Archilbald Pennypincher is a man who understands the value of a dollar. He has decided to go to great lengths to scour the internet in search of the greatest free games available. So here is the first installment, enjoy.
GemCraft - (Armor Games) Created by Gameinabottle
Gemcraft is one of those examples of free flash entertainment that rival if not surpass some of what is available upon other formats.(XNA,XBLA,PSN) Gemcraft is a tower defense game where it is your charge to stop waves of incoming monsters from destroying a hapless village. But lets not be too reductive; where this title really shines is in its mechanics.
As a Gem wizard(might be the nerdyist thing to say aloud) you must place towers in the allowed sections of the path and then fill them with gems to attack. Each color of gem has a passive status effect such as poison or splash damage. Unlike some of its cousins in the genera such as Desktop Tower Defense, or Protector; Gemcraft allows you to move your attack nodes ala gems to another tower in real time. You can also destroy a gem by turning it into a gem bomb for a burst of damage. These mechanics coupled with the ability to combine gems to create a stronger gem with attributes of its parents allows for a surprising amount of depth.
To make this game even more interesting is its RPG elements. Your wizard levels up after scoring so many cumulative points. These levels award points to allocate to the game’s tech tree. While the tech tree is a bit on the shallow end of customization, it does allow for some interesting configurations especially during the mid game when points are more limited but skills are not.
The guys over at gameinabottle.com have a very good thing going for them, and I believe have the ability to revolutionize the tower defense genera. But, its not as if this title is without faults, chief among them being an uneven difficulty. The first epic level for example is by far the hardest level in the entire game, and I could see becoming a big hurtle for people who do not fully understand the leveling structure at that point. This coupled by the last ability in the tech tree being a bit overpowered, causing the later levels to become unnecessarily easy. My only other serious criticism is in the bonus points gained at the end of a level. More specifically the shear amount of gem bombs and combination you have to complete to achieve a gold award. Why I criticize this is because if found myself, mostly in the mid game, just creating a metric shitton of level one gems and needlessly carpet bombing everything in sight.
All and all though, Gemcraft is truly a gem of the flash community.(Oh, man I had to use that one)
1up Style score: A-
IGN Style score: 8.9
Gemcraft is available at Konngregate, Armor Games, or Gameinabottle.
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2 comments:
Gemcraft is an excellent selection, perhaps the penultimate selection, for why flash games should stop being dismissed as work-time diversions.
Though I personally hate the the tower defense formula, I think its less than engaging for myriad reasons, (the passivity of attacking enemies, and the complete lack of narrative in the face of the fact that all tower defense games try to establish one) I have to say this game has some substantial merit.
Living with you, I watched it suck away hours of you life in a way that Resistance: Fall of Man did not.
In a way that Metal Gear Solid 4 didn't.
That isn't to say that length of play defines the quality of a game (nor do I think Gemcraft is superior to either of the preceding titles), just that if, by watching you siphon hours off other gameplay opportunities into Gemcraft, you assume flash games are a fleeting diversion, you are gravely mistaken.
Flash games finally have the capacity to be ongoing game experiences. If Xenogears or Virtua Fighter merit hours of play, there's Gemcraft. If Penny Arcade: OTRSPOD is a legit RPG, then Sonny is too. If you want to master Tony Hawk, you could also spend your time mastering Dolphin Olympics 2.
I don't think people are paying attention to games like Shift, Gemcraft, Sonny, Dolphin Olympic 2, and Pandemic 2. That's a real tragedy. These games are games I would pay some amount of money for (Dolphin Olympics and Pandemic, $5; Gemcraft, $8; and games like Sonny or Shift I'd pay $10)
It's sad that the only review of a flash game I've seen is yours.
But cheers to you for doing it!
To bring it back to the start, Gemcraft is a game that you COULDN'T squeeze into a work-time schedule. You have to want to take time out of your day to play it.
First, I find it interesting that you feel that the tower defense genera needs some type of narrative to make it appealing. Do you really feel that your experience would be more enriching if you were given some trivial motive for why monsters streaming out of some dingy hole in the ground need to be purged before they eat a village of helpless serfs? I beg to differ.
I also disagree that you would pay (at least the amounts you mentioned) for those titles. My rational behind this? You played them, then decided they were worth your money. Can you honestly say that before playing "Dolphin Olympics," if asked, you would have shelled out 5 American dollars? I find it doubtful. Hindsight is 20/20 they say.
But, once again thank you very much for your comment. Though don't worry there will be more to come from Lord Archibald Pennypincher in the upcoming months, so stay tuned.
Oh, and Penultimate means second to last not the most ultimate.
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