Gemfire

"Picket fences around the flag, men! That'll win the battle for us!"

(Note: I'm deaf and therefore won't be able to provide information on the sound. Sorry. You can check the other reviews if you want sound info.)

Six Mages, One Dragon, International Strife

Gemfire, one of the most overlooked strategy games on the SNES, if not one of the most overlooked strategy games ever. I remember the first time I played this game - at a friend's house about seven years ago. I was confused actually, thought the game was about making money, but it seemed interesting and I convinced Paul to let me borrow it. I spent about 20 to 30 hours on the game in the next three weeks (an amazing feat for a 9-year-old, I must say) and when I had to give it back, I was sort of disappointed. Such a fun game, but I don't think I understood half of it at the time. >_>

Story: Princess + Crown = Civil War!

The story is fairly subpar, as you would probably expect for a SNES game, but it served. Quick rundown: King Eselred has a crown with seven gems - six holding wizards and one holding a dragon. His daughter releases the gems, and the wizards take off to go support the lord of their own choice. Eselred gets to keep his (very nasty) dragon. The lords, eager to express their newfound power, revolt against Eselred and each other, shooting for the throne, and thus Gemfire begins. Through the game's four campaigns, you will most often take the role of either Prince Erin of Blanche or Prince Ander of Lyle. Four campaigns and a possible four different lords to choose from in each campaign, giving Gemfire sixteen different play experiences.

Gameplay: "The Lyle family has uncovered your plot! The Lyle family seeks an alliance with you."

Gemfire's gameplay is easy to grasp. You're controlling several provinces and you can cultivate land, trade, sabotage other provinces, plunder other provinces, and generally be a kingly traitor to the throne. For most of the game, you'll be controlling one of the major players in the game of thrones. Think basically a medieval, simplified version of Risk for most of the game. 'Kingdom mode' is tough to get a handle on at first (especially when you don't have a manual that tells you what all the icons mean). You control the big-picture aspects of your kingdom when in this mode. I actually think I had more fun manipulating the economy and getting all my provinces to 999 soldiers each and then crushing Eselred's army than I did while in the battle mode of the game. It was also fairly amusing sabotaging (where you can raze and burn crops and forts to damage your victim's Cultivation and Defense ratings respectively) or plundering (You steal gold and food. Duh) neighboring provinces, having them "uncover my plot", then in the next month offering me an alliance.

When you invade another province, if the defending province decides to try to hold you off, you enter a simple battle map where you have four to five units that you pit against the enemy's four to five units. You can win by either killing off all enemy units, starving them out (rarely useful), or capturing their flag. Woefully simple, even though there is a semblance of strategy regarding the direction you attack from and the nearly useless "make fence" ability of your footmen. While playing the game, I found myself holding down fast-forward through the battles because the characters moved so slowly and attacked so slowly... If you're playing this on an actual SNES, you might want to bring along a book to read while your pawns carry out your commands. This part of Gemfire isn't anything fantastic, it's rather boring actually, but it's a fair visualizer for your battles that are carried out in the trenches. More often than not your fifth unit (usually a wizard or a monster that you hired) will be the unit that's winning the battles for you. I was rather disappointed by the severe limitedness of the footmen compared to the wizards, archers, and the cavalry. The footmen can build fences. I mean... wtf. Those fences can supposedly slow down enemy access to your 'flag', but half the time they don't work (and this half is convinently the half when you're trying to stave off an enemy attack). Footmen are horribly, horribly slow, and I've found that they're only really useful for guarding your flag and defending your fort (if your province's Defense rating is high enough to warrant one). Boo at footmen, yay for the 2-range archers and 3-movement cavalry.

Graphics: Definitely not gem-like

The graphics in Gemfire aren't anything to write home about. They're pretty much substandard fare for SNES strategy games, although I must admit that the "mini-cut-scenes" and detailed portraits of the lords are a nice touch. The graphics during a battle look like something pulled straight off from the NES, and they probably were - a version of Gemfire was released on the NES.

Overall: Not a diamond in the rough, but a rough diamond

This game could have been surprisingly good if a few more months were spent on it during development. It has all the makings of a good game, but lacked the glue to hold it together. It's fun for one or two runs, but gets old quickly and once you become acquainted with the game mechanics, it's overly easy to overpower the CPU and take control of half of the island in no time. Playing against a friend isn't as much fun as you would think - you'd be better off playing something like Risk or Civilization. Albeit all those flaws, Gemfire is still a worthwhile time killer.

Total Rating: (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10)

Gemfire is definitely a game you should pick up if you see it at a rummage sale or in a secondhand store. Its demand is virtually unheard of, so you shouldn't have any trouble finding the needed cash to procure the game. It's unlikely you will find it for rent, though, unless you've fallen through a time warp to the early 90's when rental outlets actually rented out SNES games.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/22/04