Gems of War

About Gems of War

Gems of War is a single player and multiplayer tactical role playing game with a fantasy theme. It was developed by huf0001 and was released on November 20, 2014. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

From the creators of Puzzle Quest, play the new Puzzle/RPG/Strategy mash-up, GEMS OF WAR! Match gems to power your spells, and match skulls to smite your enemies! It’s easy to learn yet has tons of depth.

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Reviews

76%Audience ScoreBased on 4,810 reviews

story193 positive mentions

grinding271 negative mentions

Extensive and addictive gameplay with a great blend of match-3 mechanics and RPG elements, including team building, spells, and strategic depth.
Generous content and updates over many years, including various game modes, guild systems, events, and cross-platform play.
Friendly community and supportive guilds, allowing progress without mandatory spending; free-to-play friendly with optional microtransactions.

Heavy grind and slow progression especially for free players, with some content and upgrades gated behind extensive resource farming or microtransactions.
Predatory monetization with frequent intrusive offers and pay-to-win aspects becoming more prominent, leading to frustration and paywalls.
AI often perceived as cheating with unfair gem drops and extra turns, and game balancing issues making higher-level content extremely difficult without paying.

story
868 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
22% positive mentions, 74% neutral mentions, 4% negative mentions
The story in Gems of War is presented through comic-book style vignettes with light, often humorous narratives tied to individual kingdoms, offering a simple but cozy fantasy setting reminiscent of Puzzle Quest. While some players appreciate its charm and connection to the classic Puzzle Quest formula, many find the overall storyline basic, repetitive, and lacking depth or cohesion, often viewing it as a minor aspect compared to the gameplay. The narrative is generally skippable, serving more as flavor text than a driving force, with criticism focused on weak writing and limited character development.
- “My first match with Gems of War felt like rediscovering Puzzle Quest with a fresh coat of paint - matching gems to cast spells, skulls to strike enemies, and that satisfying "just one more turn" pull.”
- “There is a massive single-player campaign with a total of 34 kingdoms, each with their own storyline of approximately 25 quests on average, several tiers of challenges, exploration mode, and specialization questlines to unlock new classes.”
- “The quest-driven story missions are a lot of fun, and each plot arc yields a cool new ally, so when you have leveled up on the challenge missions, you can use your powerful team to advance in the quest missions.”
- “The kingdom quests are critical for advancing in the game and they are dreadfully boring.”
- “Early story quests start out relatively easy but the difficulty quickly ramps up to the point where it becomes pretty much impossible to win unless you've spent ridiculous amounts of money to obtain the best cards and fully upgraded them.”
- “The story and missions are drab and it's clear the emphasis is on the pvp so they can sell you more chances to win a decent enough card/hero.”
gameplay
590 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29% positive mentions, 67% neutral mentions, 4% negative mentions
The gameplay of Gems of War is primarily a match-3 puzzle mechanic enriched with strategic RPG elements, including troop collection, skill trees, and deck-building, offering a deep and addictive experience with varied modes. While the core gameplay is fun, engaging, and accessible for casual and hardcore players alike, many reviewers note issues with heavy grinding, randomness, and pay-to-win elements that can disrupt balance and progression. Despite these criticisms, the game maintains strong enjoyment due to its strategic depth, frequent content updates, and satisfying puzzle mechanics.
- “The gameplay is addictive but also deep; there's plenty of different cards, classes, abilities, items, and strategies to test out that take match-3 and turn it up to 11.”
- “Gems of War mixes match-3 gameplay with RPG progression in a way that’s easy to pick up and satisfying to play.”
- “The main gameplay of Gems of War, the matching game-let, is simple and fun, with some extra rules, such as bonuses, element compatibilities, and the characters themselves, represented on cards with their own compatibilities as well as stats and special effects, to help make it more interesting and offer room for actual planning and execution.”
- “The gameplay loop quickly becomes repetitive and grinding for resources is tedious.”
- “The game is deep with mechanics and content, so there is always something to do. But the gameplay is incredibly frustrating, and all progress is behind a paywall or hundreds upon hundreds of hours of soul crushing grind.”
- “Content updates are slow, and there's a distinct lack of fresh gameplay, leading to an increasingly stale and unengaging experience.”
grinding
273 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
0% positive mentions, 1% neutral mentions, 99% negative mentions
Grinding in "Gems of War" is a prominent and often divisive aspect, with many players describing it as extensive, repetitive, and sometimes tedious, particularly when progressing to higher levels or acquiring powerful cards. While the game offers a variety of content to explore, free-to-play players face long hours of resource farming, and some progression barriers feel like paywalls unless willing to invest significant time or money. Despite this, the grind can be rewarding and engaging for fans of match-3 and strategy games who enjoy slow, consistent progression and community involvement.
- “It's not too grindy, and while there is a pay-to-win element, you can avoid it and do quite well playing completely for free.”
- “Acquiring the most powerful cards requires an incredibly long-term commitment to progression and farming.”
- “Gameplay devolves into hour upon hour of ultra-repetitive grinding with player ingenuity having very little, if any, impact.”
- “The grind is monotonous and neverending and if you want to play this game in the way it's supposed to be played, you will spend literally hours a day just grinding out stones, souls, and the all-important gold for upgrades and guild tasks.”
monetization
258 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
7% positive mentions, 59% neutral mentions, 34% negative mentions
The game's monetization is heavily laden with microtransactions, aggressive ads, and frequent pop-ups pushing in-app purchases, often frustrating players with slow progression and grindy mechanics designed to nudge spending. While some praise its generous free-to-play model allowing meaningful play without paying, many criticize the excessive cash grabs, overpriced items, and powercreep that detracts from enjoyment and can feel manipulative or predatory. Overall, the monetization system is a major point of contention, making the game feel like a mobile-style cash grab rather than a seamless gaming experience.
- “There is monetization, but it's probably the most generous of any mobile game I've played.”
- “The basic game design seems to have been created like this: 'what would happen if we took the success of Puzzle Quest, added microtransactions, and then focused the interface on touchscreen phones.' I just can't enjoy the game, and I've tried on both my Steam account and on my phone.”
- “Free to play, but for those who want a fast track, there are in-game purchases if you want them.”
- “At the risk of wearing a tin-foil hat, it feels like they're trying to juice up the rate of microtransactions by randomly deleting your resources to extend the grind, or make the whales dump more money to recover their lost resources.”
- “That can be incredibly frustrating and annoying even if you're just playing the game for free and not touching any microtransactions, but if you do get tempted to spend money on it, be aware that you might be flushing that money down the toilet. All the stuff you paid for will just suddenly disappear.”
- “What this game needs is a total rebalancing, a clear and cohesive aesthetics, proper rewards for playtime, reasonable prices for microtransactions and not $50 for some virtually worthless crap, more leniency toward people who have missed an event weapon as you'll find that you will definitely need some of those down the line and the only way to get them post event is via ridiculously overpriced microtransactions (despite the presence of a forge in the game) and not even every week, just a weapon or two a week.”
graphics
205 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
48% positive mentions, 44% neutral mentions, 8% negative mentions
The game's graphics feature a charming, colorful, and cartoon-inspired art style that many find visually appealing and well-suited for its match-3 RPG gameplay. While the artwork on cards and characters is often praised for its creativity and detail, recent updates have sparked mixed reactions due to UI changes that some users find cluttered, hard to read, or a downgrade from earlier designs. Overall, the graphics are functional and pleasant for casual play but may lack the polish or cohesion expected by some players.
- “The graphics are stunning, and the gameplay keeps me hooked for hours.”
- “The graphics are colorful and eye-catching, with detailed character designs and vivid environments.”
- “The graphics are superb, the story lines amusing, and the game play engrossing.”
- “Story's cheap, the graphics' cheap.”
- “After the July 2023 graphics update, it's practically unplayable for many users.”
- “The 3.2 graphics overhaul unfortunately is a horrible regression in graphics quality.”
music
86 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
35% positive mentions, 59% neutral mentions, 6% negative mentions
The music in the game receives mixed feedback, with praise for its pleasant, orchestral, and epic qualities that enhance the atmosphere, but criticism for being repetitive, generic, or mismatched with the game's style. Some players appreciate the ability to adjust or mute the volume, while others find the soundtrack intrusive or annoying during extended play. Overall, the soundtrack is well-produced but may not suit everyone's taste or the game's tone consistently.
- “The sound effects and music are well done, immersing players in the world of the game and adding to the overall enjoyment of the gaming experience.”
- “Really solid game, epic music and sounds.”
- “Wonderful quests, events and soothing music.”
- “Extremely unintuitive, settings menu doesn't exist so you're constantly blasted with max volume trash music.”
- “Standard match 3 game, which is just as boring as it sounds, but with the twist that grms power up fighters for an attack, which is interesting, but it's made unplayable by the repetitive, swelling, intense music that there doesn't seem to be any way to turn off.”
- “I am not sure how much is recycled and how much is new but take the music for example, it really tries to be an orchestral piece but it has no theme to it, it's like Lord of the Rings music playing while you are riding an elevator, it's nice on its own but it doesn't fit in and seems to not even be made for the game itself.”
humor
67 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
99% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 1% negative mentions
The game features a witty, pun-filled, and often corny humor style, with humorous storylines, funny character moments, and clever references that fans find charming and addictive. While the humor can be hit-or-miss and sometimes childish, it adds a lighthearted, enjoyable layer to the match-3 and RPG gameplay. Overall, the humor is praised for its quirky, tongue-in-cheek tone and engaging flavor text that enhances the game's appeal.
- “The game's storyline is full of puns, jokes, and absurd characters that will have you laughing out loud.”
- “Gems of war has a very tongue-in-cheek kind of humor, so if you are allergic to puns I advise against it.”
- “I found myself laughing at the silly descriptions of the enemies and the ridiculous character designs.”
replayability
25 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
36% positive mentions, 52% neutral mentions, 12% negative mentions
The game offers exceptionally high replayability due to its multiple modes, strategic depth, and continuous content additions like new troops and challenges. Its blend of match-3, RPG, and card-collecting elements provides endless variety and encourages experimentation with team compositions, while social and guild features further enhance long-term engagement. Overall, players find the game richly rewarding with infinite replay value and diverse gameplay experiences.
- “There are multiple modes and it has a depth of strategy and replayability that I've not found in any other match 3 of its kind.”
- “While it may not reinvent the wheel that its developers helped create with the wonderful Puzzle Quest, it takes the original formula and morphs it into an endlessly replayable, strategic, lite-RPG puzzler with CCG elements.”
- “Very intricate and in-depth, Gems of War just might have the most replay value of any game I've ever played, and that is no exaggeration.”
- “They are constantly adding troops which helps keep the game replayable so you can make new team comps. It's a little weak on some specifics and details and could use a nice wiki or tutorial help section; however, you will get it figured out plus there is always Google and others sharing knowledge.”
- “All these are less than $8 and offer you way more fun, decent dialogues, and the same amount of replayability.”
- “The emphasis on this game is replayability, not how it looks artistically.”
stability
24 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
17% positive mentions, 4% neutral mentions, 79% negative mentions
The game suffers from frequent bugs, glitches, and crashes, with many users experiencing broken AI behavior, buggy controls, and unstable updates that introduce new issues faster than they are resolved. While some players report good performance on lower-end hardware and occasional rapid bug fixes, overall stability is poor and negatively impacts the gameplay experience.
- “It runs great on my low-end integrated graphics laptop.”
- “No glitches or bugs whatsoever, ensuring a smooth gameplay experience.”
- “Playing it on both platforms, it runs great and looks sharp on both.”
- “And to top that off, for quite some time now the updates release buggy and take far too long to get things fixed or even acknowledged as broken.”
- “They keep introducing new buggy stuff, and hardly repair bugs that have lasted for years.”
- “If you enjoy frequent crashes at random points, cheating AI, buggy text, random in-game freezes requiring Ctrl+Alt+Delete just to close the game, and music that randomly turns off.”
emotional
13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
85% positive mentions, -8% neutral mentions, 23% negative mentions
The emotional reception is mixed, with many users expressing frustration over aggressive microtransactions and a pay-to-win system that diminishes enjoyment and trust. Some find the story boring and uninspired, leading to disengagement, while others appreciate the intuitive gameplay and balanced challenges that provide satisfying emotional rewards. Overall, the emotional experience heavily depends on players' tolerance for monetization and their investment in the game’s evolving content.
- “This frustration made me feel like the A.I.”
- “The rules were intuitive and playing delivered a great emotional satisfaction where for the most part, player skill would triumph over whatever else was happening.”
- “I invested in the game personally, emotionally, and financially.”
- “Very boring story with no introduction to characters.”
- “Long boring story with no real concept and not even original, just ripping off a few other games.”
- “Overall, you will be constantly pestered to pay real money for upgrades; just another cash grab.”
optimization
11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
27% positive mentions, 46% neutral mentions, 27% negative mentions
The game suffers from poor optimization, running inefficiently despite relatively simple graphics and causing high CPU usage. Although a recent engine overhaul to Unity has reportedly improved performance, many users still find the game sluggish and poorly optimized compared to other titles. This inefficiency detracts from the overall experience, especially when facing highly optimized meta teams.
- “They are really open with their players on the official forums, releasing at least one new troop every week on Monday, new kingdoms and game features every few months (guild wars came out in March, and weekly events buffing different troop types). Just this week, they released a massive engine overhaul (Adobe AIR to Unity), meaning drastically improved performance and new game features.”
- “In short, Gems of War, once you go beyond the core match-3 part, has a massive problem in optimization that is deliberately made unsolvably complex—unless you pick a particularly narrow definition of what you're considering "optimal."”
- “This is no high-end 3D graphic; it is some comic art which shouldn't clock the whole CPU power on a computer where games with far better graphics run smoothly.”
- “Game feels cheaply put together - like an unoptimized flash game from the early 2000's.”
- “I'm also finding that the game is poorly optimized.”
- “So, the most I can tell you is that, in my opinion, it's stunningly similar to Puzzle Quest with some nice gameplay changes, but is so poorly optimized that it's not worth bothering with.”
character development
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29% positive mentions, 28% neutral mentions, 43% negative mentions
Character development in Gems of War offers a mix of depth and uniqueness, with multiple progression models and skill-building systems enhancing gameplay over time. While it may lack the story complexity of genre leaders, its detailed, colorful character designs and evolving traits provide an enjoyable and engaging experience.
- “Character development and team development is deep along with guild interactions.”
- “However, the character development, skills (traits) building, and PvP all help the player characters in some different fashion -- the more I play, the deeper this game seems to get ... and the more I enjoy it.”
- “While Gems of War - Puzzle RPG offers an engaging blend of puzzle and RPG elements, it falls short in comparison to genre leaders like Puzzle Quest in terms of story complexity and character development.”
- “I found myself laughing at the silly descriptions of the enemies and the ridiculous character designs.”
- “There are four primary progression models: capturing empires in PvE; overall character level (there are hundreds of levels); primary character development, which ties back into capturing empires; and a weekly PvP level competition.”
atmosphere
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 75% negative mentions
Users feel that the game's atmosphere is greatly enhanced by immersive elements like voice acting and engaging music, contributing to a captivating and enjoyable experience. However, recent updates, particularly patch 3.2, have significantly altered the original fairytale-like ambiance into a darker, less appealing tone, diminishing the overall feel.
- “While it was fun and enjoyable for a long time, with happy colors, nice atmosphere and excellent music, the entire 'feel' of the game has slowly been stripped away.”
- “Implementing voice acting is essential to enhancing immersion and creating a more captivating atmosphere.”
- “But I do not recommend it because the 3.2 patch radically changed its fairytale atmosphere to a nightmarish, unreadable 'something'.”
- “Oh yeah - they are there... but they don't create a 'pay-to-win' atmosphere.”

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Play Times

94h Median play time

341h Average play time

20-300h Spent by most gamers

*Based on 53 analyzed playthroughs

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Frequently Asked Questions

Gems of War is a tactical role playing game with fantasy theme. Common tags for Gems of War include free to play, turn-based, indie, trading, 2d and others.

Gems of War is available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, iPhone, Windows and others.

On average players spend around 341 hours playing Gems of War.

Gems of War was released on November 20, 2014.

Gems of War was developed by huf0001.

Gems of War has received mostly positive reviews from players. Most players liked Gems of War for its story but disliked it for its grinding.

Gems of War is a single player game with multiplayer support.

Similar games include Gems of War - Match 3 RPG, MARVEL Puzzle Quest, Duelyst, Infinity Wars: Animated Trading Card Game, Legend of Solgard and others.

Gems of War

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About Gems of War

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Gems of War - Match 3 RPG

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Reviews

story

gameplay

grinding

monetization

graphics

music

humor

replayability

stability

emotional

optimization

character development

atmosphere

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Gems of War

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