GemCraft

I played a new game today. GemCraft, hosted on Kongregate.

 This is the title screen! How cool does it look? Seriously. There are little black birds flying through the morose, cloudy sky... This is pretty impressive.

And this is the company that created it. Game in a Bottle. Cool name, I guess.

So. You go to the title screen, hit "New Game". Up comes a story about dueling wizards. You, of course, are the good guy, fighting against the bad guy. And then you are taken to the map screen.

From which you can choose a level. There is also a bank of menu options at the top. You can upgrade your magic skills:

On that screen. Obviously I'm not all that far into the game, so I don't have many skills. But they're easy to upgrade on each level. It's an interesting system. The higher the level of upgrade, the more skill points it takes to upgrade.

Another thing in that bank of menus is "Save Game". I love that Flash games have progressed to the point that Save features come in handy. :) I took a picture of that screen, too.

8 different save slots. It blows my mind. But I'll fly into a rant if I let my mind go that path any further. So we'll move on.

Once you select a level, you go onto the map of that level. I have conveniently placed numbers in strategic places on this picture of a level so that I can explain it all to you.

1. Wave Bar. This tells you which wave you're on. You can preview waves to come, and even speed them up. If you click on the next wave coming, it speeds the whole bar up until that wave hits. It comes in handy.
2. House/Tower/Brush Pile/Rock. This is where the monsters come from. 
3. A tower. These are placed to hold gems, which shoot at the monsters.
4. Hut. This is what you need to protect. Don't let the monsters touch it!
5. Creation Center. From here, you can throw a gem bomb, create a tower, activate the mana pool, build a water trench, create a gem, or combine gems. This is a very nice set up for a tower defense game.
6. Gem Holding Area. This is where the gems you have created are held until you combine them with other gems or place them in a tower.
7. Mana Bar. This shows you how much mana you have. It takes mana to create gems, towers, and trenches; combine gems; and to activate "Mana Pool". The more mana you have, the better.

The gameplay is like every other tower defense game. But where other games let you automatically upgrade with money or whatever you get when you kill monsters, this game makes you combine gems with other gems. This changes their shape, sometimes their color, and upgrades everything. An odd system, actually. One that takes some getting used to. But once you do get used to it, it's pretty impressive.

Alright. So, #4 is what we're trying to protect, right? And you know how usually you can let one guy slip passed and you just lose a life or something? Not in GemCraft. If you let even one monster slip passed your defenses...

Your game is over. You have to start the level over.That part stinks. If each level had a few lives, even 3, this game would be better.

All in all, it was a good game. I liked playing it, save one stinking level I couldn't get passed. >:( But some things could have been improved.

I rate this game:

THREE OUT OF FIVE CAMECUBE CONTROLLERS!

It's difficult, but fun. It lasts a long time, but it isn't too complicated. The graphics in-game could be better.

Other Games I Tried Recently:

Kick Out Beiber: 

A launch game in which you smack Justin Beiber. 

Power-ups, violence, blood, and guns. Too violent for my tastes.

Anti-Idle the Game:

It's a simple concept, but extremely addicting. Many different upgrades, and achievements.

It's a blast to play, but graphics could be better. It's a really good one. Try it out. :)