Gord

61%
Game Brain Score Based on 507 reviews
  • story
  • gameplay
  • graphics
Gord Game Cover
As a dark, story-driven settlement sim, Gord offers a moderate amount of replayability and a pretty compelling central narrative.
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"Gord is a single-player platformer game with masterful storytelling, excellent graphics, and perfect music set in a grim fantasy world inspired by Slavic folklore. As leader of the Tribe of the Dawn, you must ensure your populace's survival by developing your gord, completing quests, and defending against enemies. The versatile quests and random encounters offer a compelling atmosphere, but be prepared for lots of grinding."

  • PC
  • Play​station 5
  • Windows
  • Xbox Series X|S
  • Cloud
  • NVIDIA GeForce NOW
  • Play​Station
  • Xbox
Genres & TagsPlay Modes

Reviews

61%
Audience ScoreBased on 507 reviews
story67 positive mentions
grinding44 negative mentions
  • The game features a captivating dark atmosphere and engaging story, drawing players into its Slavic folklore setting.
  • The voice acting and music are well-executed, enhancing the overall immersive experience.
  • Gord offers a unique blend of survival, strategy, and RPG elements, providing a fresh take on the city-building genre.
  • The game suffers from excessive micromanagement, requiring constant player intervention for villagers to perform basic tasks.
  • Many players have reported bugs and technical issues, including crashes and unresponsive units, which detract from the gameplay experience.
  • The user interface is cumbersome and unintuitive, making it difficult to manage resources and villagers effectively.
  • story211 mentions

    The story of "Gord" is described as engaging and imaginative, featuring sympathetic characters and a dark atmosphere that enhances the narrative experience. While some players appreciate the depth and unique lore, others find the storytelling inconsistent, with bugs and gameplay mechanics detracting from the overall immersion. Overall, the game presents a compelling narrative intertwined with base-building elements, though opinions vary on its execution and depth.

    • “I think the story is very imaginative; the main characters are sympathetic, everyone has their place in the story, and we get to know them and their goals and feelings, so they become very sympathetic or unlikable.”
    • “The story is very immersive, the voice acting is great, and the design of the horrors is very unique.”
    • “The story of Gord is a simple one, but how it evolves and sidetracks itself is done really well.”
    • “It lacks a lot of quality of life features and the story is not good enough to keep everything together.”
    • “A very odd release with incredibly bland storytelling and gameplay.”
    • “The world lore is fascinating, however the in-game plot feels like it only skims the surface.”
  • gameplay159 mentions

    The gameplay of the game has received mixed reviews, with players praising its immersive atmosphere and unique mechanics, such as mental health maintenance, but criticizing its clunky interface, tedious micromanagement, and lack of strategic depth. Many find the gameplay grindy and repetitive, with frustrating mechanics like the sanity system detracting from the overall experience. While some players appreciate the potential for engaging scenarios and the aesthetic appeal, the consensus is that the game struggles to deliver a satisfying and rewarding gameplay experience.

    • “The game had a rough start, but the devs seemed to have worked very hard to improve the overall gameplay.”
    • “The story is fun, the gameplay is relaxing (perfect game with some coffee).”
    • “Love the desolate folklore environments and most of the gameplay implemented here.”
    • “Fantastic premise of frostpunk-like colony survival meets Age of Empires, with good music, art, and atmosphere, but clunky, messy gameplay, and kind of shallow and repetitive.”
    • “The game touts RTS and base building as core mechanics yet severely underdelivers in that respect - there is almost no real choice or strategy, you pretty much build everything, and the RTS is a farce with the absolutely abysmal AI and combat mechanics.”
    • “Sets up an interesting world and aesthetic only to annoy the hell out of you at every turn through micromanagement of basic things, bugs, and shallow mechanics/gameplay.”
  • graphics57 mentions

    The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with many praising the artistic style and atmospheric visuals that evoke a dark, gritty vibe reminiscent of titles like Diablo 4 and The Witcher. However, some players criticize the cartoonish character designs that disrupt immersion and report performance issues, such as lag and stuttering, even on medium settings. Overall, while the graphics are generally considered good and fitting for the game's themes, they are not without their flaws, particularly in execution and optimization.

    • “The graphics and details are very good for a game like this.”
    • “It's dark, grim, dark again, really nice ambiance and visuals, really nice music.”
    • “The world presented by Gord is super interesting, and graphically it's nice.”
    • “My laptop has no issue running Cyberpunk 2077, Starfield, Baldur's Gate 3 all on high or better graphics, but this game just stutters and lags like crazy even on medium.”
    • “Clunky UI and hard-to-read graphics make this game very hard for me to like as much as I had hoped.”
    • “It just falls apart just by looking at it... it is very clearly going for a dark and gritty vibe, but the in-game rendered graphics have a very cartoony claymation look that feels very silly and completely breaks any immersion to be had. I'm usually chuckling at the silly character appearances, which makes the game feel like a mobile title.”
  • grinding44 mentions

    The grinding aspect of the game is widely criticized for being excessively tedious and unfulfilling, with players expressing frustration over the cumbersome micromanagement and slow resource gathering. Many feel that the gameplay lacks depth and strategic engagement, reducing the experience to repetitive tasks that detract from enjoyment. Overall, the game's mechanics are seen as poorly designed, leading to a grind that feels more like a chore than a rewarding challenge.

    • “Gameplay is grindy and doesn't feel rewarding.”
    • “That said, I didn't have much fun with the few hours I did invest and found the game borderline tedious with the level of micromanaging required to keep everyone happy, healthy, and productive.”
    • “Gold income to warrior ratio makes building up not fun at all and hard to micro/tedious to defend; the real beauty of this game is in the exploration, unique encounters, cool lore you pick up, legendary items you acquire, and difficult horrors and legendary beasts you fight, not the hardcore micromanagement spam that becomes very redundant and saps the fun right out of a playthrough.”
  • atmosphere43 mentions

    The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its immersive and beautifully crafted environment, blending dark, gritty tones with elements reminiscent of titles like "Frostpunk" and "The Witcher." Players appreciate the combination of compelling music, unique lore, and a foreboding setting that enhances the overall experience, although some note that gameplay mechanics can detract from this strong atmospheric foundation. Overall, while the atmosphere is a standout feature, many recommend purchasing the game on sale due to other gameplay concerns.

    • “The game has such a beautiful atmosphere and setting and potential.”
    • “The game styling has a great foreboding atmosphere and mood, and I would often get immersed in the weather sounds and distant noises of danger in the dark forests and swamps all around.”
    • “Amazing atmosphere - super dark and gritty.”
    • “Fantastic premise of Frostpunk-like colony survival meets Age of Empires, with good music, art, and atmosphere, but clunky, messy gameplay, and kind of shallow and repetitive.”
    • “The atmosphere is a mix between 'They Are Billions', 'Frostpunk', and 'The Witcher' (all excellent reminders!).”
    • “I think it's worth the price just because it has everything I tend to enjoy: a mature story, blood and gore, and a gloomy atmosphere.”
  • music42 mentions

    The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with many praising its ability to create an immersive atmosphere that complements the visuals and themes, particularly highlighting its connection to Slavic folklore. While some reviewers found the soundtrack to be beautiful and evocative, others described it as bland or sub-par, indicating a divide in opinions on its overall impact. Overall, the music is generally regarded as a strong element of the game, enhancing the experience despite some criticisms.

    • “Gord as a survival RTS game features such a beautiful OST composed by Arkadiusz Reikowski, making the journey with your tribe perfect.”
    • “It's clear that the team had a real passion for delivering authentic elements, especially in the music composition and interesting mythology from Slavic traditions.”
    • “I strongly recommend this game; the voice acting is (mostly) superb, music is top-notch, the artwork is amazing, and the setting is fascinating... honestly, everything is praise-worthy.”
    • “The music is bland.”
    • “Too bad.. art and soundtrack look amazing.”
    • “The aesthetics and music are quite fitting for the environment.”
  • stability16 mentions

    The game suffers from significant stability issues, with numerous reports of bugs, glitches, and freezes that hinder gameplay. Players have experienced problems such as unresponsive controls and logic flaws, leading many to feel that the game feels unfinished and cannot be recommended until these issues are resolved. Despite its interesting concept, the persistent bugs detract from the overall experience.

    • “It's buggy, I can't even select my buildings anymore.”
    • “In 24 mins had 3 different freezes before giving up.”
    • “I cannot recommend this game until the horribly buggy issues are fixed.”
  • optimization14 mentions

    The game's optimization has been a mixed bag, with initial performance issues at launch that frustrated some players. However, developers have made significant improvements within two months, leading to a smoother experience for many. Despite these enhancements, some users still report ongoing optimization problems and poor controls that detract from the overall enjoyment.

    • “Had a bit of a rocky start at launch with some features not fully optimized, but in less than two months the developers addressed all of those and the experience is great!”
    • “No issues running it on day 1, nice smooth performance, enjoying the campaign when I'm done with sandbox mode. Good little indie game, thanks devs.”
    • “If the developer does not want to remove it, at least make the mechanic so that when the people lose sanity to zero, they do not leave but just lower their working stats or performance or something.”
    • “The game has some issues with performance that don't seem to make sense.”
    • “Played a few of the campaign missions, really love the setting, and what they are shooting for, but it's not optimized.”
    • “Neat idea, almost everything is 'okay', but between the poor optimization and the very bad controls it really needed something to save it, and it doesn't have that.”
  • replayability10 mentions

    Overall, the game's replayability is mixed; while custom maps and challenging game modes enhance replay value, some players feel that the core experience lacks longevity without significant time gaps. The narrative-driven elements and scenario modes provide moderate replayability, but opinions vary on the overall depth and variety available for repeated playthroughs.

    • “A lot of replayability with custom maps; the ending campaign is recommended.”
    • “Challenging game modes are good for replay value.”
    • “As a dark, story-driven settlement sim, Gord offers a moderate amount of replayability and a pretty compelling central narrative.”
    • “Not much replayability, unfortunately, until enough time has passed.”
    • “The game is fun for a bit, but I don't see it having a lot of replayability as it is, though.”
  • humor8 mentions

    The humor in the game is characterized by its nonsensical quests and quirky, cartoonish graphics, which create a dissonance between the intended dark tone and the lighthearted, silly aesthetic. While some players find the characters amusing and entertaining, others feel that the overall presentation undermines immersion, leading to mixed feelings about the game's comedic elements.

    • “The quests, with their twisty-turny nonsensicality, are like solving riddles in an underwater dream filled with laughing seagulls.”
    • “It just falls apart just by looking at it... it is very clearly going for a dark and gritty vibe, but the in-game rendered graphics have a very cartoony claymation look that feels very silly and completely breaks any immersion to be had. I'm usually chuckling at the silly character appearances, which makes the game feel like a mobile title.”
    • “They are interesting, sometimes funny to watch, and believable that they are part of gameplay.”
  • character development1 mentions

    The character development mechanics are hindered by a fundamentally broken inventory system, which negatively impacts the overall experience.

Positive mentions (%)Positive
Neutral mentions (%)Neutral
Negative mentions (%)Negative

Critic Reviews

65% average critic score

Buy Gord

Play time

5hMedian play time
5hAverage play time
5-5hSpent by most gamers
*Based on 2 analyzed playthroughs

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