Gemstone Keeper

EDIT: Since my review, the dev has updated the game, and believes they have fixed a number of issues. I have not confirmed this, but feel it's worth noting. ORIGINAL REVIEW: Gemstone Keeper is a solid foundation in an unfinished game. The shooting mechanics, enemy behaviours, weapon combinations and art are well done and feel good, but between bugs, design failures, boring procedural generation, and just a lack of content overall, I don't think this game is ready for general consumption. Issues I had include: Only being able to see keybinds when you start a new game. Randomly not being able to start from the depth I got to on the last run. Not knowing what stats do. There are 5 bosses, and by the time you've reached the second, you've probably bought all the weapons and seen everything the procedural generation can throw at you, then it's just grinding through a lot of samey levels until you reach the end. The last boss relies on shields to stop you shooting it until you can break through for a hit, except one of the weapons is piercing, so it just ignores the shields and kills the boss in seconds. After a while, you can afford to buy a hundred medkits, buff your health, …

First of all, I really loved how this game pretty much only uses ASCII symbols for its graphical design. Very retro-y, while still visually pleasing for a modern game. It was nice seeing variety in level designs and mechanics, and I think the enemy mobs are cute. The movements are smooth, and the weapon aiming is very responsive. I also really liked the variety of weapons and how you can combine all of them with different types of ammo. So overall it's a pretty good game and I'm happy with my purchase. I almost don't have anything negative to say, but one issue is that it seems to freeze and crash at random. This unfortunately removes all the progress I made while in the caverns, but whenever I return to the surface it seems my things are saved for good. It doesn't happen too often, and it's mostly easy to catch up, so it's just a minor issue. One other thing is that the levels with the swirly mist effect make me kinda dizzy and uncomfortable, but when I get those I just rush to the other level and all is fine again, haha. What I personally hope to see in this game in the future is difficulty settings. I felt it got really easy at some point, and I got through the game (minus col…

I might write another review when I play more, but for now here is what I think after reaching the first boss. (I won't be talking about the sound since my laptop was muted) I had played Gemstone at Insomnia awhile ago and enjoyed it. I brought it yesterday since it was on sale and sat down to play it today. I really did enjoy it and like how simple the controls are and how simple the game is so far. I do expect it to become harder. However, there are two things I need to make aware. The first is the bright purple light when you enter a portal and the bright red light when you beat a boss. Although I do not suffer from epilepsy, I found it too bright, harsh and sudden. The second problem that could have been my own fault is that the first boss can trap you in the corner and chip away at your health. I was able to escape but it still something that I feel should be brought up. But again it might have been my own fault. I'm sure if the first issue is dealt with soon, the game would be much better. So I give this a recommend.

[b]Note: My "review" of this game is more of an impression and this impression is based on less than 10 minutes of gameplay, so this isn't an in depth criticism.[/b] [b]I'm pretty sure the only reason I have this game is because of some indie bundle and the only reason I bothered to play it is because it said "Twin Stick shooter" and had an ASCII art style that reminded me of a classic, retro Rogue-like game from the DOS era of gaming called Kingdom of Kroz.[/b] [b]Unfortunately, Gemstone Keeper is nothing like that game and I find it to be extremely dull.[/b] Extremely basic Twin-stick shooter controls, weak sound design, ugly, repetitive cave dungeons, uninteresting looking upgrades. It seems to be a mostly numbers game of collecting gems and resources from rocks and killing simple enemies with various movement patterns. Outside of the art style, the overall game design and game play/feel is so uninteresting and unexciting for a shooter. Gemstone Keeper isn't exactly bad, or poorly made. It seems to do exactly what it intended to do, it's just isn't very fun among an ocean of games worth your time and money. That said, there are a few positive reviews on the store page, showin…

https://youtu.be/ag-gcaDYV0c Dual stick shooters don't often cross over into the rogue like game genre making 'Gemstone Keeper' a bit of an rarity. The controls are responsive during play, but a bit wonky while in the menus. The ASCII art and faux CRT beveling lends a strong visual aesthetic but it tends to always be a bit out of focus and hard on the eyes.

[h1]This could have been a nice game - if there would be more to do...[/h1] I had Gemstone Keeper now for a bit on my wishlist till i thought ok now i get it myself and play it. It looked like a nice game you could play and enjoy. Weeeeeellllll then... [h1]It begins and end like the same[/h1] http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1338771890 So you begin your "quest" by choosing one of 4 random people first. Since i duno which should be good to go in the first place i tried to reroll the people till i got one with "ok" stats, in that case, everywhere a 3 (which seems to be the good middle). After that, you have basicly 3 things you can do. Going down the cave which is basicly playing the game, going to the shop where you can get new weapons, bullet types, temp. stat booster and items. I come back to the shop later. Last but not least is the gallery where you can view all the gems you collected...which is already a bit....how to say that carefully... You know, we are speaking from a game which has a graphic design with ascii letters. So that already is a "standart" to be said as "graphic". I have no problem with said style, i enjoy it but creating a gallery from…