Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Game
Game2015
GemCraft - Chasing Shadows
Developer Game in a Bottle
An epic, challenging tower defense game with an emphasis on strategy and replayability. Summon gems of immense magical potency and harness their unique abilities against a seemingly endless horde of monsters. The archdemon seeks to swallow the world, and you must journey to stand against her. From the Steam store page
183 reactions from 2 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky) · newest Oct 6, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
89
LovedLoved
158 positive · 19 negative
95% range 84–93%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 158 | 19 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
6 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
4,192 of 4,417 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
60 of 183 · most liked firstyou have no idea how long it took me to find this game. I played it like 10 years ago when I was a kid and it has been etched into my memory ever since.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really enjoy this tower defense game, it can be very tough but if you persevere building your stats you can always go back when you are stronger to try again when a level proves too tough. The game consists of building defenses to stop the monsters from reaching your orb. The main defense are gems of different colors/abilities that you can either leave pure or "weave" together to make some great kill gems. Gems are inserted into towers and/or traps. Some boards only have area for traps…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Get Ready to Major in Gemology Started it thinking, “Cool, a simple tower defense with colored gems - drop some shiny stones, zap a few creeps, and call it a night.” Big mistake! Suddenly you’re knee-deep in gem math, experimenting with gem combos on towers, traps, amplifiers, and mana hoarding like some crystal-obsessed tactician. What looks like a basic TD game quickly turns into a deep, strategic masterpiece with absurd replay value. Even after 100+ hours of unlocking skills, conquering…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →After 20 years of playing Tower Defense games I think the Gemcraft series might be the best experience I've had. You can make your build simple or complicated by digging into the many systems the game has and anything in between. The music, the UI, the art style all blend into a relaxing experience. It harkens back to a simpler time which makes it a great escape from the current video game landscape. Do yourself a favour and try it out.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →NGL... This is an absolute hidden gem.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →#25: Gemcraft Chasing Shadows. A port of a classic Flash game. A tower defense I enjoyed more than most, but I still petered out well before the end - there are so many levels and I only have so much patience to retry levels. Still, an easy recommend if you like them. 7/10.
unlabelledView post →There isn't a tower defense game that even comes close to the depth of the gemcraft series.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Played all of the games, and non of them have disappointed! Can't wait for the first 3 ones to be available on Steam!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →GemCraft – Chasing Shadows, developed by Game in a Bottle and published by Armor Games Studios, is a standout title in the tower defense genre that challenges players with an intricate and methodically crafted gameplay system. Unlike many modern tower defense games that lean toward flashy visuals and streamlined mechanics, Chasing Shadows opts for depth, complexity, and long-term strategic planning. This is not a game for the faint of heart or the casually curious—it demands patience,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Gemcraft TD keeps you coming back for more.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This might be the best tower defence I have ever played good complexity of gameplay high difficulty and very good progression.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Actual gem of a game. Haven't played much but this beats Monkey game by a landslide.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →An excellent tower defense for anyone looking for something much deeper and longer-lasting than the usual genre entry. The visuals are very simple, but the gameplay quickly becomes complex, with a huge amount of levels, mechanics and upgrades. 100% steam achievements Time : 106.3H Completion Difficulty : 7/10 Playthroughs : 4 Missables : None Notable requirements : Complete the game on all difficulty, after that complete the game on iron wizard, numerous achievements involve specific actions,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Gemcraft: Chasing Shadows looks deep at first. You see gem combinations, traps, amplifiers, spells, skill trees, equipment—tons of systems that suggest experimentation and strategy. In reality, most of that depth is an illusion. Very quickly the game collapses into one dominant strategy: mana economy. If you scale mana fast enough, enemies stop being a threat entirely. The loop becomes simple: more enemies → more mana → faster scaling → summon more enemies → even more mana →…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →By focusing on mechanics over fancy graphics, this ends up being my absolute favorite tower defense game of all time. The sheer flexibility to fine tune your defenses and pacing outshines any other one I've tried, and the level designs to give you a real testing ground for your mastery are /meaningfully/ varied, testing every strategy you can come up with to make progress feel amazing every time you inch over another hurdle.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This could be one of the most well thought-out TD of all times. The definition of replayability and enjoyability.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Rating: 2.5/5 --- Mediocre. ---------------------------------- This game really wants balancing and a reworking of some mechanics. The scaling / challenges are badly programmed/designed. It was like someone had a formula for levels/scaling and didn't test it out for fun. As far as tower defense (TD) mechanics, all the boilerplate stuff is here. I didn't have any run-ending bugs or crashes. The sound is quite poor: very few songs and the effects leave a lot to be desired. As an idle game/…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Nice Tower Defense game that starts glorious but winds down hard after half the played levels. At first it is an addictive game and if it had only half the levels it has, it would be an easy 9/10, but it overstays its welcome and turns into a slog in the second half of the game. The good: The tower building system is unique and fun with the different upgrade paths, the amplifiers and skill boni. The bad: -The talisman system is just stupid RNG and is frustrating to level. - Too many levels.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The good: > Good graphics, it's both creepy and pretty at the same time > Little asset reuse (very prevalent in TD games) - every map is different > A LOT of maps that allow you to build your own maze \-> Buildings have incrementally increasing mana costs, building a good maze isn't cheap > Game challenges you to get access to new abilities and upgrading them > A mechanic that allows you to build a talisman with different buffs (cost reductions, +%damage against x, additional spell charge and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Really fun and enjoyable. It’s simple, smooth, and entertaining, with great gameplay and good vibes all around. Addictive and satisfying, I keep coming back for more. Overall, a solid game that’s fun, relaxing, and has just the right amount of challenge.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The best tower defense game I have ever played, first for hundreds of hours on kongregate, then saw it on steam as well and decided to buy it here as well. 420 hours that I currently have are not afk, it's how much can be spent playing this TD, and I'm not fully done with it yet. Unfortunately, it can only use a single core of a processor, so once you try to push the game to it's limits, it might run at less than ideal fps when you have 5000 monsters on the screen and turrets/traps hitting…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Played this in the old days on Armor Games, and have played every iteration since. Still love it. Classic TD game. I can spend hours on it without realizing how much time went by. The addition of spells and a skill tree keeps it interesting
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have been following the Gemcraft series since its browser days. It is probably the best tower defense game I have played. The depth, the scale of the content in the base game, and the incredible sophistication of being able to calibrate the difficulty of levels with a very high level of precision to maximize XP gain, all put it ahead of competitors like Bloons TD6, or Kingdom Rush. The graphics are excellent, and the overall atmosphere and setting have a wonderfully crafted feel. Cannot…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I like tower defense games and I've played this one on Armor back when it was new. Is it a casual game? Yes. Do I care? No. I can play this game and listen to an audiobook or talk to someone on the phone at the same time. I like having a few games in my library that fill that particular niche.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really enjoyed this game and had lots of fun playing it. You're free to make it as difficult as you'd like, and as you can see by the hours I put into it - there's lots of content. I'm not even near completed, but at this point two things are making me move away from it: a) once you've unlocked all the gems, the different levels start looking too much alike and b) the levels at this difficulty level really start taking way too long. That said, I don't regret playing this at all, and I'd…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →One of the best TD game series I played.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Absolutely Terrible compared to previous ones. Grossly Unbalanced. Difficulty climbs to impossible levels after the first map. Even though it was 2.00$. I feel it was 2.00$ completely wasted, after all the enjoyment I had with the previous iterations. Don't even buy any of their others, because I would make an even bet that they will be just as broken, even their legacy version will likely have been drastically changed, because some idiot with this company thinks its not challenging…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The best tower defense game that I've played, even in the times it was a Flash game on Armorgames.com
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The ultimate tower defense game. While this game is a decade old while writing this review, it is an absolute tremendous gaming experience. Pros A slightly different take on the Tower Defense genre that I welcome. The learning curve that is enjoyable and fair. New elements added as experience is gained keeps play fresh and interesting. Different tactics and solutions vary by level. Cons The game requires some thought on some levels so that may deter some casual players. Personally I…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →GemCraft is not only a blast from the past, but stands to this day as one of the best Tower Defense games of all time. I'm actually sad that, so many years after this first debuted as a flash game (20 years ago or something), other TD's still fail to be as good as this. The only thing that would make it better would be a visual overhaul, at least so it similar graphical quality to the sequel (Frostborn's Wrath), as some icons in this one are kinda blurry and low-res. Other than that, it's…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It is a decent tower defense with a lot of achievements to unlock.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Classic tower defense that excels in its atmosphere. If you wanted a polished TD that wasn't bloons back in the day, this is what you got. And it was beautiful. Unfortunately, it hasn't aged too well. It overstays its welcome and becomes quite repetitive with its gameplay. Combine this with the insane difficulty scaling later on and you will have a rough time. The game is good for about 15-20 hours before this becomes a big issue (unless you progress slowly) I do actually recommend playing…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →sexy background for profiles
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →(17) GemCraft - Chasing Shadows: A tower defense game in which you combine gems into bigger gems and bigger gems beyond that. Part of an old Flash series, this one is available standalone. Dark and foreboding setting, and creative gameplay. GEMS. 💎💎💎 store.steampowered.com/app/296490/G...
unlabelledView post →Nice tower defense game. Smooth game progression that allows the player to learn the game mechanics before being challenged with tougher hordes of monsters. The story elements and progression do impact gameplay. Some jump scare moments included.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Best tower defense game
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →One of the two best tower defence games ever. The other one is Frostborn Wrath from the same developer
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is awesome. If I were to describe it in one word, it would be "Dread". It starts like any normal Tower Defense game, but slowly, you will feel it, something isn't quite right...
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game originally was a browser game, but it's pretty good as a Steam game now.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Feels like something made for PC back in the 1990s. Clunky feeling, old looking, awkward menus, etc.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →loved playing this as a kid glad to see they brought it to steam
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Excellent game, played it on flash and now on steam again.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Massive amount of content and a build system with real flexibility to it. Easy to lose entire evenings to. Same honest caveat as the rest of the series: the strategies converge. You find what works, and then you keep doing what works, map after map. That's not a dealbreaker for 100+ hours of tower defense, but it's why I'd call this a great game to dip into over months rather than binge.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I used to play gemcraft as a kid and it was one of my favorite games. I looked it up on steam and at first thought "wow 10 bucks??" but holy moly, only 5 hours in, and its so worth it! this is so well made and a blast!!!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Absolute ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ trash game, levels like c7 are impossible no matter your level or strategy, the game has been around for decades yet somehow there's not a single guide, thread or video or anything about this impossible level. Anyone saying they beat this game is lying to you, I've followed every instruction & and tried every possible strategy mentioned and you always die on wave 1, the game is a complete and total ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ waste of time and money, avoid at all costs!!!!!!!!!!!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have only dipped my toes in so far, but if you enjoyed Turret Defense maps in Warcraft 3 or Starcraft/BW you will enjoy this. It's very similar to Gem TD maps in those games but with added skills and challenges. Looks like it has a ton of content as well. Definitely recommend it as someone who's favorite genre of custom maps was TDs
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →super intricate tower defense game! i highly recommend for TD enjoyers! <3
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Gemcraft my beloved This is the best tower defense game I've ever played in my life. Absolutely bonkers how much there is, from creative placements and building to ranges of difficulty, and a pretty sick overarching story to boot. it's SUCH a satisfying game series.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →One of the all time best tower defence games.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I remember flash-era tower defenses being simpler and more fun - this one isn't. It buries you in systems: way too many gem combinations, tower placements, path-blocking tricks, weird spells, and a tangle of stacked effects. Instead of meaningful choices, everything is noisy and confusing. Enemies are bland, the visuals feel dated, and the overall design makes the game more frustrating than strategic. Not a good tower-defense experience.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →old school flash game type goodness
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →## GemCraft: Chasing Shadows (2015) – Review (after 2.9 hours) **Playtime:** 2.9 hours (stopped early) **Genre:** Tower defense / strategy (lots of micromanagement & optimization) ### My experience in a nutshell I genuinely had fun at first: building, combining gems, and barely surviving waves. But then… the difficulty suddenly ramps up, and it becomes clear this is one of those games where you **really have to want to master the “game plan”** (mana economy, gem combos, routing, timing). And…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Challenging and addicting. Played casually for ages and haven't even unlocked the whole map!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game's an old school "Gem". Lovin' it! Recommended especially on sale. Totally worth it! Fck ton of achievements to do as well!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is another good game of Gemcraft series. I had played through previous chapters on a famous flash game host website. This series is a wonderful tower defense game. Good old days.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Edit: I mention in the review that the game is "extremely optimized", so let me tell you, as a game dev myself, I have never seen a game that can have 5000 monsters on screen, each one having regen & armour logic while also possessing hp values nearing Googol amount, 2000 bullets being fired each second, animations, sounds, pathfinding, etc,..-- WHILE BARELY USING AN ASTOUNDING 400MB OF RAM AND RUNNING AT STABLE FRAMERATE FOREVER, WITH MY SPECS?? It is genuinely mind-breaking. Extremely…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →playable. a few bugs sort of the same throughout, with difficulty scaling upward as you progress. skills have a few essential ones that make the rest obsolete except to meet particular maps' objectives possible. really boring after some time. not enough interest or variance to keep engaged. really the only reason i played so long is because i was using like an idler while watching movies. if i hadnt, i doubt i'd have played beyond a few hours. not really worth it unless using as…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun and difficult tower defence about fusing different effects together to form towers. Will get your brain working overtime, and probably enough content for your future grandkids to still be finishing.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I dont understand why I discovered this game in 2024. This is amazing in its genre. Its a little bit on the low burner side for engagement and tactics but its still really enjoyable.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's like finding the TD game you always wanted.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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