REVIEW – Gord is a survival RTS, which probably only gets this bunch of characters because it was developed by ex-CD Projekt RED developers who previously worked on The Witcher. Set in a dark fantasy world, it could be called Slavic Settlers or Sims, and the term dark means the night, with all its dangers. As in the real world, you can count on no one and nothing.

Gord is a single-player adventure strategy. To survive, you must build, but to prevail, you must conquer the darkness beyond the gates. In this dark fantasy world, you must complete quests while managing a populace whose personal stories and well-being decide the fate of your tribe.

Bogdahn

We control Bogdahn, leader of the Tribe of the Dawn. Our king wants us to get him more territory and wealth, but mercenaries and monsters dominate our environment. Hence, the ruler sends us out with a colleague, Edwyn, to watch our every move. The story is fair, and we learn it through cutscenes that can be described as interesting or through stills. As the tribe’s territory grows, more and more characters enter the story. So you have to keep an eye on their condition, not just health-wise but psychologically (a common gameplay element in many other strategy titles), so that if you go through too much trauma, you will collapse and go mad because, after a while, you can’t take it. The trauma can be caused by a scary boss, for example, or being sent out into the woods alone (which is why you need to team up). Insanity can be cured, but it requires magic or a shrine. Vitality can be improved by huts built for them, and remember that permanent death can also occur, so if someone gives in the key in a more critical role, we can rightly swear – a scout or lumberjack, for example, but these roles can be re-customized.

You don’t have to worry about sleeping, starving, or thirst, just your more minor team (designed deliberately to stay small) who can automatically do what they’re assigned. Of course, we will have to fight over time, and that will be part of our goals and side missions throughout the chapters, which always end with a boss fight. However, at the beginning of the game, fighting may not be the best option, as there are instances where we may even sacrifice a child, who, surprisingly, joins the team shortly before the events in question (sacrificing it to an opponent). These are strong moral questions, and not everyone will have the heart to get rid of a kid without thinking about it, just to make things easier for them later. Still, it also reinforces the replayability: what if we grabbed an axe instead of sacrificing?

Edwyn

Forests aren’t all valuable things. Gord tends to throw several gangs of crazy people at us sometimes, but there are also beasts and monsters, but if you’re going for the easiest difficulty level by default, don’t do it… unless some perversion perverts you to want to build with this game in peace. The game doesn’t seem particularly difficult, and the building and strategy elements primarily work as usual. First, you must gather resources and build separate huts for defense, magic, housing, crafting, healing, and convenience. You can pause battles if you want to rethink what you’re doing, so battles can’t reasonably be called real-time, but console frustration can.

Performance is not stable on PlayStation 5, and the interface is perhaps more complex than expected. More than once, it makes handling a little imprecise and choppy, and it may not be worth playing Covenant.dev’s game on a console. Because it’s an RTS on console, it’s not easy to pair the two (especially with good camera handling because that’s also problematic). Our team members often have terrible pathfinding, meaning they can’t easily find their way to where they should. Another issue is how the performance can be a little stuttery here and there on PlayStation 5. Perhaps it would be better to play on PC or give Gord two different ratings…

Gordonramsay

Apart from the all-covering haze, the game has suitably good weather and lighting effects and fair graphics, which are also good in sound. One should not judge Gord at first glance, as it also highlights the issue of mental health, which not all games address. Team17 did not release it at full price, so it is a worthy purchase for RTS fans. On PC, this game is a seven and a half out of ten, but on console, it’s not perfectly functional because of how it’s built, so it gets a seven out of ten. It’s based on Slavic mythology, so Covenant.dev isn’t building on the basis that’s been repeated to death, and it has good replayability, as you can play through multiple customized scenarios, making it a lot harder to play if you’re in the mood. So it can’t be said that Gord is bad. It can keep its audience engaged without any in-game microtransactions or battle passes.

-V-

Publisher: Team17

Developer: Covenant.dev

Style: strategy, RTS

Release: August 17, 2023.