GemCraft: Labyrinth

http://armorgames.com/play/10317/gemcraft-labyrinth

Of course, the magical genre of flash game known as the Tower Defense game, where you build towers along a path to stop monsters from getting to the other end of the tower and wreaking your shit.  Now, like any popular genre of any game, there is a degree of stagnation due to the market being flooded with such games that, sadly, play the same, just with different graphics and aesthetic.

Then came GemCraft, just when one thought the genre went all the places that it could.

Now, I could do a write up on all the games in the GemCraft series (GemCraft chapter 1, GemCraft chapter 0 the sequel cuz Game in a Bottle felt like fucking around with everyone's filing system) but it is really pointless as Game in a Bottle simply rehashed the same game ah la Nintendo.

So, I'm picking on the most recent game in the trilogy: Labyrinth.

Let me start by saying that there is an evil in many flash games that exist from mmos and social games: the Skinner Box.  In laymen's terms this simply refers to mechanics in a game that are designed not to increase enjoyment or immerse the player into an experience, but to compulse* the player to keep playing for the sake thereof.  There is a large amount of reasons why a developer would do this... one being so you will stare at the banner ads on the site longer or have you come back to replay the game so that you can look at more ads.

Its cynical, yes, but unfortunately Games in a Bottle have figured out the art of the Skinner box and the GemCraft games have been designed accordingly.

Like a leveling system... in a TD game!

Now, heres the deal with the game.  You are some wizard in training who goes off on some journey to reclaim some sort of mcguffin... look, you are going to forget the backstory of this fast as you're running about from stage to stage revealing in that one mechanic that separates GemCraft from the other Tower Defense games that are out there.

You see, in the game, the 'towers' are merely placeholders for gems that you craft and can place onto these towers, and its these gems that shoot at the monster as they make their way to your magical orb that is used to make the gems... I guess.  Point is you defend the orb from the monsters, that is all you really need to care about.

That ball is your life!

Now, the neat thing about the mechanics is that it allows for combining gems to yield more powerful gems, and you can have gems of different colours combined, with a gem that inherits from the other gems.  Now, as each gem has a special that separates it from other gems, the strategies get interesting at times, and the ability to swap gems on the fly can be useful.

Now, GemCraft chapter one played more like your basic TD game only with the options to combine gems and put them into tower platforms.  The sequel chapter zero added the option to build traps, which would boost the special ability of the gem placed inside at the expense of decreased firepower.  As you play you will figure out which towers would benefit from that and which would be better off in a tower.  Some maps in zero would also have shrines in them: place a gem inside and enemies die.

The shrines and the traps are back!

Labyrinth adds something known as amplifiers.  These are tower-like structures that you build next to other towers and traps to boost them based on the gem inside the amp and in the other structure(s).

That gem in the center is god!

So, off all the things I can say about this game, at least there is some degree of depth to be had.

Now, like in the past games, the maps can have shit already built on it, so the player can use the structures to their advantage.  Course, sometimes you will still have to build things onto the map, though as an added bonus you can build shrines now, unlike the past title where you had to hope that the map maker was being really nice to you the day that map was designed.

Now, I mentioned earlier on that the Skinner box is implied, and fuck I meant it!  I mean, the game series established the routine of Pokemon-esque grinding that you have to do in this game, and Labyrinth is no exception.  In Labyrinth, the stages are connected to eachother like the various grid point in a maze.

You'd think it was almost like a Labyrinth

As par with the course, when you select a stage, you get a menu with various options you can select and check off that make the game harder, but give you more experience that goes to leveling when you complete the level.

How much of a badass do you feel?

Now, experience is important because enough of it will make you level, and leveling gives you points that you can put towards skills that improve various skill that you have.  Yeah... everything from how much mana you have at the start of a level to how much better a certain coloured gem does uses these skills.

Kinda like the fallout perks screen

Now, the neat thing about these skills is you can reallocate your skill point at will, usually at the start of a stage, where ever you feel is best for a given map.

Mana in this game is like money in other TD games, though there is a cap as to how much mana you have.  Mana is also depleted if monster reach your orb.  If a monster gets to your orb and you don't have enough mana to 'banish' it, the game is over.

Now, I bet you have noticed those locks on some of the stuff.  Well, the development staff at one point decided that they like food and owning their own home, so they created a 'premium' edition that you have to pay for to remove the locks.  Now, that is a growing trend as it is a common practice for development teams to launch a demo of their game in flash and require you to pay for the full downloadable version as either an executable on your computer or as an app on a smartphone.

Now, do I recommend this game?  Well, let me rant about the skinner box for a second.  Doesn't it feel weird to grind in a Tower Defense game?  I know there are other TD games that don't allow you to level towers until they have destroyed enough monsters, but it isn't the same as actual leveling and skill mechanics.  It leaves me the same feeling as hearing about people fretting about their levels... in Halo!

So, if you can stand the grinding this game will keep you entertained, but if not you will get bored of playing the same level for the thousandth time trying to best you score, for your total experience points are the totals of your high score on all the maps (which is smart if you think about it for a sec).  Really, like in many TD games, your mileage is going to very, more so here.

*To do something by compulsion.  Yes, I made up that word.  Deal with it.