Socket fragments you find into your mystical talisman to obtain new special bonuses.Ĭast devastating spells to decimate your foes or enhance your gems.Ĭontrol the speed of battle with fast-forward or pause to fit your play style.Įnrage the upcoming monster waves to make them more fierce but also give more experience points to level up further. Two dozen passive skills to unlock and enhance as you level up and increase your power. Repel the monster horde in more than 100 fields of battle with various conditions and challenges.Ĭraft and combine six types of gems with different effects to shape your defense strategy or make quick tactical decisions in the heat of the battle. GemCraft - Frostborn Wrath is the fifth chapter in the series, a new puzzle piece in a branching epic story arch. Level up, unlock skills, and replay levels with battle traits to level up even more and eventually become a wizard of immeasurable power. GemCraft is a dark fantasy, fast-paced, real-time strategy, tower defense game where you can create and combine gems of various properties, combine and upgrade them, construct buildings to house your gems for even more diverse uses, and cast spells to further enhance your gems or strike at the enemy. Can you stand your ground against the growing darkness?
The Forgotten is already on her way there, gathering a demonic army and getting stronger than ever. Repel the waves of monster horde attacks, and face sinister enemies as you fight your way back towards the Spiritforge. Reclaim your knowledge of wizardry, create versatile gems, and place them into various buildings to turn them into deadly weapons. You have finally broken free from your frozen prison, and while your body is still numb of cold, there is no time to lose.
So while Balloon Invasion probably won't keep me playing as long as GemCraft Chapter Zero did, its different gameplay mechanic makes it novel and will keep it interesting for a little while at least.The epic tower defense journey continues with GemCraft - Frostborn Wrath. The balloons somehow magically appear on the left again after going off the screen on the right, but I can forgive this minor unrealistic aspect. Yes, it hurts you if they drop a bomb on your main gun, but not all of them do (if you have other guns out, they will often drop bombs on the other guns first, and balloons have a limited number of bombs). This is the other main difference between Balloon Invasion and GemCraft (and most tower-defense games): it doesn't hurt you if the balloons make it to the other side of the screen. Your other guns usually get destroyed throughout the battle, but you only lose if your main gun gets destroyed. To keep up the excitement and to help you out, you can also place other guns (which come in different types and which fire automatically) and call air strikes. The key difference here is that you are constantly actively firing, making this game feel much more real-time than GemCraft, where you place towers and gems and then just sit back and let them shoot automatically. And exactly where you aim is important, as the flak shells need to explode at a certain point in space (so they're not like bullets or lasers, where anywhere along the trajectory is equally good).
You need to aim your flak gun at the balloons, leading them the appropriate amount. Balloons of different shapes, sizes, and speeds come floating from the left to the right. You are presented a side view, with your main flak gun at the lower right of the screen. The levels are what make this a completely different game. So, you still have a side-scrolling map, levels you have to unlock, skills to upgrade, etc., except that it's all themed for an artillery defense against an invasion of hot-air balloons and zeppelins dropping bombs. I found Balloon Invasion there.įor everything outside of the levels, Balloon Invasion uses the same engine as GemCraft Chapter One. I was so impressed with GemCraft Chapter Zero that I decided to check out the page of the creators, Game in a Bottle.