I've seen a few games now attempt the particular style of meta-progression of being an optimization problem in disguise: some sort of high score is used to give you permanent baseline strength increases. I've only seen this done well once (Tactical Nexus) for one simple reason: it only belongs in -puzzle- games. GemCraft is a TD game stuffed to the gills with random factors (damage, bonus effects, weather, enemy movement), yet the intended gameplay loop is to go back and grind for high scores on previous levels so you can eke out just a tiny bit more power because your actual level is based off the sum of all your high scores on each level.

That's not fun. At best it's grinding. At worst it's frustration incarnate.

Now, fortunately, there's an "Iron" mode that does away with the entire meta-progression mechanic and gates your progress entirely on your ability to pop open chests on each level, and once you do them once you have them forever, so you can actually call a level -done- and not need to worry about if you're expected to go grind on it some more. Unfortunately, Iron is the "Hard mode" of the game, and even without that, GemCraft has other problems.

GemCraft's baseline difficulty level is much higher than it needs to be. If you don't have quite the right setup on a level going into it the first time you don't stand a chance. Enemies can have armor, but most levels don't have the armor-reduction gems available, forcing you into creating high-level gems to start the level with so that you're doing more than chip damage. Which plays into ANOTHER terrible design decision: you have skills and skill points, but every unspent skill point gives you an extra 7 mana to start the level with. Not only does this add up fast to a very substantial bonus, but some skills are downright terrible once you do the math because they cost a triangular number of skill points. You have to NOT spend skill points just to have a shot at surviving early waves, so you are effectively punished for trying to engage in one of the game's meta-progression mechanics.

That's not fun either.

In the end it feels like a game designed to make the player suffer. You're either grinding repeatedly for progress in the normal mode, or struggling against an insane difficulty bump in Iron mode. There's a MASSIVE difficulty spike about 22 levels in (right after the first 'boss') which is probably where the game wants you to go back and grind more, but it's just not enjoyable enough to want to do that. I got to that same point in both normal and iron mode and realized that it was throwing huge swarms of enemies at me without giving me the tools to deal with them, and called it quits. There's plenty of better TD games out there to play instead.

I've seen a few games now attempt the particular style of meta-progression of being an optimization problem in disguise: some sort of high score is used to give you permanent baseline strength increases. I've only seen this done well once (Tactical Nexus) for one simple reason: it only belongs in -puzzle- games. GemCraft is a TD game stuffed to the gills with random factors (damage, bonus effects, weather, enemy movement), yet the intended gameplay loop is to go back and grind for high scores on previous levels so you can eke out just a tiny bit more power because your actual level is based off the sum of all your high scores on each level. That's not fun. At best it's grinding. At worst it's frustration incarnate. Now, fortunately, there's an "Iron" mode that does away with the entire meta-progression mechanic and gates your progress entirely on your ability to pop open chests on each level, and once you do them once you have them forever, so you can actually call a level -done- and not need to worry about if you're expected to go grind on it some more. Unfortunately, Iron is the "Hard mode" of the game, and even without that, GemCraft has other problems. GemCraft's baseline difficulty level is much higher than it needs to be. If you don't have quite the right setup on a level going into it the first time you don't stand a chance. Enemies can have armor, but most levels don't have the armor-reduction gems available, forcing you into creating high-level gems to start the level with so that you're doing more than chip damage. Which plays into ANOTHER terrible design decision: you have skills and skill points, but every unspent skill point gives you an extra 7 mana to start the level with. Not only does this add up fast to a very substantial bonus, but some skills are downright terrible once you do the math because they cost a triangular number of skill points. You have to NOT spend skill points just to have a shot at surviving early waves, so you are effectively punished for trying to engage in one of the game's meta-progression mechanics. That's not fun either. In the end it feels like a game designed to make the player suffer. You're either grinding repeatedly for progress in the normal mode, or struggling against an insane difficulty bump in Iron mode. There's a MASSIVE difficulty spike about 22 levels in (right after the first 'boss') which is probably where the game wants you to go back and grind more, but it's just not enjoyable enough to want to do that. I got to that same point in both normal and iron mode and realized that it was throwing huge swarms of enemies at me without giving me the tools to deal with them, and called it quits. There's plenty of better TD games out there to play instead.