[b]gems of magic: lost family[/b] is supposed to be a match-3 game suitable for kids, yet it has a [b]mandatory move limit[/b], running out fails the level. what were they thinking?
don't expect much from the narrative, but it's there, cutscenes and all. basically, you're a family of fuzzy balls (they remind me of [b]fury of the furries[/b], a classic platformer from 1993), minding your own business, when suddenly your relatives get sucked up by a tornado. a wise bird hands you a bunch of gems, which are supposed to help track them down somehow. what happens is, after every few levels a family member gets rescued.
[b]90 levels[/b] unlocked one by one, 3-gem rating system, gems for completion are used to buy boosters. so [b]not only is there a mandatory move limit, perfecting every level is just as important[/b]. I'm sure many 5-year-olds will be thrilled, as was I... I guess you can think of it as a life lesson: [i]'good enough is not good enough, gotta aim for perfecetion, but don't cry when the big bird tells you how badly you screwed up'[/i].
there are [b]4 boosters to unlock[/b], the usual hammer, lightning, explosion and swapperoo. it costs a few gems to obtain them, 35 for the lot, and I thought it wasn't too bad, let young'uns boost stuff early on. except [b]they can only be used once per level[/b], according to the game, which is not much fun. even less so when you find out [b]it takes 8 (EIGHT!) real-time minutes to charge lightning before it can be used again[/b] (it's 'only' 2 for the hammer, 12(!) for the explosion). that's some free-to-play mobile ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ in a paid-for pc game right there. out of curiosity I let the power-up charge again during a level and [b]you can use it over and over, despite the game telling you otherwise, just wait minutes between them[/b].
[b]boosters can be upgraded[/b], they cost a lot more gems, so you're not out of the woods with just 35. pay 11 just to unlock lightning, for instance, another 12 to be able to use it twice per level (well, this is somewhat moot after my experiment), yet another 12 for faster recharge (what, only 7 minutes?), etc.
[b]matching 4+ gems creates bonuses[/b] (or boni if you will), clearing lines and stuff, powerful compared to some other games. [b]can't match while animations are playing[/b], which isn't necessarily an issue in a turn-based game, though some quicker individuals might score big during cascades and such if the game let them, and there's a lot of that going on here (so a lot of waiting too).
to complete the [i]'why is this even aimed at kids?'[/i] trifecta, the store page mentions a magic enemy trying to block you while playing. and sure enough, [b]tiles randomly get frozen or become otherwise inaccessible[/b], though affected blocks can be freed by matching around them. I'm sure children are fine with such tomfoolery, some might even consider it fun.
[b]lovely presentation[/b], as you'd expect, good music too, but [b]end-of-level animations can't be skipped[/b], gotta watch all the remaining blocks explode and whatnot. and here's [b]some of the laziest overworld/map design I've ever seen[/b]: the map is a single screen, pretty forest and everything, but only 15 levels are shown. click the arrow, same map, another 15 levels at different locations, and so on. not much text in the game, but [b]they should've paid more attention to grammar and spelling in a game aimed at the younger generation[/b].
settings are available while playing a level too, and consist of separate volume sliders, a custom cursor and a windowed mode toggle, creating a non-resizable window, always positioned in the top left corner, so switching back and forth also involves some window-dragging. no toggle for the hints that come up after a few seconds of inactivity either.
it would be overpriced even without shenanigans and with different game modes, but as it is, [b]stay very far away even during a sale[/b]. and while I don't care about or normally mention achievements, I've never seen a game reset them on every startup, not in the game but on steam itself. I thought it was weird that all of them were unlocked by 100% of players but figured they all played the first few levels or something.
and here's a [b]fun fact[/b] as a parting gift: this is the fourth match-3 I've played on steam with 'gem' in the title and they all turned out to be like this. fool me four times...
