, which I love. You gain experience and also get shadow cores to use to upgrade your abilities.

There is so much customization in this game, so you can play it in your own style. You can redistribute your ability points any time you want, so you're not stuck with your upgrades. Or you can spend the shadow cores to increase your chance of getting better loot and rare items. The maps have quite a variety of pathways. And you can build little walls to make a maze to slow the monsters down.

Graphics are seen from a top down angle, and the most realistic looking graphics that I've seen in a tower defense game, though I haven't seen them all. Most of the games in this genre seem to be cartoon-like, but this game has lush forests, stone pathways, and dark insect-looking monsters!

Music is more of a kind of ethereal chorus or extended chords. Not a tune. But it's perfect for this game. It really adds to the monstrous ambiance.

Replay value is huge. As far as I know you can replay levels as much as you want, to grind for experience and to get the hard achievements. But like I said, I haven't finished it yet so I dont' know if there might be a reason not to take too much time.

Controls are done with the mouse and there are keyboard shortcuts.

Story-wise, there are sometimes pages that tell the story but mostly it's just killing monsters. Maybe there's more story later on, I dont' know. This game won't appeal to someone who just wants to play once through a game. It's for people who like to do the same thing over and over again. I like to challenge myself to use the least amount of mana and still make it through the level, and stuff like that. So, if that sounds like you, then buy this game without waiting! It is well worth the price. No need to wait for a sale.

The only bad thing is I'm neglecting my other games to play this one. My poor backlog!

Update: I forgot to mention that there is blood but no gore. And there's a setting where you can turn off the blood if you want.

Don't mind my hours spent on the Steam version, because I have way more than 100+ hours on the free, web browser version itself - but now! - there's an almighty question many most probably have asked.


Well, not only that you're supporting the developers but also introducing a literal gem into your game library. In comparation with the web free version, you'll get more content on the Steam version. Since the very first GemCraft, I was amazed of how a tower defense game could be so wonderful. I've played a lot, then have focused on playing 'Chasing Shadows', which comes after 'Labyrinth'.


You might think that it's some simple, boring, sketchy tower defense games like those on Armor Games, Kongregate and so forth. Not so! This is a tower defense game made properly, with love and basically revolutionizes the genre itself!


You're presented with a field composed out of roads which lead the monsters to your orb. What exactly is the orb? The orb is the point you have to defend from the monsters that swarm all over, that rush towards your orb to vanquish it. If a monster touches the orb, don't fret! Yet, if you let way too many monsters at it, it will get crippled. Once your mana pool is depleted and one last monster touches the orb, it's game over. The mana acts like a shield, protecting the orb from destruction. Dropping a gem bomb (Done by pressing B (default assigned key) and dragging a gem over a spot) on the orb will decrease the banishment cost and will furthermore decrease the damage received by the monsters.
Mana is your single resource in the whole game, used in conjuring gems, towers, traps, amplifiers, combining gems as well as in gem bombs. How is mana acquired? It is acquired by slaying monsters and mining from mana shards with a tower which has a gem equipped.
Defense of the orb is done by creating gems of a respective trait (colour) and grade. The gems can be combined altogether, the traits being distributed by half if the gem has two traits (colours), you can figure the rest out. These gems can be socketed in towers traps and amplifiers or thrown as bombs. In most fields, you will encounter shrines which can be activated by dropping a gem on them. Depending on the grade of the gem dropped on it the damage will be increased, the shrine will inflict the properties on the monsters. Walls can be used to create new paths for the monsters to follow. Traps are built on the road to inflict damage especially on the swarmlings which are quite fast, while amplifiers are built next to towers to amplify damage and properties of the gem it is amplifying. The gems can also be assigned on what to target, a building or a monster. Slowly you'll gain three area-of-effect spells and three gem enchantments, with a specific cooldown. Throughout the game you'll get talisman fragments to randomly drop which you can socket into their respective slot in the panel displayed in the 'Talisman' tab.
The level of difficulty can be easily customized, by adding traits at the beginning of the level, dropping gems on the wave tablets to enrage the monsters which will yield more mana and you can also call waves in earlier which will give you mana as well.
This game also has an experience system which rewards the player with skill points at every level gained and also with every achievement, said skill points can be spent on wizard traits that enhance your playthrough. The skill points can be stashed for a starting mana pool bonus.


Not much can be said about the graphics but that everything is detailed quite nicely, the effects being absolutely wonderful and the way the vivid colours combine when mixing a gem with another of a different colour is overly pleasing.


The soundtrack gives an eerie feeling when playing, driving you to think of how deeply horrifying the story is, fitting exactly to the theme.


Pros

+More than 150 fields to battle on
+Eerie, atmospheric music
+Variety of gems each with its own trait
+Different modes to play
+Personalization of the challenge
+Rewarding XP system
+Lots of achievements
+Infinite replayability
+Addicting

Cons

-Might witness lag on certain occasions

Totally! Highly recommended!

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This will be my shortest review ever, just one sentence:

Without doubt this is THE BEST tower defense game on steam.

You dont need anything else to know, now hit that buy button and stop reading!

https://youtu.be/BOTK_0FjRME
+ Lots of levels
+ Very High Replayability with multiple difficulties that you unlock later on + modifiers (like 50-100hours worth)
+ Unique TD mechanics, combining towers to make them stronger
+ Rewarding Progression system, exp, skills, talisman, achievements unlock more skillpoints
+ Continously adds more things to do as you play (new gem colors, abilities, skills, building)
+ A great dark and dreary medieval vibe
+ Lots of strategy when placing towers and managing income
+ Vibrant maps that look great for a TD
+ Time Sliders, Early Wave Bonuses, Endurance Modes, Pause, Etc.
+ You can place towers anywhere even on lanes, and build walls to block off areas

- The Storyline is told through little text-logs after you beat each level (basically it's non-existant, unless you really want to read pages of a "story" that doesn't really relate to the game)
- Every tower no matter how upgraded has the same animation
- Lacks major-threats like stage bosses
- A bit overwhelming at first as it tries to explain all the mechanics
- Other versions of Gemcraft are FREE flash games, so this is more or less an enhanced version of those. I highly suggest anyone who hasn't played Gemcraft before to play the Free versions first.