When comparing Gemcraft: Chasing Shadows vs Bloons TD 5, the Slant community recommends Gemcraft: Chasing Shadows for most people. In the question“What are the best PC Tower Defense games?” Gemcraft: Chasing Shadows is ranked 6th while Bloons TD 5 is ranked 7th. The most important reason people chose Gemcraft: Chasing Shadows is:
The main mechanic of the game is using gems that provide properties like splash damage, poison, chain lightning, etc to your towers in different combinations. Add to that the fact that there are 7 levels for each gem, you have to manage your mana, there are multiple difficulty levels that change the amount of experience you gain, there are multiple kinds of spells, 25 passive skills and talisman fragments among other variables that you have to balance and you end up with an impressive amount of choice and depth.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Addictive, in-depth gameplay based on combining gems that provide different traits to your towers
The main mechanic of the game is using gems that provide properties like splash damage, poison, chain lightning, etc to your towers in different combinations. Add to that the fact that there are 7 levels for each gem, you have to manage your mana, there are multiple difficulty levels that change the amount of experience you gain, there are multiple kinds of spells, 25 passive skills and talisman fragments among other variables that you have to balance and you end up with an impressive amount of choice and depth.
Pro More than 140 levels
With so many levels to play in the game will last a good while. Each map is varied and with that makes for an experience that does not get tiring either.
Pro Great depth and variety
There's a great variation in towers, their stats and upgrade trees, as well as enemy types (bloons) and levels you have your battles in.
Pro Clean graphics
The gameplay in previous games (TD4 and lower) was a bit laggy at times, luckily TD5 has cleaned up the graphics to make them a bit more simple while also allowing for new designs that differentiate things in the game in order to make it easier to tell what is going on. The cleaned up graphics also allow for smother gameplay due to them using less resources, meaning no more laggy gameplay.
Pro Co-op mode
Unlocked at rank 10, two players can work together to beat a game, with a set map and difficulty, of Bloons. In co-op mode players can transfer money between them opening up new possibilities of gameplay.
Cons
Con Can seem too heavily luck based
Hit damage is luck based meaning that it is up to the game at points as to how much damage is given making for a bit of an imbalance when winning in just a few strikes in one game and then having to do many hits in another.
Con In-app purchases
This app does contain in app purchases, and plenty of them. Though they're not necessary for normal play, they are still present, and needed to unlock special perks (double cash mode). Everything else can be purchased with coins and bucks, which can be earned (or bought) through normal game play. They range from $0.99 - $49.99 per item.
Con Old graphics
Bloons TD's 2D Graphics are old and they don't fit in nowadays standards.
Con Coop mode networking is spotty
Frequent disconnects which can ruin a long game, no LAN mode or direct connect (it uses facebook).