PC, Mobile, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, free
While Gems of War is not a buried game, it’s certainly one that has received almost no press coverage, and a grand total of two reviews ever in its ten years on sale. I should note that Gems of War is a free-to-play game, with vast numbers of microtransactions, but as I have experienced is designed to be very enjoyably playable without ever spending any money. In fact, I recently interviewed its lead developer who confirmed this was a deliberate intention when designing the game. The following review is written by Toby Walker, aged 10, who has been playing the game for many months, and is extremely expert.
Gems of War is a match-3 RPG that I have been glued to for months and months, not being able to peel my face away from the colourful screen.
The goal of the game is to collect troops to win battles to get more troops to win more battles and so on. The simple idea of an unwinnable game being so addictive is strange to think about. You play as one of three characters following the orders of a master who teaches you how to make progress over time.
It’s like, say I was to get a snack… Oh wait! My battle’s finished, sorry snack, you can wait. At the moment, I’m level 659 with a few good troops and many, many, many bad troops.
The troops are scored in rarity: common, uncommon, rare, ultra rare, epic, legendary and mythic. You can acquire troops by opening chests or doing certain quests. Battles work by matching gems to build up mana to defeat the opponent’s troops.
Each troops has a certain amount of shield/defence, health, attack, and a mana cost for their special spells. To defeat an enemy, you must make it run out of health. But to reach their health you must destroy their defence or deal true damage, which only a few troops can do.
You have four troops in a team, and if they are all defeated you lose the battle. The troops do certain damage, based on their level. The higher the level, the better the troop. Each troop has a mana cost (however many threes of a certain colour gem you have to match to cast the spell) which, when full, can do damage to an enemy, break, create or explode gems, or boost health and add effects to allied troops.
This is my favourite game I have ever played, and it is great for people who like the style of match-three games. I very much recommend Gems of War after playing it an unhealthy amount of time.
- Infinity Plus 2 / 505 Games
- Steam, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, iOS, Android
- Free-to-play
- Official Site
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Really enjoyable review! Genuinely made me laugh with the “many, many, many bad troops”.
Thank you for the review Toby! Great review, you have persuaded me and I am downloading the game as I type this. I suspect it will take a very long time before I get even halfway to level 659 🙂
That’s a nice review Toby, you make it sound really fun! I’ll give it a go too.
I’m always hesitant when it comes to free-to-play games, but you’ve convinced me to give this one a go! Thanks for the heads up and thoughtful review.
A great and informative read! Somehow this game has passed me by despite putting dozens of hours into similar games. Looks perfect for the Steam Deck, thanks Toby!
Cool 🙂
I was hooked on this game about 8 years ago. Good to see it is still going strong!
Now that’s what I call a proper review: it gave me a clear sense of what the game is about (I previously thought it was the same as GemCraft) and why the writer likes it so much. Great job.
Thanks Mr. Walker!
Thanks for the review, Toby! It’s really informative and I can see why you’ve enjoyed it for so long. Match-3 games are great and the ones that require some extra strategy like this and Puzzle Quest are the best.
Thank you, Toby! Great review, and it’s lovely to see you continuing your career in games journalism after your debut in Rock Paper Shotgun.
Steam tells me that I also played this game an unhealthy amount of time, from 2014 (before you were born!) to 2017, and I had a lot of fun with it.
I see that I marked the game as ‘finished’ back then, but I also see that it still gets lots of updates. So I guess that the game is finished no more, for me. I will have to start playing again. Thanks for reminding me of this game!
A very clearly written review that neatly and succinctly explains the premise and key details of the game.
Wonderfully self aware, and communicates how fully the game has grabbed your attention and held it.
I particularly liked the “Sorry snack“ line
A very thorough review of the game 🙂
Well done. I shall check it out and blame your dad if I end up spending hours playing it.
Bad dad.
Quality write up! The gameplay reminds me of Puzzle Quest, which I played an insane amount of back on the Nintendo DS. Will give this a go!
Great work, Toby! I’d love to hear your thoughts on any game you please.
Very well-written, funny and informative, you convinced me to pick it up!