GemCraft - Chasing Shadows | Game Brain

About

"GemCraft - Chasing Shadows" is a tower defense game where players build and combine gems to create powerful towers and defend against enemies. The game features a deep upgrade system, various enemy types, and a challenging campaign mode. Players must strategically place and upgrade their gems to survive each wave and advance to the next level. With its addictive gameplay and high replayability, GemCraft is a must-play for any tower defense fan.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

95%

Audience ScoreBased on 2,866 reviews

gameplay166 positive mentions

grinding135 negative mentions

Incredible depth and variety in gameplay mechanics, allowing for numerous strategies and gem combinations.
Highly addictive with a vast amount of content, including hundreds of levels and achievements.
Engaging story and atmosphere that enhances the overall experience.

Can become repetitive and grindy, especially in the late game and during endurance runs.
Performance issues and lag when too many enemies are on screen, making late-game play frustrating.
Difficulty spikes can be abrupt, leading to potential frustration for players.

gameplay
486 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
34%
64%
2%
The gameplay of "Gemcraft: Chasing Shadows" is characterized by its deep strategic mechanics and extensive customization options, allowing players to combine gems to create powerful towers and adapt their strategies to various challenges. While the game offers a rich variety of mechanics and a high replayability factor, some players find the gameplay can become repetitive over time, particularly in the later stages. Overall, it is praised for its addictive nature and the balance between simplicity and complexity, making it accessible for newcomers while still engaging for veterans of the tower defense genre.
- “Gemcraft is, in my opinion, a textbook tower defense game combined with easy-to-understand mechanics, mazing options, and a campaign to boot.”
- “The mechanics of combining gems to create powerful towers add a layer of complexity that keeps each level fresh and engaging.”
- “With its deep strategic mechanics, extensive content, and polished presentation, this PC game offers hours of thrilling and rewarding gameplay.”
- “Gameplay just became pretty stale.”
- “The gameplay is very linear.”
- “Gameplay is very repetitive as far as I can tell: when the wave counter is high, you want to merge all gems to one big one to be able to deal damage.”
story
327 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
31%
66%
3%
The story in "Gemcraft: Chasing Shadows" is described as engaging yet somewhat minimal, serving primarily as a backdrop to the gameplay rather than a central focus. Players appreciate the lore and context it provides, which unfolds through diary entries and in-game notes, but many feel it lacks depth and can be easily ignored. Overall, while the narrative adds an interesting layer to the tower defense experience, it is not essential for enjoyment, allowing players to focus on the strategic gameplay.
- “The captivating and progressively unfolding storyline, coupled with its highly addictive gameplay, makes it a game that I cannot recommend highly enough.”
- “This tower defense game has a good story with many options and strategy for you to take with upgrades that can be changed around to fit the map or play style.”
- “The story is surprisingly good too.”
- “The only point I'll raise as a 'buyer beware' is that it has a 'story' in the sense that you get a few explanations of what's happening.”
- “This game has a relatively bare-bones cryptic story, and it doesn't really matter that much in the grand scheme of things.”
- “The story is about as throwaway as it gets.”
graphics
237 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
30%
59%
11%
The graphics of "Gemcraft: Chasing Shadows" are generally described as outdated and simplistic, reflecting its origins as a Flash game. While some players appreciate the nostalgic charm and functional design, others find the visuals lacking in polish and detail. Despite the graphical shortcomings, many reviewers emphasize that the game's depth, mechanics, and overall gameplay experience more than compensate for its visual limitations.
- “The artwork is beautifully crafted, and the atmospheric soundtrack enhances the overall experience, immersing you in the magical world of gem crafting.”
- “The vibrant and detailed graphics create a visually engaging world, and the animations and effects are smooth and satisfying.”
- “Gemcraft - chasing shadows offers many graphical improvements over the previous installations while maintaining and expanding on its non-linear overworld progression map.”
- “Graphics didn't age well.”
- “The graphics are really poor; flash is still flash, and you'll have heard your fill of sound effects and music in the first few hours easily, but what it does do, it does too well to dock it too much for that.”
- “I couldn't get over the uninspiring graphics, which look decades out of date.”
replayability
160 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
43%
56%
2%
The game boasts exceptional replayability, enhanced by features such as talismans, multiple difficulty levels, and various game modes, including endurance mode. Players appreciate the vast amount of content, including numerous maps, skill trees, and customization options, which encourage repeated playthroughs and strategic experimentation. Overall, the replay value is described as immense, with many users noting that the game remains engaging long after the initial playthrough.
- “Whether you’re a seasoned player or new to the genre, this game will keep you hooked with its innovative mechanics and replayability.”
- “With a robust skill tree and tons of content to explore, it offers plenty of replayability.”
- “The sheer replayability, challenge modes, and overall variety of gem combinations, the leveling system.”
- “The replayability is a bit shallow, but I'm nowhere near finished yet, so that's at the back of my mind for now.”
- “While the graphics leave something to be desired, the replayability and massive amount of customization possible make this game nothing short of addictive.”
- “Even when you have beaten almost 200 different fields, it still has replay value.”
grinding
141 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
2%
2%
96%
The reviews indicate that grinding is a significant aspect of the game, with many players finding it both enjoyable and tedious at different points. While some appreciate the depth and replayability that grinding offers, others feel it can become monotonous and detract from the overall experience, especially in the late game. Overall, the game caters to those who enjoy grinding for progression, but it may not appeal to players who prefer a more strategic or less repetitive gameplay experience.
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “It can be a bit grindy sometimes.”
- “Since you only gain XP over what you did previously on repeat runs, grinding isn't really grinding; it's raising the bar for a second run.”
- “Starts off well, but becomes increasingly grindy and less fun over time.”
- “It stops becoming a game and becomes a chore; don't get lured into grinding for end game content like I did.”
- “The whole justification becomes circular, and in the never-ending loop of grinding for more stuff in order to get better at grinding, I just don't feel like I am getting anything out of the experience.”
music
76 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
39%
57%
4%
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with many players appreciating its atmospheric and immersive qualities that enhance the overall experience. While some find the soundtrack fitting and evocative, others feel it lacks variety and can be dull, often preferring to listen to their own music while playing. Overall, the sound design is generally praised for complementing the game's themes, though opinions on its memorability and engagement vary.
- “The artwork is beautifully crafted, and the atmospheric soundtrack enhances the overall experience, immersing you in the magical world of gem crafting.”
- “The sound design, including the atmospheric soundtrack and sound effects, adds to the immersive experience, drawing players into the world of gemcraft.”
- “The music is simple and incredibly atmospheric, and although the graphics clearly weren't a major feature in the game's creation, they definitely create the perfect aesthetic.”
- “Music sucks though, I listen to other tower defense OSTs while playing.”
- “Turn off the music, turn down the sound, set the speed to max, and put on a podcast or a long video on YouTube and have at it.”
- “Compared to the other games I've covered, this one has a more solitary feel to it; there's no real music, and not too many sound effects, so if you want a game to chill out with while you're listening to something, you won't be missing out on much.”
atmosphere
33 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
73%
18%
9%
The atmosphere of the game is widely praised for its beautifully crafted artwork and immersive soundtrack, which together create a magical and sometimes eerie experience. While the graphics may be dated, the sound design and overall aesthetic contribute to a dark, moody ambiance that enhances gameplay, drawing players into its unique world. However, some players find the oppressive atmosphere can become uncomfortable during extended play sessions.
- “The artwork is beautifully crafted, and the atmospheric soundtrack enhances the overall experience, immersing you in the magical world of gem crafting.”
- “The sound design, including the atmospheric soundtrack and sound effects, adds to the immersive experience, drawing players into the world of Gemcraft.”
- “It provides the game with a creepy or unsettling atmosphere.”
- “Overall atmosphere feels somewhat oppressive and uncomfortable, making it unpleasant to play the game for long stretches.”
- “Quickly, you are enveloped in a minimalistic but eerie and mystical atmosphere.”
optimization
32 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
13%
63%
25%
The game's optimization has received mixed reviews, with many players noting significant performance issues, especially during late-game scenarios with numerous enemies on screen, leading to lag and low frame rates. While some users appreciate the improvements over the original flash version and the availability of performance settings, others find the optimization lacking, making certain playstyles nearly unplayable. Overall, while the game runs well for many, it struggles under heavy load, indicating a need for further optimization.
- “With the challenge bumped up high, it's easy to become lost in the optimization puzzle that comes from setting up your little pieces and evaluating how well they protect your precious orb.”
- “If you played the previous Gemcraft games, this one has been optimized to make things far easier to play quickly.”
- “There are a lot of options to improve performance in the menu, including a setting to automatically reduce graphic settings temporarily when the framerate drops.”
- “This game has so bad performance, I get like <15 fps, not playable and not worth any €.”
- “This wouldn't be so bad if performance didn't drop like a rock once you max out all waves and constantly have a couple of thousand monsters on screen at once.”
- “However, if you take it 'to the next level' [i.e. enraging lots of waves, manafarming, slowing-gems etc] it becomes nearly unplayable because of performance.”
monetization
15 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
47%
33%
The monetization model of the game is highly praised, with users noting the absence of microtransactions and ads in the Steam version, which offers a complete experience for a one-time purchase. While the game can be played for free on the developer's website with ads, many recommend buying it to support the developer and enjoy the full content without interruptions. Overall, the game is celebrated for its commitment to providing a rich experience without the typical monetization pitfalls.
- “No gimmicks, no microtransactions, no ads, just an incredibly rich game which knows its roots and succeeds in expanding the formula to its highest potential.”
- “Not terribly grindy and has 0 microtransactions.”
- “Here, once for all, you got all features, no microtransactions, more stuff to do, not a free-to-play version with all the crap we know.”
- “In-game purchases will drain your wallet.”
- “If memory serves me correctly, the first flash release of this game had some weird microtransactions in place, which sort of put me off from playing it.”
- “Unlike the ArmorGames version, you get all the content in the game, without having to deal with pesky in-game purchases.”
humor
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is characterized by its absurdity and dark comedic elements, such as building "hilarious towers" and facing "brutal waves" of enemies. Players appreciate the game's ability to allow for outrageous, game-breaking strategies, while the balancing issues add an unexpected layer of comedy. Overall, the humor is rooted in the chaotic gameplay and clever mechanics rather than traditional cartoonish visuals.
- “Build hilarious towers, survive brutal waves, and maybe even rediscover your inner child (the homicidal one).”
- “Biggest pro: lets you get away with hilarious game-breaking combos if you're smart enough and try a lot of things.”
- “Funny twist is that your wizard core can 'banish' monsters reaching it in exchange for some of your mana burning up, if you have enough of it (and there are ways to decrease banishment cost).”
stability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The stability of the freeze spell is praised for its versatility and instant deployability, allowing players to effectively freeze enemies in various situations. This feature enhances gameplay by providing a reliable and powerful tool for crowd control.
character development
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
300%
Reviewers highlight the diverse options available for character development and map management, allowing players to tailor their gameplay experience in unique ways.
- “There is plenty of variety in how you approach character development and map management.”
- “The character arcs are incredibly well-written, making each decision feel impactful.”
- “I love how the game allows for deep customization, letting you shape your character's personality and skills.”
- “The character development feels shallow and lacks meaningful choices.”
- “I was disappointed by the lack of depth in the character arcs; they felt one-dimensional.”
- “Despite the potential for growth, the characters remain static and uninteresting throughout the game.”