Defeating the Gem Monster!

Hello readers of the Friendly Necromancer blog. I have embraced my truth this week, and that is the truth found in the-matching-of-the-gems. Ye’ old match 3, but with a fantastically weird new twist . . .

So after receiving a most kind letter of a very fine developer with a very fine match 3 dungeon game, I thought to myself, "Self, you know what, let’s do some more good in the world today. FOR NO ONE IS REVIEWING THE WEIRDEST OF GENRE MASH UPS! Match 3 and VR." 

You heard me, match 3 VR games! Can you believe such a genre exists?  Who-woulda-thunk-it?  Well let me tell you, kind reader, it’s a wide open field out there currently as far as competition goes.  Until Candy Crush decides to take over the metaverse, it’s left up to the little guys to make match 3 games in VR! Over the next few posts, I'm going to see how they’ve done so far. 

Up first is this little beast known as Gem Monster.

Coming in at $3 on the Oculus Rift store and Steam, Gem Monster is a panic-driven matching game that marries a health bar, power ups, mecha-monsters covered in undulating gems in a 3D space, and tearing said monsters apart in pairs of 2. Check it out!

So, to explain it fully. You, the hero, are standing on a giant gem/teleport pad floating in 3D space. This giant gem has a color.  Other giant and different colored gems are scattered around the 3D space. You can teleport between these giant gems freely. This is important for two reasons: 

1. You can escape the gem monster’s attacks by teleporting to another gem
2. If you match two gems on the monster that match the color of the gem you’re standing on, it powers up your selected skill. 

Of course, you can stand on any color of gem, and matching two gems of the same color will still work, it’s just more efficient if, when you match two gems, you’re standing on a gem of the same color.

Sound confusing? Well, try doing all that while a giant gem monster is shooting guided missiles and laser beams at you!  That’s right, this isn’t your grandma’s match 3, this is your crazy uncle’s match 3 . . . in VR!

 Matching is done through point and click with a targeting reticle at the point where you are looking directly at. Not much movement is required in this game aside from slight head movements and a lot of turning around in 360.  If you use a link cable to connect to your PC like I do, spinning around in a chair just doesn’t work well because your cord will continually wrap around your chair until you’re a tangled mess.  I prefer standing up while playing Gem Monster.

The game’s UI is a little glued to your field of view, but for some reason it doesn’t bother me much while playing.   

It's a 3-star win every time! By the way "restart" means, return to the game selection screen.

Gem Monster is an older VR game from all the way back in the days of 2016, but I’ll be darned if these “keg game” developers didn’t deliver a great, action packed match 3 VR mash up! I'd link you to a company page, but it looks like keggame dot com doesn't exist anymore. 

There’s 20+ levels with 3 grades of difficulty each. It’s a little more exhausting than your traditional Match 3, so I had to take the game in spurts of about 4-5 levels at a time before needing a break.

Beat levels to unlock more levels! You got this!

As far as cons of this game, I'm going to give you a few opinions:

1. This was a bit of nightmare fuel -- literally. I spent a couple hours last night matching gems in my head over and over. It was awful.
2. The UI for this game is so ugly. It really lacked polish.
3. This really isn't a traditional Match 3 . . . very creative, but not what I'd expect your average Match 3 player to enjoy
4. Slightly confusing controls for using power ups, but I honestly don't know how I'd suggest it be done differently.
5. It had a 3-star rating system for each level and you earned 3 stars no matter what . . . every time.  I don't get it.
6. You know what would make this game better?  Multiplayer. Now, actually finding another person in the world to play this with you would be next to impossible and mitigating server costs with a $3 price point would be insane. So, let's forget I mentioned multiplayer as a con.

So there you go. I’ll be doing more match 3 VR game reviews over the coming weeks. Why? Who else is going to review this stuff if not for the Friendly Necromancer?!

You got a crazy match 3 VR game? Send it my way! I’d love to give it a shot.

 Happy Dueling