''Gord'' is a

strategy video game Strategy video game is a major Video game genres, video game genre that focuses on analyzing and strategizing over direct quick reaction in order to secure success. Although many types of video games can contain strategic elements, the strategy ...

developed by Covenant.dev and published by

Team17 Team 17 Digital Limited (Team17) is a British video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher based in Wakefield, England. The venture was created in December 1990 through the merger of British publisher 17-Bit Software and Swedish dev ...

. Players must manage a settlement under constant threat of attack by monsters. It combines elements of

role-playing Role-playing or roleplaying is the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role. While the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' offers a definition of role-playing ...

real-time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a Video game genre, subgenre of strategy video games that does not progress incrementally in turn-based game, turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time." By contrast, in Turn-based strategy, tur ...

, and

city-building game A city-building game, or town-building game, is a Video game genres, genre of simulation video game where players act as the overall planner and leader of a city or town, looking down on it from above, and being responsible for its growth and man ...

Gameplay

A king who has conquered the southern lands in a

dark fantasy Dark fantasy, also called fantasy horror, is a subgenre of fantasy literary, artistic, and cinematic works that incorporates disturbing and frightening themes. The term is ambiguously used to describe stories that combine horror fiction, horror ...

world tasks players with establishing a gord (fortified settlement) in the northern lands. They must manage a settlement near a haunted forest occupied by demonic monsters inspired by

Slavic mythology Slavic paganism, Slavic mythology, or Slavic religion refer to the Religion, religious beliefs, myths, and ritual practices of the Slavs before Christianisation of the Slavs, Christianisation, which occurred at various stages between the 8th and ...

. Gameplay combines elements of

, and

s. Some of the monsters require players to complete tasks, such as

fetch quest A quest, or mission, is a task within video games that a player-controlled character, Party (role-playing games), party, or group of characters may complete in order to gain a reward. Quests are most commonly seen in Role-playing video games ...

s or sacrificing children. While building up the settlement, players have a limited amount of space to work within, necessitating decisions on what to build. Villagers have three

meters The metre (or meter in US spelling; symbol: m) is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). Since 2019, the metre has been defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of of ...

: health, sanity, and faith. Villagers die if they run out of health in combat; sanity loss from the horror of their conditions can cause them to make poor decisions; and spells become unavailable if their faith drops too low. During combat, players control the villagers like in a real-time strategy game. The maps are

procedurally generated In computing, procedural generation is a method of creating data algorithmically as opposed to manually, typically through a combination of human-generated content and algorithms coupled with computer-generated randomness and processing power. I ...

. A limited number of villagers can start over in a new settlement after players complete all the goals for that map.

Development

released ''Gord'' for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on August 17. ''The Alliance'',

downloadable content content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can be added for no extra cost or as a form of video game monetization, enabling the publisher to gain ad ...

for Windows, is scheduled to be released on February 28, 2024. Among other additions, it includes a new campaign.

Reception

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, ''Gord'' received mixed reviews for Windows and PlayStation 5. ''

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

'' called it "as miserable as its downtrodden villagers" and criticized what they felt were "monotonous micromanagement, a poor interface, and by-the-numbers combat". Though they liked the atmosphere, ''

PC Gamer ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games m ...

'' said it is "a thoroughly middling blend of city-building, survival gaming, and RTS". ''

Rock Paper Shotgun ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' is a British video game journalism website. It was launched in July 2007 to focus on PC game, PC games and was acquired by Gamer Network, a network of sites led by ''Eurogamer'', in May 2017. History ''Rock Paper S ...

'' similarly described it as "detailed and moody" but said it is "a disappointing game that fails to capture the appeal of any of its component genres". ''

GamesRadar ''GamesRadar+'' (formerly ''GamesRadar'') is an entertainment website for video game-related news, previews, and reviews. It is owned by Future plc. In late 2014, Future Publishing-owned sites ''Total Film'', '' SFX'', '' Edge'' and ''Computer ...

'' also enjoyed ''Gord''s atmosphere and said it has a strong start. However, they felt it becomes repetitive and can not compete against the many city-building games available today.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.gord.game/ 2023 video games Windows games PlayStation 5 games Xbox Series X and Series S games Single-player video games Indie games City-building games Real-time strategy video games Role-playing video games Survival video games Dark fantasy video games Video games based on Slavic mythology Unreal Engine 4 games Team17 games