Gord

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."

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

Reviews

58%

Audience ScoreBased on 248 reviews

story33 positive mentions

grinding22 negative mentions

The game features a captivating dark fantasy atmosphere with engaging storytelling and excellent voice acting.
The mechanics of managing villagers and their individual stories add depth to the gameplay, making it immersive and unique.
The art style and music are well-crafted, enhancing the overall experience and drawing players into the world.

The game suffers from excessive micromanagement, requiring constant attention to villagers' needs, which can become tedious.
There are numerous bugs and technical issues, including crashes and unresponsive units, which detract from the gameplay experience.
The combat mechanics are clunky and lack depth, making battles feel unengaging and frustrating.

story
104 mentions
32 % positive mentions
64 % neutral mentions
4 % negative mentions
The story in the game is described as imaginative and engaging, featuring sympathetic characters and a dark atmosphere that enhances the narrative experience. However, some players find the storytelling to be inconsistent, with bugs affecting mission progression and a lack of depth in certain plot elements. Overall, while the voice acting and cutscenes are praised, the gameplay mechanics and micromanagement aspects detract from the overall enjoyment of the story.
- “I think the story is very imaginative, the main characters are sympathetic, everyone has their place in the story, 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.”
- “The story is bland.”
- “A very odd release with incredibly bland storytelling and gameplay.”
- “It lacks a lot of quality of life features and the story is not good enough to keep everything together.”
gameplay
77 mentions
19 % positive mentions
69 % neutral mentions
12 % negative mentions
The gameplay has received mixed reviews, with players appreciating its immersive elements and unique mechanics, such as mental health maintenance, but criticizing its slow pacing, tedious micromanagement, and lack of strategic depth. Many find the mechanics convoluted and unrefined, leading to a frustrating experience, particularly with the sanity system and AI combat. While the game offers a beautiful aesthetic and engaging story, the overall gameplay is often described as grindy, repetitive, and lacking in rewarding challenges.
- “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.”
- “The game had a lot of promise and it was thrown out the window by these blight/rot proliferating AoE mechanics that just wipes your whole colony.”
- “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.”
graphics
28 mentions
61 % positive mentions
29 % neutral mentions
11 % negative 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 Nordic and Slavic mythology. However, some players criticize the cartoonish character designs that disrupt immersion and note performance issues on various hardware. Overall, while the visuals are generally considered good and fitting for the game's theme, they are not without their flaws, particularly in terms of clarity and performance.
- “The graphics and details are very good for a game like this.”
- “It's dark, grim, really nice ambiance and visuals, really nice music.”
- “The aesthetics and music are quite fitting for the environment.”
- “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. I'm usually chuckling at the silly character appearances, which makes the game feel like a mobile title.”
grinding
22 mentions
0 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
100 % negative mentions
Reviews highlight that the grinding aspect of the game is overwhelmingly tedious and frustrating, primarily due to excessive micromanagement and a cumbersome inventory system. Players feel that the gameplay lacks depth and reward, making resource gathering and unit management feel like a chore rather than an engaging experience. Overall, the game suffers from a lack of quality of life features, which exacerbates the grind and detracts from the enjoyment of exploration and combat.
- “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.”
- “The whole item system is a tedious cluster of spending 10-minute breaks mid-game to juggle around items etc. The whole micromanagement aspects are okay in this kind of game to a point, but at some point, you need to ask yourself if you are even playing the game anymore or wasting time with badly created processes/management systems.”
music
21 mentions
67 % positive mentions
19 % neutral mentions
14 % negative mentions
The music in the game has received a mix of praise and criticism, with many players appreciating its atmospheric qualities and connection to Slavic folklore, likening it to the music of The Witcher series. While some describe the soundtrack as beautiful and fitting for the game's setting, others find it bland or sub-par compared to the overall aesthetic. Overall, the music contributes significantly to the game's ambiance, enhancing the immersive experience despite some gameplay shortcomings.
- “Love the atmosphere and tense music.”
- “The soundtrack of Gord is fantastic.”
- “The music is bland.”
- “Too bad... art and soundtrack look amazing.”
- “The aesthetics and music are quite fitting for the environment.”
atmosphere
20 mentions
60 % positive mentions
25 % neutral mentions
15 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its immersive and beautifully crafted environment, combining elements of darkness and foreboding with a unique blend of music and visuals that evoke a strong sense of place. Players appreciate the comfortable yet tense ambiance reminiscent of titles like Frostpunk and The Witcher, although some note that gameplay mechanics can detract from the overall experience. Overall, the atmosphere is considered a standout feature, making the game worth exploring, especially during sales.
- “The game has a very good atmosphere; it gives me a very comfortable feeling when I look at the lights of my village, and the buildings are nice to look at.”
- “The dark and gloomy atmosphere was immersive, and I enjoyed numerous parts of the RTS.”
- “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.”
- “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.”
stability
8 mentions
0 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
100 % negative mentions
The game suffers from significant stability issues, with users reporting frequent bugs, glitches, and freezes that hinder gameplay. Many players find the experience frustrating due to unresponsive controls and imperfect game logic, leading to a consensus that the game feels unfinished and cannot be recommended until these problems are addressed.
- “It's buggy, I can't even select my buildings anymore.”
- “In 24 minutes, I had 3 different freezes before giving up.”
- “I cannot recommend this game until the horribly buggy issues are fixed.”
optimization
7 mentions
43 % positive mentions
14 % neutral mentions
43 % negative mentions
The game's optimization has received mixed reviews, with initial performance issues at launch that have since been addressed by developers, leading to a smoother experience for many players. However, some users still report ongoing optimization problems and poor controls, which detract from the overall enjoyment. While some players have had no issues and appreciate the game's setting, others found the performance lacking enough to consider refunds.
- “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.”
- “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.”
replayability
4 mentions
50 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
50 % negative mentions
The game offers significant replayability through custom maps and challenging modes, particularly after completing the campaign. However, some players feel that the overall replay value is limited until a considerable amount of time has passed.
- “There is a lot of replayability with custom maps; the ending campaign is highly recommended.”
- “Challenging game modes significantly enhance the replay value.”
- “Not much replayability, unfortunately, until enough time has passed.”
- “The game is fun for a bit, but I don't see it having much replayability as it is, though.”
humor
4 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is characterized by its nonsensical quests and quirky, cartoonish graphics that create a dissonance between the intended dark tone and the lighthearted visuals. While some players find the characters amusing and entertaining, others feel that the overall silliness undermines the game's immersion, leading to mixed feelings about its 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.”