Gemcraft series (PC)
Mar. 10th, 2021 04:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroI just finished Gemcraft: Labyrinth, using a downloadable Flash player. It’s more primitive than either of the Steam offerings in the series, but features a similar selection of upgradable gems, marching monsters, and varied fields. If you’re new to the series, I’d push you towards the later offerings. But let me clarify that:
There are five games in the Gemcraft series, though the order of production, storyline and quality is rather unclear. The first three games were Gemcraft: Chapter 1, Gemcraft: Chapter 0 and Gemcraft: Labyrinth; they’re all Flash games that are available for download at the Armor Games website. Of them, Labyrinth is the only one that’s really playable by modern standards. Then Gemcraft: Chasing Shadows and Gemcraft: Frostborn Wrath are both on Steam; and while I’d make an argument that there are some notable improvements in GC:FW, both are solid games.
Plot-wise it’s a bit more convoluted. In Gemcraft: Chapter 0, a group of foolish wizards summon The Forgotten with a botched summoning ritual. She can’t be sent back, so the Gem of Eternity is used to temporarily seal her away. Generations later, the wizard in Gemcraft: Chapter 1 battles his way to the newly-released Forgotten, but gets possessed by her. At the same time, in Gemcraft: Labyrinth, a different wizard is sent through a series of trials to forge a new Gem of Eternity. (Only one real gem can exist at a time; making a new one de-powers the existing one, so the Labyrinth only opens when the Forgotten breaks free.) Gemcraft: Chasing Shadows picks up with the same wizard from Chapter 1, having just used an artifact called the Scythe Gate to free himself from the Forgotten. He finds the corpse of the Labyrinth wizard and retrieves the Gem of Eternity, but instead of sealing the Forgotten, he’s tricked into granting her entry into the Spiritforge. Gemcraft: Frostborn Wrath is another side-story, this time featuring a wizard sealed by corrupted wizards of Chapter 0 recently being freed from his prison and finding his own way to the Spiritforge at roughly the same time as Chasing Shadows. So at the “present” time, the Forgotten and two wizards, one with the Gem of Eternity, are in the Spiritforge.
This is the sort of series, mind you, that I don’t think will ever pay off its plot or any of its mysteries. There was something like six years between the release of Chasing Shadows and Frostborn Wrath. But it’s fun to imagine that there will eventually be a “Chapter 3” that takes place inside a vast Spiritforge with some new rules, and then a surprising twist on the nature of the Forgotten or something.
Overall: I like this series’ approach to tower defense gameplay and I’ll definitely buy any other offerings they make.
There are five games in the Gemcraft series, though the order of production, storyline and quality is rather unclear. The first three games were Gemcraft: Chapter 1, Gemcraft: Chapter 0 and Gemcraft: Labyrinth; they’re all Flash games that are available for download at the Armor Games website. Of them, Labyrinth is the only one that’s really playable by modern standards. Then Gemcraft: Chasing Shadows and Gemcraft: Frostborn Wrath are both on Steam; and while I’d make an argument that there are some notable improvements in GC:FW, both are solid games.
Plot-wise it’s a bit more convoluted. In Gemcraft: Chapter 0, a group of foolish wizards summon The Forgotten with a botched summoning ritual. She can’t be sent back, so the Gem of Eternity is used to temporarily seal her away. Generations later, the wizard in Gemcraft: Chapter 1 battles his way to the newly-released Forgotten, but gets possessed by her. At the same time, in Gemcraft: Labyrinth, a different wizard is sent through a series of trials to forge a new Gem of Eternity. (Only one real gem can exist at a time; making a new one de-powers the existing one, so the Labyrinth only opens when the Forgotten breaks free.) Gemcraft: Chasing Shadows picks up with the same wizard from Chapter 1, having just used an artifact called the Scythe Gate to free himself from the Forgotten. He finds the corpse of the Labyrinth wizard and retrieves the Gem of Eternity, but instead of sealing the Forgotten, he’s tricked into granting her entry into the Spiritforge. Gemcraft: Frostborn Wrath is another side-story, this time featuring a wizard sealed by corrupted wizards of Chapter 0 recently being freed from his prison and finding his own way to the Spiritforge at roughly the same time as Chasing Shadows. So at the “present” time, the Forgotten and two wizards, one with the Gem of Eternity, are in the Spiritforge.
This is the sort of series, mind you, that I don’t think will ever pay off its plot or any of its mysteries. There was something like six years between the release of Chasing Shadows and Frostborn Wrath. But it’s fun to imagine that there will eventually be a “Chapter 3” that takes place inside a vast Spiritforge with some new rules, and then a surprising twist on the nature of the Forgotten or something.
Overall: I like this series’ approach to tower defense gameplay and I’ll definitely buy any other offerings they make.
