Gord: Review – A Strategic Horror Adventure

Gord is an adventure strategy game set in a dark fantasy world inspired by Slavic Mythology. The game is developed by Content.dev and published by Team 17. Gord offers the elements of role-playing, real-time strategy, and city-building games. All of the elements combined do make a good impact initially but do they really stand strong with the vibe of the game or do they become repetitive and boring? This is our review of a new strategy game, Gord.

You will get to play as a Steward whose King is planning to conquer the region in the North. In your adventure, you will get to hire a tribe named The Tribe of the Dawn. The tribe knows the dark land pretty well and they guide you through the wilderness and all the preparation for your Gord. The group of Northern Natives will lay out the necessities for a settlement and your job is to build the structures to make several settlements along the route of the King’s Army so that they can do the invasion.

As you learn how to make various types of structures in the settlement, new mechanics of the game will be taught to you and you have to keep them in mind while ordering your subjects to explore the wilderness. For instance, you have to keep your subject’s Sanity high otherwise, they will lose their mind and see some horrors that aren’t there. Similarly, you will have to keep their Faith high as well to grant them incantations and magic spells that will help in defending the settlements.

Yes, your settlement will be attacked randomly throughout the chapters of the game. You will build a Palisade and Wildfolk, the people of the forest will break down the palisade and burn the structures. Fighting with the Wildfolk, creatures, or monsters seems OK as there is nothing much you can do while your subjects swing their Axes or cast spells on them. Every combat encounter may leave your subjects in pain which you have to look after to heal them.

The landscape of Gord is unforgiving and it does give the feel of a dark fantasy world. The creatures and monsters are ferocious as they don’t think before attacking you on your way out of your Gord. The detailing and immersive sound of world elements in Gord actually does a decent job. The detailing on structures and animations and the sound of river and wind hustling do make a positive impact.

However, the overall Gameplay of Gord is repetitive. You gather Wood and Reed to create structures then you gather more of them to improve those structures and while you are out on one of the main scenarios, an invasion will hit your Gord and you have to start over.

Verdict – Score 6/10

Gord can be challenging for some players as its strategy map console is unique from other strategy games. Players who like challenges in strategy games would have a great time playing Gord. For players who like city-building games would also have a great time recreating their structures over and over again at their Gord.

The storyline of the game is interesting and the horrors and supernatural elements combine well with the story. Making a hefty choice upon meeting with the horrors can be difficult for some players but for some, it would not be an issue as they would do anything to survive.

Gord is now available on PC, XBOX Series X|S, XBOX One, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4.