First off, before giving my review, I would like to thank one of my friends, Gatebase immensely for letting me know about this game. If it weren't for them, this game would have gone unplayed for many more years to come.

GemCraft: Chasing Shadows is the first entry of this series that I ever played, and boy was I not disappointed. Almost everything about the game was absolutely amazing and it was an absolute blast to play. CS (GemCraft: Chasing Shadows for short) is a tower defense game that isn't stupidly overcomplicated with lots of micromanagement and little changes and other gimmicks that this genre of games usually has; instead, it is completely straightforward (to a point), and there are no gimmicks that make life a living hell, like teleportation points that warp things from one place to another. It is a pure tower defense game with a relatively low skill ceiling for getting into the game, and isn't too hard to figure out the best strategies if you are willing to do a little trial and error to figure out the best combinations.

Gameplay: In addition to the above points, the gameplay of this game is absolutely flawless. It can get a little repetitive in end-game or near end-game, when you're grinding out the last couple of hundred wizard levels for the last WL achievement. That said, I still had an absolute blast grinding out those last few hundred WLs and also had a fun time gathering a lot of core fragments and talisman shards. There is no lack of unique gameplay, either. This will be explained in the next segment. As you progress through the maps, unlocking more skills and spells, you will also come across numerous new gameplay elements that each have their own challenge. Whether it be Shadows, Corrupted monsters, Tombs, and Monster Nests, each new thing introduced adds a lot more depth to the game and makes it almost never too dull. The only downside is that when you get to a particular point in the game when you are farming WLs and you get really, really far into an Endurance level, the game will get very sluggish until you clear a lot of the things on the screen. That's the only downside to the gameplay. As you progress, you'll also gain skill points, which can be spent in one of 25 different skills, all of which provide different bonuses.

Content: This game has so much content that it isn't even funny. Not only are there 167 maps for you to complete, there are also 23 vision fields, which are trials that you must complete under certain conditions in order to beat them. If that was not enough, there are three different difficulty levels, and there are also mods that you can add onto a level to make it more challenging, but also provide more rewards. There is also an "Iron Wizard" mode that works completely differently than the main game in that the only way to earn skill points is to beat fields. Each field beaten in Iron Wizard Mode will give you a certain amount of skill points and that's all the skill points you'll get, making for a much harder and more strategic game in the long run. As of writing this review, only ~1% of the players who have played this game have gotten the Iron Wizard Mode achivement, which is gained by beating the final boss on Iron Wizard Mode. In all, expect to take up to ~100 hours to simply complete the game and upwards of 300 or more hours to 100% this game.

Story: This game has a relatively bare-bones cryptic story, and it doesn't really matter that much in the grand scheme of things. It just eludes to certain things that have happened in previous installments of the game and what might show up in the future, as well as hints to the final boss. This is the type of game that doesn't really need that much of a story to really make it a better experience.

Graphics: This game runs on Flash, which makes the graphics look kind of outdated, but to me, it just makes the game look and feel more nostalgic and rustic. I enjoy the graphics just the way they are.

Cons:

1. Graphics are a bit outdated, but if you don't mind the rustic look, they aren't that bad.
2. Iron Wizard Mode is a bit too difficult for most people. I would have liked it if they made it slightly easier, but it's still fine the way it is.
3. Game is made in Flash, which makes for a very sluggish time when you have a lot of entities on the screen. This, in turn, artificially increases the amount of time that you play a map for.
4. Game can eventually get extremely grindy when you hit end-game, which may not be for everyone.
5. There are some hidden achievements that you have to do certain things in order to figure out. There are three achievements tied to the compasses in game, which I had to look up a guide for, and there is also the achievement "Grey Trees", which I also had to look up a guide for. I could not find any hints towards these in game at all.

Conclusion: This game is by far one of the best tower defense games I have ever played in my life. Almost everything is done to perfection in this game and there is enough variety to make you want to keep coming back over and over again. At the full retail price of $9.99, this game is easily worth the money, as you'll get ~10 hours per dollar spent if you just complete the game, or ~30 or more hours per dollar spent if you go for 100%. I cannot recommend this game enough!

First off, before giving my review, I would like to thank one of my friends, Gatebase immensely for letting me know about this game. If it weren't for them, this game would have gone unplayed for many more years to come. GemCraft: Chasing Shadows is the first entry of this series that I ever played, and boy was I not disappointed. Almost everything about the game was absolutely amazing and it was an absolute blast to play. CS (GemCraft: Chasing Shadows for short) is a tower defense game that isn't stupidly overcomplicated with lots of micromanagement and little changes and other gimmicks that this genre of games usually has; instead, it is completely straightforward (to a point), and there are no gimmicks that make life a living hell, like teleportation points that warp things from one place to another. It is a pure tower defense game with a relatively low skill ceiling for getting into the game, and isn't too hard to figure out the best strategies if you are willing to do a little trial and error to figure out the best combinations. [b]Gameplay[/b]: In addition to the above points, the gameplay of this game is absolutely flawless. It can get a little repetitive in end-game or near end-game, when you're grinding out the last couple of hundred wizard levels for the last WL achievement. That said, I still had an absolute blast grinding out those last few hundred WLs and also had a fun time gathering a lot of core fragments and talisman shards. There is no lack of unique gameplay, either. This will be explained in the next segment. As you progress through the maps, unlocking more skills and spells, you will also come across numerous new gameplay elements that each have their own challenge. Whether it be Shadows, Corrupted monsters, Tombs, and Monster Nests, each new thing introduced adds a lot more depth to the game and makes it almost never too dull. The only downside is that when you get to a particular point in the game when you are farming WLs and you get really, really far into an Endurance level, the game will get very sluggish until you clear a lot of the things on the screen. That's the only downside to the gameplay. As you progress, you'll also gain skill points, which can be spent in one of 25 different skills, all of which provide different bonuses. [b]Content:[/b] This game has [b][i]so much[/i][/b] content that it isn't even funny. Not only are there 167 maps for you to complete, there are also 23 vision fields, which are trials that you must complete under certain conditions in order to beat them. If that was not enough, there are three different difficulty levels, and there are also mods that you can add onto a level to make it more challenging, but also provide more rewards. There is also an "Iron Wizard" mode that works completely differently than the main game in that the only way to earn skill points is to beat fields. Each field beaten in Iron Wizard Mode will give you a certain amount of skill points and that's all the skill points you'll get, making for a much harder and more strategic game in the long run. As of writing this review, only ~1% of the players who have played this game have gotten the Iron Wizard Mode achivement, which is gained by beating the final boss on Iron Wizard Mode. In all, expect to take up to ~100 hours to simply complete the game and upwards of 300 or more hours to 100% this game. [b]Story:[/b] This game has a relatively bare-bones cryptic story, and it doesn't really matter that much in the grand scheme of things. It just eludes to certain things that have happened in previous installments of the game and what might show up in the future, as well as hints to the final boss. This is the type of game that doesn't really need that much of a story to really make it a better experience. [b]Graphics:[/b] This game runs on Flash, which makes the graphics look kind of outdated, but to me, it just makes the game look and feel more nostalgic and rustic. I enjoy the graphics just the way they are. [b]Cons:[/b] 1. Graphics are a bit outdated, but if you don't mind the rustic look, they aren't that bad. 2. Iron Wizard Mode is a bit too difficult for most people. I would have liked it if they made it [i]slightly[/i] easier, but it's still fine the way it is. 3. Game is made in Flash, which makes for a very sluggish time when you have a lot of entities on the screen. This, in turn, artificially increases the amount of time that you play a map for. 4. Game can eventually get extremely grindy when you hit end-game, which may not be for everyone. 5. There are some hidden achievements that you have to do certain things in order to figure out. There are three achievements tied to the compasses in game, which I had to look up a guide for, and there is also the achievement "Grey Trees", which I also had to look up a guide for. I could not find any hints towards these in game at all. [b]Conclusion:[/b] This game is by far one of the best tower defense games I have ever played in my life. Almost everything is done to perfection in this game and there is enough variety to make you want to keep coming back over and over again. At the full retail price of $9.99, this game is easily worth the money, as you'll get ~10 hours per dollar spent if you just complete the game, or ~30 or more hours per dollar spent if you go for 100%. I cannot recommend this game enough!