GemCraft - Frostborn Wrath

GemCraft - Frostborn Wrath
N/A
Metacritic
88
Steam
83.188
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$12.99
Release date
10 January 2020
Developers
Publishers
Steam reviews score
Total
88 (2 353 votes)
Recent
92 (13 votes)

The epic tower defense dark fantasy journey continues! Create powerful gems with various abilities and take on the battle against an endlessly flowing army of monsters, and face the growing darkness as you fight your way back towards the Spiritforge.

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GemCraft - Frostborn Wrath system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: Windows 7/8
  • Processor: Intel Core i5
  • Memory: 4 GB RAM
  • Storage: 300 MB available space
Updated
App type
Steam APP ID
1106530
Platforms
Windows PC
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Aerensiniac
Aerensiniac

EDIT: After spending more than a day on this, i recommend you dont spend any money on this game unless you like to be completely and fully restricted in your choices and tackling everything using 1 single possible solution.
Its imbalanced trash, every tool at your disposal is shait, doesnt scale properly, in fact: Im drawn to the conclusion that the entire game is untested, never balanced, beta trash that was simply kicked out the door, and im saying this even in comparison to its previous games.
If you want to play gemcraft, buy the previous games or download it as the original flash game.
Do NOT buy this trash. Its not gem craft, its not tower defense, its a pile of untested, imbalanced shait.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have been playing gemcraft since the start of the franchise when it used to be nothing more than a simple flash game.
Over the years and new releases i observed a larger and larger slant towards the challenge type of mindset that is all about tying the player's hands and making everything harder on them.

Back in the golden age of tower defense games players could have fun with a title, go down their own paths of unit/tower selection, and still end up beating the game with relative freedom of choice.
This is less and less true for Gemcraft with each iteration.
You might get tools like lanterns, traps and what not, in fact: Probably out of all games FW gives you the most tools and tower types.
But their balancing is abysmal and they are pretty much useless unless you pour in endless amounts of upgrades, but even then, the performance is questionable.

TL;DR: I dont want to explain this for 7 pages. The problem i had with FW is that it removes most choices i could have with tackling the game.
Its extremely linear because of this, since you will find yourself tackling maps one single way most of the time, and feel irritated whenever you are pushed into something less efficient such as doing traps which are hilariously ineffective in most cases.

Ultimately, its not a bad game, but its a very linear one unless you grind yourself enough points to simply overwhelm the system. I guess thats where i failed cause i didnt feel like messing with this game for 3 months before being able to freely enjoy it.

Baron Von Baugh
Baron Von Baugh

It’s a decent game but I doubt I’ll ever finish it or get all the achievements. I don’t know if I’ll ever play it again. It just seems to be a pain to make any headway anymore. I recommend buying it on sale if you really want it.

I liked Chasing Shadows better. I did complete it and got all the achievements for it.

MartyPG13
MartyPG13

Another Tower Defense game, but this time there seems to be a little more strategy to it. The basic premise is you're a wizard who can spend mana on different things. Build towers and walls to slow things down and arm these towers with different gems which have different powers.

But wait, there's more ...

It's also possible to combine gems to make them more powerful, so is it better to have more towers with lower-powered weapons or fewer towers with bigger better arms. All the time the enemies move closer to the base and if they reach it take mana away from you - if it reaches zero then game over. Another strategy then, do you build enough towers to earn just enough mana that should some enemy crabs make it thru, your mana store can never reach zero so it doesn't matter?

Some clever stuff that definitely makes this one of the better TD games I've played and for that reason, I give this one 8 wait is that Ubisoft in the distance asking you to climb them out of 10.

Zerithos
Zerithos

A continuation of the Gemcraft formula, but with a little less of the hilarious gem scaling that Chasing Shadows had.

The challenge of the initial playthrough is a little more appropriate and Iron Wizard mode exists and remains for the veteran types.
Talismans are insanely fun to customize and a modest amount of fun can be found farming for the optimal talisman shards. I really enjoy how this juxtaposes your playthrough. Beginning with no difficulty corruptors, then the skill tree progress and lastly the endgame where you now enter the survival XP fest.

The 3 gem types added in Chasing Shadows are no longer present, changing the Survival XP meta into something a bit more tame and requiring more finesse and timing to optimize. The progress is slower, but I still felt it was meaningful and it was satisfying finding a working loop for that chunky XP.

9/10

Zoidberg (V)(;,;)(V)
Zoidberg (V)(;,;)(V)

If you liked gemcraft: Labyrinth back in the day, you'll probably like this game too.

However, there are a few flaws that this game doesn't have to have:
- "Archivitis" – There is literally an archivement for everything, seems more or less unnecessary.
- Loading times – despite being released in 2020, it loads just as slow as flash games back in the day…

Sketchy
Sketchy

I bought the GemCraft game pack.
"Frostborn Wrath" is... well, quite horrible. It's slow, clunky, and the frame rate is awful. It has a rather annoying lay out and gem "crafting" design, especially when compared to the other game in the pack. (Chassing Shadows)

Knavish
Knavish

Good game, devs put a lot of time into this and it shows. Very elaborate and in depth.

sumguy67
sumguy67

Can be quite challenging, and sometimes a bit grindy, but overall a great game!

Взрывная Дарья Дугина
Взрывная Дарья…

This has become some kind of abandonware.
Same laggy engine as in every previous iteration of this Tower Defense is the greatest con - some would expect to run this kind of game seamless, but - well - you cannot, because of how poorly it's coded.

Just play a Gemcraft - Chasing Shadows, which is cheaper and better - this release has not been polished to an acceptable state and no one cares anymore.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/296490/GemCraft__Chasing_Shadows/

lupusmaximus
lupusmaximus

A new game mechanic has made this sequel quite enjoyable/ addicting.

gegeIII
gegeIII

Gems are truly, truly, truly outrageous.

Student_of_Insanity
Student_of_Insanity

Still the champion of TD games.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Great game, best TD game out there and has a great story and tons of mechanics

BlueDiamond
BlueDiamond

When i first played Labyrinth on Armor game, i fell in love with these games. They are some of the best tower defense games i have ever played. Frostborn wrath is also the hardest out of the ones i have played.

mr.felixoid
mr.felixoid

I've played original first chapter 12 years ago, and enjoy playing it now a lot!

Zac Quicksilver
Zac Quicksilver

So, I'm well aware that my opinion of this game is touched by nostalgia: I played the original Gemcraft games on Kongregate, back when that was the place to find interesting games. And that colors my opinion.

But it's not hard for me to argue that Gemcraft is one of the best tower defense series there is. The gameplay itself is simple, but there's a lot of strategic depth to be explored - or you can just stick to one strategy and use it over and over again. There's a decent story to the games; but you can safely ignore it and just play the game if you want. Metaprogression is simple to understand, flexible, and allows you to adapt to a given level. The game is relatively easy played on the easiest mode - and damn near impossible to beat once you've maxed out all of the modifiers, if you like that challenge.

Anonymous
Anonymous

I love the Gemcraft series, from them I love the Tower defence typed games.

Leothlwen
Leothlwen

It's Gemcraft, a little harder perhaps, there's a little longer burn in phase in the "middle" levels, a tad different than the other entries, but ultimately it's good.

gmcgerald
gmcgerald

When the best strategy is to rush a bunch of waves and purposely lose, you built a bad game.

Stonehench
Stonehench

A clever TD that reward smart plays. Subtle but intriguing story. Choose your own difficulties and challenges for the endless (and grindy) levelling system. Would buy again.

lame digits
lame digits

Awesome long thinky TD game.

First thing i had learned about this game is that many players complain it’s innecessarily hard and frustrating. Being one of crappy players who hate frustration myself i became concerned quite a bit, but still started the game on normal difficulty, played for many hours and found it great, long and long before any frustration appears. Actually i soon get bored with any game and move to another, well this one gives a lot of fun before any wall is hit, and as i never was so eager to ‘complete’ it anyway i found normal difficulty just fine. Then i tried easy mode too and felt it doesn’t make much difference and definitely doesn’t spoil the challenge in survival (endurance) mode (and i’m not sure if difficulty reduction is even in effect in trial mode).

And if a puzzle mode (trial) level looks like it’s the said wall, wrong, it’s another way to study the game mechanics better and learn some tricks and combos that could accidentally slip from one’s view, and there’s no shame in doing that by following an existing guide. There are fine text walkthroughs btw (i hate wasting my time on youtube).

This TD is a must have.

Avniel
Avniel

This game is a fond childhood memory of mine. I'm glad that it's still as good as I remember.

aTomek
aTomek

Ultimate tower defence experience, too bad it is not available for MacOS.

Roycehellion
Roycehellion

Play GC game since the first on flash. This is stupid hard. even after chilling its stupid hard.

Lukee_l
Lukee_l

once you get to wizard level 150-250 use traps over towers

Denis
Denis

pretty good so far, can't wait to fry my pc some day when i send out 40 waves early

gcrockwood
gcrockwood

Great game, grab the mods for endurance after you've won but DO NOT interact with the modders or guide makers. They're elitist that go out of their way to be assholes.

fuzzypops
fuzzypops

Hard difficulty is hard.

Casual difficulty is casual.

Q: Why don't 99% of other games get this right?

A: Cause they suck.

PersistantGamer
PersistantGamer

I may only have 11 hours at the time of this review but this game has kept me hooked the entire time. Iron wizard mode is where the game shines IMO, but the other two difficulties ain't bad.

Mudkipology
Mudkipology

The king of tower defense games. If you've enjoyed previous games in the series, this is more of what you loved with some cool new mechanics and quality of life improvements. Be advised though, the original Frostborn difficulty is probably the toughest Gemcraft has ever been. Chilling mode is definitely worth considering for your first playthrough.

Blaze
Blaze

So far:
+ One of the best Tower Defense game series ever
+ Nice dev
+ Worth hunting all achievements
+ Challenging
+ Worth the money
- Laggy menus
- Seems to use 60% CPU instead of 20% when ingame or on the main menu even and not on fullscreen
- I prefer the Talisman system from last game, this one is overcomplicated

Thgilcra
Thgilcra

Hours of Fun! I really like this Game!

darthklo
darthklo

very much addicting. i love it

icoyoli
icoyoli

:D if you are familiar with the Tower Defense formula, you'll love this challenging game

bat0
bat0

It's a great game. The Dark Souls of Tower Defense!
But:
If you're a smooth brain like me... it's way too hard, even on the easiest difficulty (journey mode).

bunjimon348
bunjimon348

Great Game! very challenging on the normal mode, looking forward to check out hard.

markon05
markon05

Yet another excellent game in the Gemcraft series. I've been playing since Labryinth on Kongregate. Lots of depth, replayability, and various ways to win. The Vision mode maps are a real challenge, but they are optional. There is a story here, as well, which is enjoyable but if you don't care, you're free to ignore it and just enjoy a large amount of interesting maps to play through.

flemdawgheal
flemdawgheal

This installment of the series is the best one yet mechanically IMO. Same engine, same basics. Loving the writing and gameplay as always. It is challenging but not impossible. I love the grind.

10/10

Kareekoe
Kareekoe

Iron Wizard mode in this game is a skip, do not play it, it's a worse rubbish version of the superior Iron Wizard mode that exists in GemCraft - Chasing Shadows,

Not joking, it's terrible, save yourself the headache and avoid the RNG filled nightmare fest that is almost every mid-late game level that requires overly specific strategies to beat which leave absolutely no room for you to actually play the game.

Iron Wizard's focus devolved from beating the game with a severe handicap like how it was in Chasing Shadows and became the chore of smashing stashes and backtracking to previous levels to get stashes you couldn't get before for no reason other than to waste the player's time and to artificially extend play time in a single player game which is both a fully released finished game and has plenty of content to go through, it's so pointless and unnecessary.

This is a warning from a fluffball who played Chasing Shadows and got all the achievements: Avoid GemCraft - Frostborn Wrath's Iron Wizard game mode, it is the purest most distilled form of concentrated rubbish she has ever played within the GemCraft series and likely will not have any desire to finish it despite how much she likes GemCraft, it's that bad.

沈黙の魂
沈黙の魂

One of the best Tower Defences so far, pretty challenging in normal mode with good puzzles and good maps, Hardcore af in Iron Wizard and most importantly you always want to come back to beat the s**t out of the demons and of course beat your own record in Endurance mode.
Pro tip: GIT GUT :]

D.I Sammi
D.I Sammi

100+ hours on chasing shadows.

But in ten minutes I knew this was not a superior version. Definite downgrades in two key areas, the enraging of waves and the cramming of the interface on the right. I like the gems levelling up, but its not enough to pull me away from chasing shadows.

Also offering more shadows cores (less grinding) for easy mode? I have to be punished for playing on harder difficulty?

No.

Langusto d'Oliviera
Langusto d'Oliviera

I've been loving the GemCraft games ever since only the first part existed, as in my opinion by far the best games you could find on Armor Games back in the days of Flash. If you're not sure if GemCraft games are for you, you can check out the older games for free on his website, downloadable in one handy package that includes Flash players for various operating systems. Just note that Frostborn Wrath is indeed quite a bit more challenging than the previous parts, which is why there is an easy mode available.

So far I've only played on normal mode and I like that this game is indeed a lot more challenging (i.e. balanced). I got about 50 map tiles (i.e. game levels) revealed on my map and my wizard is at about level 110.

This part is also more complicated than the previous ones. The stuff you can build, the spells you can cast, the skills, the talisman, the ways to really fine-tune a level's difficulty, it can be daunting if you're new to the series and/or a casual gamer (hence there's an easy mode). Also, since you acquire your skills through chests that are mostly found in Endurance mode after beating a level in the initial mode (Journey mode), you'll have to play many levels at least twice, and then at a later point in time you might want to play it for a 3rd time to get a score that's actually high, to grind out EXP.

The level design is beautiful and the layouts are creative, so it doesn't get boring to fight through dozens of them replay them as needed.

Anyway, I believe the game has a fair price, as the old games were quite underpriced in my opinion (some were free, some were freemium with a very low price for the premium features), so I'm happy to throw a couple of bucks his way.

pygmalion2020
pygmalion2020

Every single level is a frustrating puzzle with only one solution. This used to be a fun tower defence game series but it's not anymore. I would not recommend if you are looking for a fun tower defence game.

Naviii
Naviii

I prefer the UI of Frostborn Wrath over chasing shadows every day of the week, however the late game levels really feel like a step backwards (as others have pointed out). Still a fun cheap game to sink hours into.

OSX/Linux support would be nice too.

I give it 8 out of 10 Gems.

RoboRogue
RoboRogue

trust me its different to other TD games

very interesting

8/10

Xunnamius
Xunnamius

It's GemCraft, I've been playing these since the old Flash days. What's not to like? It can be a bit harder than the previous versions, and I like that too. Play smart and you can keep the grind down to a minimum for a majority of the levels (but there are some major pain points that require perhaps too much grinding to get through). I'll probably avoid Iron on this version of the game though. Good luck, wizards!

juyett
juyett

GemCraft is a solid tower defense experience. If you like the genre, this title won't disappoint.

alexiathefox
alexiathefox

Its something nice to do on breaks. Short and sweet. You can play just a little and get back to work. It's nice.

Tabtree
Tabtree

Old School TD game. Good for nostalgia and for strategy thinking alike!

happylabs
happylabs

A pretty fun tower defense game. Progression is fairly satisfying and it's fun figuring out the strats, at first. However once you figure out the strats it gets pretty same-y pretty fast. Because of the nature of amplifiers , it's almost always optimal to have one cluster of towers in the map where you invest all your mana. Which is a shame because there's a great variety of maps, but it always boils down to finding that one good spot to set up your cluster and winding the path to maximise passing close to it. Lost interest before I reached the end of the game because every level started feeling the same.

Leona
Leona

This is a very solid entry to the GemCraft series that evolves and expands upon Chasing Shadows in very nice quality of life ways, along with changing up a few mechanics in refreshing ways.

Garend
Garend

Harder than Chasing Shadows, but a great entry to the series.

primbin
primbin

much better balanced than earlier gemcraft games but there's still a lot of room to improve. Looking forward to the next installment, i hear it might even forward the plot

WW713N
WW713N

My favorite series of games! I didn't hesitate to purchase every sequel that they made.
It is a difficult game to master and completing all accomplishments is nearly impossible, for me, without getting help online. The variety of ways to increase the difficulty, for increased reward, is very unique. By far, my favorite tower defense games!!!!

5th Legion
5th Legion

Its so SLOW. Not just from the insane lag, which persists from the opening menu into the gameplay, but the high speed mode from the previous installment is gone.

The interface changes were completely unnecessary and just feel wrong.

I WANT to play more, but my god I hate the new interface so much that I can't stand it.

Mistral
Mistral

One of the all-time great tower defense games.

Note that there are a few strategies that, when employed, will improve your performance exponentially. You can figure them out on your own, or you can consult the various guides which have been written - if you don't mind spoilers!

mirkes
mirkes

This game requires patience and thinking to achieve good results.

Bill Wilson
Bill Wilson

Reduced the lag in the endgame by removing chain hit and reducing the monster count... and yet didn't bother the address the other reasons why it lagged so much (unoptimised code), leading to it still lagging to some extent in the endgame for reasons which are easily fixable, and yet they weren't.

Due to some problem with how flash handles rendering, it runs really badly when the resolution is reduced below its default of 1080p. And it runs badly when upscaled too due to using software rendering so if you have a display capable of more than 1080p, you either have to play windowed or reduce the output resolution while playing if you don't want extra lag.

Also absolutely filled with bugs, some of which were known about when it was released and were just never fixed, even when it was still getting updates.

And some really, really bad "balance" decisions which clearly had zero actual thought put into them.

Whisperkins
Whisperkins

I have followed Gemcraft's universe for a number of years now, and I love how they took many of the best features from older games, and expanded upon them. Maps have a ton of replayability, and while it feels like I'm not always getting that far "fast enough" it also gives me a chance to enjoy the game long term. It can be intimidating as an achievement hunter, but there always seems to be some new achievement to earn, or something new to do. I have greatly enjoyed the map tile design, the way you need to play in different ways, using different towers, gems, and strategies. Maps feel well-thought out. I'm very glad they added different difficulty levels for saves.

ryadailey
ryadailey

Not nearly as good as Chasing Shadows. My biggest complains is that they basically killed all AOE. The chain hit is gone and it's been replaced with lantern towers which get a huge range and speed debuff. Number of hits is also limited, and the lantern skill is capped.

This is a qualified recommendation. Go get Chasing Shadows if you haven't played it. Play this if you are just looking for more content.

Rametarin, Aberration w/Attitude
Rametarin, Abe…

As a Gemcraft game, it stands on its own. It's nicely polished, and I enjoy it a great deal.

Doomslayer12803
Doomslayer12803

Unique Compared to other tower defenses - huge focus on balancing trade-offs. Very rewarding to play well, and loaded with content. Large time sink if you need a great TD!

ChWooly
ChWooly

The trial mode makes this game an exercise in frustration. Because of the devs obsessive compulsive nature maps that should be finishable by the average player are not and become pits that suck in players who then become frustrated and want to destroy the game/dev/computer. If you are looking for a decent tower defense then look at other studios. If I could get a refund I would but by the time i got to the point where I realized they had hidden an unbeatable map I had too many hours in.

[FF]Shadowclaimer
[FF]Shadowclaimer

This game has ruined other tower defenses for me. Too much content.

TTV DarkEyv
TTV DarkEyv

Where are the missing gem effects that Chasing Shadows had? Why is the new talisman system needlessly more convoluted with a puzzle piece mechanic that serves no purpose other than to be yet another dump for shadow cores? What is the point of Iron Wizard mode when, in this game, it's less about difficulty and more about abusing a meta strategy, and repeatedly and tediously backtracking to build up more advantages, and is balanced around such to the point that it's basically a strict requirement?

This isn't a bad game, per se, but it's a disappointment compared to prior GemCraft games and if I hadn't already known it was the most recent one released, I would've been surprised to find out it was released 2 years after Chasing Shadows since it seemingly totes less content and polish overall than what it's the successor to. Pick it up on sale if you're a diehard fan who's been playing this series ever since it was on Kongregate (or where ever else), but personally, it just made me want to go back to playing Chasing Shadows after a mere several hours.

Forebode
Forebode

I love this game, all of the gemcraft games actually. It's annoying that you can't run a trap only game on any modifier/difficulty (minus the flyer generator perk). The headache of boosting waves thankfully improved. All the difficulties are fine.. I do miss the chain hit gem.. instead it's like a bonus gems get as they are used more. The game improves on the previous game, but it removes some things. It's still a good game.

I do wish there were maps like a burbenog(w3 map) type of map, where paths crisscross each other.

As for other reviews... if the game is too hard, lower the difficulty. The high difficulty mode/maps are overtuned. It's a single player game, get through it at whatever difficulty works for you to continue playing.

Aphamino
Aphamino

A very good tower defense game, well balanced and a lot of variety. Also, once you reach higher levels the stats start to scale towards absurdity which is fun after completing the game first "in an orderly manner".

Cyax
Cyax

Yes, love this game. Good graphics, great game play. Interesting take on a TD as the achievement give you skill points which you need to progress the game. Sometimes you'll find yourself grinding some older levels to get ahead on the harder ones. Is a great game, found it based on Warcraft 3 recommendations. I did use to play a lot of Gem TD in the old days. :) Fair price and cost, doesn't badger you with micro transactions. Gets my approval!

SirBill_GreeBi
SirBill_GreeBi

I've gotten my money's worth and then some.

Biergood
Biergood

I have a fondness for Tower Defense games. I've played a lot of them over the years. Good and bad. Great and awful

The depth of this game is simply amazing.

This is probably, I think, the best bang for your buck you're ever going to get from any game on Steam.

If you like Tower Defense games, or are curious to try one, this is your game.

El SolRac
El SolRac

Another amazing delivery, with new and old things working just as well, if not better as previous Gem Craft Chapters. Amazing game!

BSMN123456789
BSMN123456789

This game shines with its campaign design. There is a lot of variety in the maps, and the ability to place walls to redirect enemies is a really nice touch in this regard.

However, there's a real lack of differentiation between different kinds of towers in this game, both in their efficacy and visuals, which leads to the game losing its charm rather quickly. The towers are powered by gems which give the towers different effects, but this difference is very limited. The different tower types all fire at the same rate, at a single enemy, and deal the same initial damage (I may be wrong on this front, I haven't checked the numbers.) The only difference comes down to whether a tower applies a bleed effect, a poison effect, an armour damaging effect, etc. And this lack of variety, by extension, effects the visuals of the game. In contrast to most TD games, where you would have for example several towers firing ballista bolts, some firing bombs, some firing sawblades, all coming together to create a varied aesthetic and gameplay loop, this game has only a few gems which all fire the same small magic orb.

Before anyone thinks I'm being unfair for not mentioning the traps, lanterns, pylons, and other non-tower weapons, I'll add here that I think that these secondary means of dealing damage only further prove my point. Traps have no animation, pylons are by and large just towers with longer range, and lanterns have next to no animation.

I feel that 9 hours was giving this game a pretty generous chance to open up really impress me, but my initial excitement wasn't really rewarded. This game has a lot of potential, but I think it fundamentally falls flat in terms of weapon variety, which stifles the strategic side of the game.

IkimashoZ
IkimashoZ

Balance is way off, and you can't grind out victory due to poor leveling system design.

ryanpotter1988
ryanpotter1988

i like the continuation of the entire game, i also like the no cap on certain skills. however the only thing i can really say i dislike is not having really anything left for end game players that continue to play the game other than trying to beat previous score set by themselves. like is there any way to incorporate more map tiles that would be unlocked after beating all 3 difficulties and iron wizard mode?

Beuteugeu
Beuteugeu

This is Gemcraft Chasing Shadows but worst.

There is almost no reason to buy this game, as this is more of the same. To make things worst, they destroyed the iron wizard mode (that was really good on CS) and added a shitload of stupid achievements that require you to sink a lot of time and effort for no reason at all

Anonymous
Anonymous

it feels so unfinishable. but thats part of the charm. theres always more to do...

sparrowteaches1
sparrowteaches1

Amazing Tower Defense Game!
Great Series, Great Entry

steel_ratt
steel_ratt

I generally like the gemcraft series. This one is a good addition to the series.. at first. It gets a 'no' recommendation from me as it goes south after shadows start appearing. While they are able to be defeated, their appearance heralds rng-based too-bad-you-lose garbage more often than not. I'm willing to lean into the grind for XP, but not when a proportion of runs just have to be abandoned due to RNG.

Gatebase
Gatebase

In short: This is easly the best installment of GemCraft (GC), which is high praise since I consider GC to be the best tower defense franchise out there. Veterans of the series will immediately feel at home with familiar gameplay, but GC has never been deeper or more interesting. Over 120 maps and hundreds of hand-crafted challenges will keep you entertained for well over 100 hours. This game provides a much improved experience by fixing big issues that have plagued past installments (poor balance, terrible slowdowns) and adding quality of life features. My only complaints are fairly minor gripes (increased repetition, minor bugs). I cannot recommend this game enough even at full price.

In long: I won't bore you with too many basics of the gameplay. If you know another GC title, Frostborn Wrath (FW) sticks to the formula but adds more special monsters and mechanics and some great quality of life updates (like the new enraging slot). If you don't know GC, imagine a well-designed and addictive tower defense game built around active-pause. It has lots of moving parts and levers you can pull on (skills, effects, traits, spells, etc) and a special focus on a really satisfying progression, seamlessly scaling from dozens of XP and enemies with single digit HP to billions of XP and enemies with trillions of HP.
Thankfully the improved balance means that unlike in Chasing Shadows (CS, the previous GC) you don't outscale the progression curve within 10-20 hours. It took me over 100 hours until the game started to feel a bit trivial (you can't really avoid ultra-lategame cookie-cutter builds). The flip-side is that some people complain about FW being too difficult, but playing on the harder difficulty I've never really hit a wall. FW is not as much mindless fun as CS, but as a veteran of the series I appreciate the improved pacing of the game. There is a bit of a drawback in increased repetition though. In CS you could increase the difficulty on your first play-through of a map and then directly transition into endless mode to farm XP. Both of those convenient features have been sacrificed in FW. The first time is always with a set difficulty and a default gem load-out, and endless is its own gameplay mode now (called Endurance). This is obviously better for pacing and balance, but it also means repeating the same build up to three times (beat it, beat it with diffiulty modifiers, beat it in Endurance). Farming is always optional and levels are short early on, but it can get quite tedious in the lategame. Endless was a seamless integration in CS, but here it feels like padding. But at least Endurance mode itself is also better paced because it starts quite short and waves are added every time you beat it.
This neatly leads to the ton of content that FW has. At over 120 maps there is no shortage of content to begin with. But each level actually has three modes: the default Journey mode, Endurance mode and the brand new Trial mode! This last one is the spiritual successor to CS's vision fields - tight, handcrafted puzzle levels where you operate on a set power level. And in FW every single level has such a puzzle! As a veteran to the genre and series this is an incredibly welcome change of pace and I enjoyed most of them a lot. Some are incredibly difficult to the point of frustration, but those are also the ones that teach you the most about game mechanics by forcing you to go out of the comfort zone of your standard builds. CS was not a short game, but FW probably has double its content if not more. I estimate it took me 160 hours to beat the main campaign, every trial and get 100% achievements. I never got to ultra-lategame farming and I still left a lot of Endurance mode on the table. But then a post-release update adding Iron Wizard mode dropped, which is the whole campaign with completely new and even tighter balance, basically a second set of Trials for every single level. It gets quite intense early on, and unfortunately loses some steam towards the end. But it brought me back to enjoy the game some more when I thought I was burned out on it already, adding another 75 hours of playtime for me, bringing me to a total well beyond 200 hours without ever seriously revisiting previously cleared levels to farm.

The story has never been the main focus of the GC series, but I still enjoy the charmingly illustrated diary pages you find. A self-styled "lost chapter", FW tells a side-story to the over-arching GC plot, focussing on a formerly-frozen wizard plotting revenge (as indicated by the title). Several maps feature unique mechanics and events, including some pretty epic "oh s**t" moments if you care about the lore.

In terms of presentation FW is a big step up from CS. The graphics look crisp and a lot more detailed, reflecting the higher native resolution that stems from dropping browser support (previous GC titles could be played through the Flash browser plug-in). The map is beautiful and the UI is well integrated into the over-all visual style.
Sound effects are good and satisfying. The music is appropriately subtle and sparsely used, so it never annoyed me in over 200 hours of playtime. Weather sound effects are very atmospheric.

The technical aspects are a bit of a mixed bag though. FW is still built using Flash as an engine, but out-dated as it may be, it works like a charm. FW has been considerably better optimized than CS (where the end-game could crawl to a seconds-per-frame halt), mostly by making mechanical changes (fewer monsters per wave, no more chain-hit gems). The settings have been substantially expanded, each coming with an annotation how much of a performance impact you should expect. I noticed a little bit of hitching in the mid-game but turning two inconsequential options down made the game run smoothly well into the lategame (where I stopped playing) even on a very low-end system. Night and day compared to CS.
Still, there are some real shortcomings. Non-rebindable hotkeys shouldn't be a thing in games released in 2020 (even if the keys are sensible and as a veteran of GC I intuitively used them). There are also some minor bugs revolving around achievements (sometimes you have to restart the game to make them show up, some achievements have secret and/or bugged requirements that you can only figure out by combing through old forum posts). The post-release support seems a bit lacking with a single large unannounced update and (minor) bugs persisting for months. But the developer mentioned being in hospital for 3 months and receiving a liver transplant on his blog, so it's hard to fault him for not devoting more time to polish up FW. Minor flaws aside, this is still a *very* impressive game for a single developer.

In conclusion: The king is back, baby! GC has never looked better and played more smoothly. It has never had this much content and Trial mode is a really smart addition that brings a fresh breeze to the series. If anything FW might have too much content (forced repetitions draws it out a bit too much). Still, any negative comment from me is nitpicking to the highest degree - this is a masterpiece! The considerably improved balance makes this perhaps less mindless fun than its predecessor, but FW is a much more refined and satisfying experience while staying equally addictive. If you have the faintest interest in the tower defense genre - do yourself a favor and buy this.

vivid
vivid

When I bought this I was expecting a game I once played online. It turns out I was remembering the second edition, Chasing Shadows. This earlier version isn't nearly as good.

It may be that back in the day, before I started playing Chasing, this was one of those free to play flash games where they wanted to sell you an easier game for real money. Whatever the cause, this edition gets tedious with the amount of grinding needed to win battles.

There isn't much more gitting gud that I can do: a gem will only go so far no matter how you place it, no matter how well you time moving it to other towers and traps, and what walls you use. In short, the normal level of this game is where I would expect Hard or Extra Hard to be. I can win earlier battles by winning later ones first to earn perks that make battles easier, but I don't like being forced to use a particular playing style.

All that said IIRC the next game in the series, which I haven't played in this format, is loads of fun.

bobman359
bobman359

Fantastic tower defense gameplay refined through a series of incredible games. the depth of strategy continues to be amazing and extremely satisfying.

Corizon
Corizon

Best of the GemCraft line in my humble opinion , been playing for years, still love it !

siege513
siege513

More gemcraft games, please! You've refined the formula into simple perfection with frostborn wrath, which is my favorite version since labyrinth, when I initially got hooked. I've replayed this over and over because of how much I enjoy it. Please release another chapter.

My only real criticism is the talisman system. In the beginning you unlock what you can and take what you can get and are grateful for it, but in the endgame I've spend stupid amounts of time trying to grind talisman pieces with the right traits, with the right edges, with the right markings. If you tell me I can completely customize a talisman piece for a million shadow cores, I will be happy grinding shadow cores, instead of the insane amount of RNG required.