Gord is a Disappointment: Gord Review
Intro
Ever since Gord was revealed back in 2021, the dark fantasy strategy game has garnered a lot of interest. With former Witcher 3 developers leading the project, most fans expect a story rich with lore, interesting side characters and a unique art style. Upon its release, Gord has had mixed reviews but the question is whether it matches the level of other RTS games giving it a chance to compete. Is it worth buying? I give the good, and the bad, and answer these questions in my final verdict.
The Good
The Grim Art Style
The overall art style is pretty good. It gives off a dark, grim environment that is very similar to the Witcher series–making the world feel brutal and in every corner, something could be there to kill you. It matches the vibe of a Medieval Europe manor that seems to give you the idea that leaving the safe haven you have will ultimately lead to your demise.
The surrounding plane is in complete darkness, which can be seen as a unique concept giving the player the idea of the complete unknown. It can give the player the uneasy feeling of leaving Gord to explore since you don’t know what is out there. The inclusion of concepts like sanity meters and the overall emotional states of your villagers are dark themes to cover and it makes the art style unique.
The Importance of Planning
Gord emphasizes the importance of decision-making when running the village. Whether you are building lumber yards to collect wood to build structures or a tavern to help keep sanity, every decision has massive implications. You must constantly think in the long term about what could happen if you choose your Gord. If you overwork your villagers, they lose their minds and if you don’t have resources then you won’t survive long. It’s a give-and-take and I’m glad to see the developers put the effort in to give each choice some weight behind it. In RTS games the decision-making process should always feel important and not put on the back burner.
Level Design
The level design was overall a solid feature. Each scenario you face has a map with different obstacles that you need to face with your Gord. The trick is to get resources and navigate the surrounding areas trying to keep everyone alive. Even if they have a similar look, each area you travel to with your villagers is unique and gives the player a new arena to play in. Keeping with that dark fantasy environment, Covenant Games did a good job here.
The Bad
Bland Story
The overall story of Gord feels bland. The basic concept is that you are working on behalf of the king to organize the territory that was recently conquered. You need to continually find a way to develop the territory to organize it for the crown, and along the way, you face many obstacles from bandits to monsters. Your Gords are essentially fortified manors that are used to house your villagers and develop a stronghold.
The story is bad.
Other than seeing some monsters as you expand, the characters are not unique, the challenges are constantly the same and each scenario feels bland. There were moments when you needed to sacrifice villagers to the demons to move past other areas but were unable to since we didn’t have any children to sacrifice.
Why can’t there be more story elements as to why these demons are infested in these areas? Give us a reason why certain characters are motivated to do certain things. It feels like in one way the actions of the gameplay hold much weight, but the story decisions feel half-baked which is just bad.
The Gord Building is Just Uninspired
What seems to be the biggest disappointment is the actual building and management of the Gord. The main focus of the game is to keep the Gord intact and have the villagers keep their sanity. But it feels like the actual process and upkeep and expanding on the Gord is just bland. Other than playing a form of Tetris and formatting all your buildings, you don’t have much customization or a chance to make your fort feel like a station to build on.
One of the issues I had with the game is that you basically leave your area for every scenario, meaning that all the work you did in building your Gord disappears. Imagine staying in the same area for several scenarios so that you build a community then you continue to expand towns to connect them and continue the mission. That would feel more like you are colonizing the region than what we actually get. What makes matters worse is that the villagers are supposed to have traits that make them better at specific roles, but it has little to no impact on success. Just a missed opportunity.
No Polish on Most of the Game
The overall game has several issues that make it feel unpolished. The UI is completely unorganized and all over the place. The character’s stats are hidden behind several clicks and the information for resources is so small that anyone can miss it. Combat aspects of your villagers are horrible making it seem like not a single person has ever held a cutting tool. Everything from combat to selecting a villager is sort of delayed and not crisp.
There were times I was trying to command units to move away from danger and each time I did, they refused to listen. I did not know that villagers had a stubborn mechanic because literally, they would not listen to me daily. There were so many smaller aspects of Gord that felt were untouched or left alone by developers.
Final Verdict
Overall, Gord feels like a disappointment. Sure, the art style and the level design were solid and its features, but there were way too many problems to make it an overall positive experience. The bland story and gameplay felt uninspired and rushed with no real weight behind the execution. It really felt as if there was no actual polish in the final product with issues with standard gameplay components.
Rating
I’d give Gord a 5 out of 10. It never really lands on any of the aspects they had set for themselves and the few mechanics that they attempted to set themselves apart actually hurt them in the long run. I would not buy Gord now, mainly because it feels like there are way too many issues with the game to make it feel complete. There are some redeemable aspects but it needs a lot of work to be purchased at full price. Unfortunately, playing this game did not keep my sanity intact.
***
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