Insufficient Funds is a weekly article in which we feature a free, or very close to it, piece of media that you can enjoy without overdrafting your bank account.In case you didn't know, tower defense games are a genre in which you set up a gauntlet for a stream of enemies to try to run through. If they fail, you win. If they succeed, you lose. Fairly self explanatory.
One of these games that I've gotten the hopelessly addicted to at times is GemCraft. I haven't played a ton of different tower defense games, so I couldn't tell you much about what GemCraft does that's unique. But I can explain the basics of the game.
While most tower defense games have a slew of different types of defenses for you to put up, GemCraft essentially focuses only on towers with different gems in them. But that's where your variation is.
Some gems are stronger then others, and some cause status effects like poison or slowing the enemy down. Then there are different levels of gems. You can save up your mana to get a high level one right away, or you can combine lower level gems together to upgrade them.
Beyond the towers, there are traps that you can lay. These are places to place gems on the actual path that the monsters will run. A trap will magnify the status effect of a gem placed in it, so I'm fond of placing poison causing gems in them. You can also use any of your spare gems as a bomb to drop on any stray monsters, as well as a sacrifice in a shrine to cause a stream of bolts to thin out a mass of enemies.
The new version of the game also added some new modes to help keep things fresh. So far I have unlocked Endurance Mode (self-explanatory), Heroic Mode (an increase of enemies), and Sudden Death Mode (if an enemy makes it to your tower you lose, normally you'd just take a hit to your mana).
When I say so far I've unlocked, don't think I haven't sunk hours upon hours into the game. This game is LONG. In order to move on, you might have to grind a lot of levels. Ultimately that doesn't matter to me though, because when I play it I am doing so because I have nothing better to do.
Essentially that's all GemCraft is to me, a time sink. There is a thrill to it when you complete a level, but it can take a lot of frustrating losses and a long time of grinding to get there. Still, like my mother-in-law sits there playing Solitaire over and over, GemCraft is my time killer. And it's addicting enough that I keep returning to it all the time.
You can find the game on Kongregate, or at Armor Games website.
One of these games that I've gotten the hopelessly addicted to at times is GemCraft. I haven't played a ton of different tower defense games, so I couldn't tell you much about what GemCraft does that's unique. But I can explain the basics of the game.
While most tower defense games have a slew of different types of defenses for you to put up, GemCraft essentially focuses only on towers with different gems in them. But that's where your variation is.
Some gems are stronger then others, and some cause status effects like poison or slowing the enemy down. Then there are different levels of gems. You can save up your mana to get a high level one right away, or you can combine lower level gems together to upgrade them.
Beyond the towers, there are traps that you can lay. These are places to place gems on the actual path that the monsters will run. A trap will magnify the status effect of a gem placed in it, so I'm fond of placing poison causing gems in them. You can also use any of your spare gems as a bomb to drop on any stray monsters, as well as a sacrifice in a shrine to cause a stream of bolts to thin out a mass of enemies.
The new version of the game also added some new modes to help keep things fresh. So far I have unlocked Endurance Mode (self-explanatory), Heroic Mode (an increase of enemies), and Sudden Death Mode (if an enemy makes it to your tower you lose, normally you'd just take a hit to your mana).
When I say so far I've unlocked, don't think I haven't sunk hours upon hours into the game. This game is LONG. In order to move on, you might have to grind a lot of levels. Ultimately that doesn't matter to me though, because when I play it I am doing so because I have nothing better to do.
Essentially that's all GemCraft is to me, a time sink. There is a thrill to it when you complete a level, but it can take a lot of frustrating losses and a long time of grinding to get there. Still, like my mother-in-law sits there playing Solitaire over and over, GemCraft is my time killer. And it's addicting enough that I keep returning to it all the time.
You can find the game on Kongregate, or at Armor Games website.
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