Recent reviews by tanino

Dead game, uninstall. Save yourself some time, devs are not putting effort into content for late game players. It's all new player experience, the game has become stale and really nothing special like it used to be. The more the devs have catered to new players the more they scrapped content that was designed for experienced players, ruining the experience for them, once you get passed the "Woah this is new, what's this?" barrier, you will find yourself with nothing to do pretty quickly.

Great Game, lots of fun with friends :D

I've now played Gems of War for 1 full year, just over 1200 hours which might seem like a large or small amount, depending on how much time you spend on games during your typical week. Having now gotten a solid grasp of the new player experience as well as the end game player experience aspects of the game I feel like it's a good call to recommend the game, as I have done at the beginning of this year, about 300 hours in the game.

Pro's and Con's
Pro's

• Very actively updated.
  
• Friendly community, especially towards new players.
  
• Mainly mature community, after playing a while you will notice that a lot of the active players are mature adults with proper understanding and judgement and that most of them are willing to help and answer your questions.
  
• Cloud syncing, the progress done on your PC will be saved and can be utilized on your mobile device (iPhone and Android alike).
  
• Combines both Match-3 and RPG aspects, with some aspects of TCG, though it is important to note that this game is not a TCG.
  
• Almost limitless team combinations are possible, as long as you are willing to experiment and try, not all of them will work or be fun, but finding what you personally enjoy will make the game so much more enjoyable.
  
• Updated very frequently, you can tell that the Devs take pride in their game. A lot of them actively communicate with the community and respond to concerns.

Con's

• Can get very repetitive at times.
  
• The game feels like it should be marked as an Early Access due to the issues arising with what almost feels like hasty updates, while I do appreciate the effort and the time put in updating the game and keeping it up to date, a poorly implemented update such as the recent UI changes is worse than an update that got delayed or is past due but at least meets expectations.
  
• Not very friendly towards new players, while base mechanics are clearly explained, there are a lot of mechanics and features that are ignored.
  
• Poor quests and story. The game does have quests and each of these do have a story associated with them, however none of them really feel rewarding and they all feel very repetitive. I feel like there was a huge missed opertunity to connect with the player on this aspect. Quests should make you want to explore new content or discover new things, however this isn't the case here.
  
• In relation to the quest aspect, while the Devs do post lore about most troops that do come out, most players would miss this because they are posted on their website, there is a clear lack of engagement towards the playerbase inside the game itself. Players make memories by playing game content that make them experience emotions and makes them connect with the characters or mechanics they are required to utilize, this however is not the case here as I have mentioned above.
  
• Stale systems that need reworking but for some reason get left behind other updates which in my opinion could have waited (Things like aesthetical changes), for example Treasure Maps and the Arena. Treasure Maps might seem rewarding as a new player however for experienced players they are a total waste of time. I have over 900 treasure maps collecting dust and no intention of using them any time soon. The Arena was originally meant as a method for players to challenge themselves as well as an alternate method to obtain keys and trophies, however it is completely out of balance and only rewarding veteran players, to the point where I would much rather repeatedly spam PvP for keys and trophies than partake in the Arena.

As you would expect with any game that is in constant development there are a lot of changes, some are good, some are... well let's just say, not so much. This will always be a point that brings concern and creates conflict. While content updates may please some players there will always be some who are unsatisfied with update.

The game looks and feels like a mobile game, which in a sense, it may as well be. You can tell that the devs are trying to polish their product and of course this comes with quite a few sharp edges that will have to be worked on. There is of course micro transactions in this game, however absolutely none of them are required to access all content of the game (Minus some cosmetics, but cosmetics aren't really content). At no point will you be told "Please purchase X item to continue."

Speaking of micro transactions, their prices are fair and they are most definitely not pay to win. Gems of War is not a p2w game and was never intended as one.

There is basically endless potential here, and even though the game may cause new players a headache or feel like you're grinding your face against a brick wall at the start (Which let's be honest, almost all games felt this way at some point), you will find an amazing community and probably a handful of friends who will help you along the way.

If you're looking for a game where you can endlessly spend your time while enjoying aspects of a Match-3 and RPG packed action, you're not going to find a better title on Steam.
Don't let people fool you telling you that the game is badly designed or that the Devs don't care for their players.

There is tons of fun to be had on this game if you are willing to spend the time to explore the complex depth of how the game mechanics work together to form this beautiful, addicting game.