While I am enjoying it so far, I do have a couple issues with it. My big issue so far is that there doesn't seem to be a way to unlock gems for a level beyond the ones you start it off with. It's possible that you get that ability eventually, and I just haven't gotten far enough, but still, it's really frustrating.
Once you get a skill tome with the gem-related skill, you can use that gem in any map. The first one you get ... on the third or fourth hex, I believe (I don't remember, I have 8 hexes unlocked now and I didn't really pay much attention to that issue). So there's that, and unless something changed, it ought to be possible to use all gems on all stages once you get far enough (that was what the developer once stated on their blog).
Second, the fact that it appears you have to spend shadow cores in order to play higher difficulty maps, so if you want to do a really tough map, you either have to grind out a ton of cores, or spend money to buy them.
True that, and I wonder how will it be solved in the Steam version that is supposed to be released whenever (somewhen this century).
Though you might or might not have found out about it, but apparitions give relatively many cores upon killingâ"the usual drop from one averaged 20 or so for me (which means that killing one apparition is maxing one trait for a map). And though I do acknowledge that it is not available to everyone as it requires the premium thing (it's pretty much the only flash game series I paid money for, albeit I had not spent any money on additional cores and I do not intend to), but you usually get 2â"3 apparitions during an endurance run, and later maybe even more.
But yeah, if someone doesn't get a bit lucky, the shadow core thing is a bit ... well, yeah. I think there should be a guaranteed shadow core drop for every few waves in a map one got through, even if it would be something low like 1 core for 20 waves, so that it would be less luck-reliant.
My third issue, and probably the one with the least impact on gameplay, is that you can't actually preview the skills you'll eventually unlock until you unlock them. I would really like being able to see what all the skills do, even though I haven't gotten far enough to actually have them unlocked.
Hmm, I guess. I'm used to it and I think that some skills would be a bit of a spoiler (not that it's much of an issue, unless you find it tragic that you'd learn what spells you get before you actually get to them), but I see why some people would find it annoying.
And now the stuff I want to add ...
First of all, I like the spells and how they work in general. It's a nice touch, sort of like the shrines we could build in GC:L, but without the resulting mess on the map.
Second, I like the fact that there are many different shrines, which means more variety and with the difference there being their secondary effect and not their area of attacki like it was in GC:L, it certainly is a bit more interesting. Though the one thing that miffs me a bit is the fact that we can't choose where the shrines we get from those between-wave thingies (sorry, I don't remember the name right now and most likely know what I'm talking about). Really, nothing like gemming the shrine-creating bonus only to have the shrine spawn in some soul-forsaken corner.
Third, the changes to the gems, I'll start with losing the cyan gems from GC:L; not that I used them all that much, but they still managed to be useful, and here the healing-suppressing gems we get instead appear to be less useful (maybe because I still don't have the skill for them) as unless the monsters runs circles on the map they die quickly once they get into chokepoints, and any time the healing suppression could be used (the waves with additional healing regeneration), their effect takes just a few percent of that healing ... uh oh. But then again, maybe I simply don't have enough experience with them.
The bloodbound gems, on the other hand, I like in their new form. Instead of being just a small bonus one could add to their multihit/critical grade bajilion gem, it now multiplies the bonuses in addition to the damage which makes it worth consideration even in the longer run. The same thing applies to the manabound gems, only those rely on the mana you have instead of kills and so are useful for boosting the trap-inserted gems and the lower grade fodder like slowing and armour-tearing gems in towers.
The poison towers now, am I the only one who thinks it a bit sad that their general-purpose usefulness vanishes fairly soon and they are mitigated to the role of hitting swarmers from traps? And even then, that only if we don't instead simply make some chain-hitting/whatever-else gems and give them the bolt bonus in traps which does make them ignore armour. In fact, a few traps with chain-hit/armour-tearing gems in a row can make shish kabob of the enemies' armour even after enraging them a few times, and seeing as the main feature of the green gems is supposed to be the ability to bypass armour with their poison damage ... yeah.
Fourth thing, I like the talisman thing. I still don't have enough fragments to keep the thing filled, and the fragments I have are mostly junk, but I like the idea and how it is executed.
Fifth, I like the battle traits. The price to use them notwithstanding, they are a nice change from they way it was in GC:L where we just chose +15 waves/endurance, and maxed everything and the only choiceâ"once we got far enough, which means a few endurance runs and ridiculous levelsâ"was whether or not we used the option that made the monsters stronger faster.
And the sixth and last for now, though it is not something everyone will see (well, paid stuff ...), I do like the way endurance mode works in this game. I don't have anything against the way it worked in GC:L; in fact, it was sort of fun to get through all the 1337 waves and feel mighty and all, but it was more of a wait as soon as you got that bajillionth grade gem that killed everything in one hit and it was only challenging near the beginningâ"and, with the option that made the monsters stronger faster, after about 100â"120 waves again. Here, it is something you can choose to do after the map is completed (you just continue where you were left), and it is a proper âlast standâ sort of thing where it remains challenging up until the time when you finally get overwhelmed even with all the spells you are throwing around. The bonus from the monsters defeated during an endurance run is also decreased, so don't count on getting ridiculous bonuses that sent you 500 levels up at once.
