GemCraft - Chasing Shadows

A very mechanic-rich and content-heavy tower defence game, not much story or visuals for what its worth and the learning curve is a little wonky going from explaining everything to stretching out new lessons later into the campaign. I enjoyed it a lot but I had the constantly feeling I was doing things slightly wrong or ignoring game mechanics.

Probably my favourite ever tower defence game.

I remember playing the earlier flash versions of this years ago on the Armor Games website.
Good times. I love the GemCraft games, and Chasing Shadows is particularly deep and interesting in its mechanics.

That said, it is quite difficult...

The tower systems have an unimaginable level of complexity, and the skill ceiling for their use and design is so high that people have designed scripts to automatically craft optimal gems with upwards of 50 different components. I am not one of those people.
In order to reach those ridiculous heights, you first have to get through the game casually, and the difficulty of the middle section of the game is punishing, requiring a decent amount of grind, and grind, and grind.

It’s not for the faint of heart, but it is an incredibly enjoyable game despite its difficulty.
Also, the post-game content, for example redoing stages in Endless is very fun and rewarding.

Definitely a hidden gem (pun intended)

Candy Crush Saga for 30-year old virgin wizards

2/5 (parts worth playing once)

Obviously from playtime, I liked it enough to finish the main story line, but that's not the same as being able to recommend this.

In the lower difficulty settings, you have a variety of usable strategies, but as you move closer to completion (requires increasing the difficulty modifiers), you are increasingly constrained by the managem/killgem+amplifiers meta, so you end up having to do the same thing every time, which is not very interesting.

If you like "hard" tower defense that requires the same min/maxing strategy for every level (or over-leveling so it doesn't matter), this might be for you, but on balance, I'd say that some parts were fun and some were not. I don't plan to put more time into this one.

Excellent game for TD fans

I remember playing the flash version of this to 100% completion years ago on the Armor Games website. Good times. This is such a good tower defense game, it has been my standard since back then!

It's okay. I'd give it a seven. Not the best TD game out there, but not bad either.

I wish you could rate games out of 10.

fun TD, long playtime and great replayabilty, lots of strategising ^^

This game is a good TD game

Tower defense - with depth

30 FPS LOCK

frostborn wrath is better, but this is fine.

Such an amazing game I love the ability to change the path easily and the combinations are endless.
I have a mere 60 hours and barely made a scratch in the meta with endless options for wave modifiers.
Absolutely love it so far and can not wait to hit some really good upgrades to make it a little easier.
I would recommend this if you love Tower Defense games, a must play!!

who the fuck uninstalled my game

Probably one of the best TD's out there! Thanks for showing how enjoyful TD's can be.

Great Game, graphics are fine. Gameplay is steady. Definitely has replay ability.

Gemcraft - Chasing Shadows is a wonderful little tower defense game that is simple to start and gives a plethora of options to learn and expand upon as the game goes on.

Highly recommended for a cheap tower defense game to hop in for a few minutes at a time. Eventually there will come a tipping point where everything meshes together and it is a crazy ride all the way until the end.

I have been playing this game for so long that I am pretty sure that it and I might be married at this point. A friend showed me it back when it was just a browser game that you could play for free (or at least I could, I don't know if anyone else could because I actually never asked and if they told me I probably would either not say anything because I signed a No Dialogue Agreement or I forgot - or both - honestly, all I know is that I don't remember paying for this game ever and since that's all I actually know I am gonna go ahead and go with that one for right now) and I cannot begin to tell you how many hours I played, how much it actually helped me through a whole lot of hard spots I felt stuck in back in the day.

And what a delight it was to find it here on steam again, or for the first time? Both? Neither? Everything and all of it and the rest that's in between and anything else that might be out there, its incredible that I even have the opportunity to play again at all. I thought it had been lost to time. Something from my past that I loved so much, but that just simply wasn't around anymore for some reason that can't be explained other than the simple passage of time is the march that we all sort of shrug and agree is the logical course of thing.

Anyway, this is a game that is basically bugs and some gems. Thats really it. The bugs sort of walk along a pathway, and then you click on these pretty colors and make them into differently shaped colors and sometimes you can then just sort of mash them together and its both the same thing and different but no matter what its always stronger. That's the good part. And what makes it even better is that you can mush them together and also pick and choose how the colors smash together. Its cool. Like, basically if you want it to be slow but also a little bit punchy that's sort of like saying its both purple and like either green or like maybe blue. Idk, I cant remember exactly because in order to write this review I had to close the game, but its ok because I am supposed to be eating my dinner right now and I am not because I was watching videos, talking to my friends, and trying to play GemCraft - Chasing Shadows at the same time, but I kept forgetting that I was playing the game and so the bugs kept going but I was like, oh its ok because at first the little color gems were going PEW PEW PEW at the bugs like they are supposed to and everything was happy and relaxed and I was really enjoying the taco I was having. Ok maybe at that point it was a burritoo. I don't know because I was also listening to music at the same time and kinda having an argument with myself.

This is kind of what I mean when I was saying that this game helped me get through a lot of stuff. I would just sort of have the browser open a lot, maybe I wasn't really playing the game in a very active way or antthing, but like even having the window open helped me feel like I was connected to something. Or like, maybe someone. Idk. I am fuzzy on that one. It doesn't really matter, because at the end of the day, this game is called a Tower Defense game. But I don't really see it working like that at all.

To me its a story about how a thing that is just made up of a bunch of colors and shapes but its all just one big thing had a whole bunch of friends who took one for the team by having the colors take a whole bunch for the team; but also kinda in reverse at the same time. Thats really funny because this game weirdly reminds me of a couple other games that I have played that are not at all the same as this game but at the same time they feel exactly the same. Like, they look totally different and the story or the characters or whatever is different but there is this underlying feeling that is exactly the same and its how I know that they are connected, and so when I was sitting there on my couch. I can remember how the sun was always filtering through the glass. It made the whole room look like this really pretty and shimmery version of clear but also yellow, but not in a gross way. So stop thinking about that and if you need this as a reminder to go to the bathroom, go for it; I am so proud of you. Now take a moment, if your hands are in that weird gamer position where you rest like your left hand (or whatever you use to move one side) and its sits in WADS or whatever you call it and then then other hand is just like, either on your mouse just like waiting around like it expects something to happen, but in reality you are just sort of reading this and wondering if you have chips in a drawer in the kitchen and if you do what kind are they and are they still OK to eat or are they stale at this point and now for some reason I am thinking about both lettuce and orchids at the same time.

So again, here is my point. Just having a point of connection, it doesn't really matter the context at all; well, ok so maybe context can matter a bit but like samesies with specifics and a whole bunch of other stuff, so its a lot easier to be like "OK SO THIS IS JUST AN IDEA BUT ALSO ITS A BIT MORE LIKE A HINT BUT AT THE SAME TIME YOU KNOW HOW IT IS JUST SMILE AND NOD IF YOU REALLY SIT AROUND AND THINK ABOUT WHAT WE ARE DOING RIGHT NOW ARE YOU AS HAPPY AS YOU POSSIBLY COULD BE" and then you can sit there and be like:

"I thought this was just a review for a tower defense game. This person is ranting about like 12 million different things at once but somehow I am still reading this. If you got this far, I would also suggest that you play a game called Something I Can't Remember Right Now Ring because you can literally leave little messages in the game and people can vote on them. I haven't gotten very far in the game though, but I kinda get whats going on because like the colors are basically gold and black and it looks a little bit like Lord of the Rings, but maybe not the multiplayer version because I love that game so much but I haven't been able to get out the shire really because the housing system in that game is absolutely the best thing I have ever seen and I used or maybe still do have like the best house in the whole game because it is right next to a body of water, and its all cute and pretty and wonderful, and like the inside is cool too. And for some reason now I am remembering that I have to play this Harry Potter game that I heard about but that I think my friends told me was made by like a BAD PERSON but really they were super cool to me when I talked to them on a video but I think they were hiding in disguise but that's fine because the point of this review is to show that you can spread joy wherever you are and however you want to. And if you actually seriously read every single world of this and understood anything I was saying, you will probably really love this game after all. <3 <3 <3

Best TD game, i keep coming back.

Updated Review:
I bought two other TD games along with this one.
I'm still playing this awesome game.

A ton of levels in this game. I like that you can construct massive tower clusters using amplifiers to boost other towers around it. There's also traps, spells and skills.

If you like defending with towers and don't mind the simple graphics
this one is a must have. Can't believe I missed this one, it may end up being my favorite.

im sobbing, this game is so good and im not even an hour in the game

Simple, yet fun. Graphics are good enough, gameplay is addictive. And its quite cheap.

Dont tell me you played this game without 100k wizard level

Played a version of this ages ago, Gem Craft is from a time when tower defense games had to actually be good to get published anywhere outside of flash game websites. The fact that I'm willing to pay money for a tower defense game speaks volumes about how much playtime I'm about to give this game.

⣿⣿⡻⠿⣳⠸⢿⡇⢇⣿⡧⢹⠿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣾⣿⡇⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⡐⣯⠁ ⠄⠄
⠟⣛⣽⡳⠼⠄⠈⣷⡾⣥⣱⠃⠣⣿⣿⣿⣯⣭⠽⡇⣿⣿⣿⣿⣟⢢⠏⠄ ⠄
⢠⡿⠶⣮⣝⣿⠄⠄⠈⡥⢭⣥⠅⢌⣽⣿⣻⢶⣭⡿⠿⠜⢿⣿⣿⡿⠁⠄⠄
⠄⣼⣧⠤⢌⣭⡇⠄⠄⠄⠭⠭⠭⠯⠴⣚⣉⣛⡢⠭⠵⢶⣾⣦⡍⠁⠄⠄⠄⠄
⠄⣿⣷⣯⣭⡷⠄⠄⢀⣀⠩⠍⢉⣛⣛⠫⢏⣈⣭⣥⣶⣶⣦⣭⣛⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄
⢀⣿⣿⣿⡿⠃⢀⣴⣿⣿⣿⣎⢩⠌⣡⣶⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣆⠄⠄⠄
⢸⡿⢟⣽⠎⣰⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢀⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣦⠄⠄
⣰⠯⣾⢅⣼⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡇⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡄⠄
⢰⣄⡉⣼⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⠄
⢯⣌⢹⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠄
⢸⣇⣽⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠄
⢸⣟⣧⡻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⡻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠄
⠈⢹⡧⣿⣸⠿⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⠗⣈⠻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡇⠄
⠄⠘⢷⡳⣾⣷⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣾⣿⣿⢀⣶⣶⣶⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠇⠄
⠄⠄⠈⣵⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠄⠄
⠄⠄⠄⠸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠘⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠇⠄⠄

nice little game....smash it

Best TD ever, perhaps.

Absolutley, probably the BEST TD GAME EVER. if ur into that kinda thing...

Quite okay. Fun for plenty of time for an okay price. The game is fun at the beginning, then is pain called "getting to Amplifiers", then is fun again for a while. Not quite balanced, but pretty fun regardless. Worth checking out generally speaking, and definitely when on a sale.

Fun, and a little RPGish. I like tower games and this one is pretty addictive.

God tier tower defense game

This is a very difficult game to recommend, but I will still attempt to recommend it regardless.

As someone who grew up in the golden age of Flash browser games, this one always stuck out to me as one of the most consistently good tower defense games in the entire genre. Yes, even better than Bloons.

The tower systems have an unimaginable amount of complexity, and the skill ceiling for their use and design is so stupidly high that people have designed scripts to automatically craft optimal gems with upwards of 50 different components.

However, in order to reach those heights, you first have to get through the game casually, and I must say that this is one of the hardest video games I have ever played. The difficulty of the middle section of the game is bone-crushing, requiring exact precision, map knowledge, and at some points, seemingly just grinding for skill points to give a final push through the hex.

It’s not for the faint of heart, but it is an incredibly good game despite its difficulty. Should you conquer this game’s arduous challenges, you’ll be deeply satisfied, and the post-game content (that is to say, redoing stages in Endless) is very fun and rewarding.

Definitely a hidden gem, even if it is a bit rough.

This isn't a review. I just wanted to tell whoever read this that there is an enemy in this game that can not be stopped even if you pause the game and i think that is really cool.

Feels as good as ever. tasteful. no memory of it's flash origins can be felt but you won't mind

Gemcraft is a classic TD franchise and if you're looking for a tower defense game you really can't do better than chasing shadows. I have more hours in Frostborn Wrath but honestly that's probably from letting levels in endless mode play out for progression/high score reasons. If there's any 'web game' worth spending money on, it's this one.

Its a classic game to me I still remember playing the original Gemcraft using flashplayer in 2006. Things evolved very well. If you like tower defense games that add RPG elements. It makes for an excellent adventure and litterally hours of gameplay where you're hooked to your screen the whole time

good game

This game brings back so many memories and although I just recently found the game on steam I've been playing ever since. So many great ideas in this game alongside the Frostborn Wraith game I've not yet played. I'd say that if you are a tower defense enthusiast like I am, this is probably the game for you and one of the best ever made. It is very easy to understand and get into while also having incredible game depth through strategies. My favorite part is farming achievements to be as strong as possible moving into the next battles. Pick this game up alongside the Frostborn Wraith and you'll thank me later!

GemCraft appears to have a lot of depth with many interesting systems, but that depth does not translate into interesting choices.

I figured out pretty early on to invest in mana skills and use the orange mana-generating gems, and the last 30 out of 34 hours has been using the same few gem combinations, building the same 2 towers at a bend with 1 slow trap, standard Tower Defence stuff.

Levels and monsters aren't varied enough to require or even encourage different strategies. There is an armour-stripping gem, but you can kill high armour monsters without it, and in fact not stripping armour allows you to gain more mana with your mana-generating gems since you can hit each monster more. There is a poison gem which ignores armour, but same problem, it's better to not use it. There is a gem that reduces monsters' regen, but... you get the idea.

Even with these problems, i was still interested to play a bit further, but that interest vanished when the game started lagging massively as I enraged more (increasing the number of monsters per wave) and called more waves early (both of which are essential for increasing your score and level). The popular meta guide on Steam mentions lag multiple times as a factor in choosing different strategies. Dealing with lag is not what I'd call good gameplay.

The GemCraft games are all quite in-depth and challenging. Possibly too challenging once you reach later levels. They are a very unique take on tower defense, & I enjoy the aspect of gem combination to give towers & traps different &/or multiple traits. I have played these games off & on since I discovered them years ago on Kongregate, & while I do stop playing for awhile for various reasons, I always come back. That being said, I've put in countless hours & have yet to reach completion on any GemCraft game.

g8 gr8pe

designed to waste time

An interesting and nuanced tower defense. it can be played straight-forward, but there is a lot of nuance once the player begins mixing and matching units. the game allows units to be upgraded by combining units, both ones on the field and newly created ones. units can be moved about the field to appropriate towers which can be built. by keeping a units type pure it retains a strong status effect, but by combining it can have multiple less powerful status effects, what is the right balance? that is a matter of strategy and taste. the game allows you to arrange your defense how you choose and the way you choose, within limitations of the map. I will say the game is not an easy one, it isn't an insurmountable wall of difficulty, but it is a challenge for sure. I am 25 hours in and am only discovering more integers that I need to take into account, but the game has not burnt me out with vagueness and arbitrary difficulty spikes. overall, I would suggest this to anybody who wants a tower defense game that provides challenge and substance, but the truly casual player may not find it as rewarding though still playable.

Great TD game, lots of upgrades and levels to play.

This game is incredible.

A bit intimidating on the beginning, but the path finding as a game mechanic and the gem fusion and swapping really gives you freedom on how to tackle any situation.

If you like Tower Defenses and to grind your gears, this game is for you.

Almost 1,500 hours on 2 levels. Great relaxing game.

Surprisingly deep strategy, oddly satisfying chaos, and just the right amount of 'one more level' addiction