Gord Hands-on Ku999 Login Impressions

The first building you construct in any scenario in the game is the titular gord, an area fortified by a palisade wherein you build all the necessary structures to keep your subjects happy and your newly established home flourishing. Whereas many city builders utilise a grid-based layout to make orderly building easier, Gord lets you place your constructions as you please! As long as it fits, it shall be built. While fun in its own right, the rather compact nature of the gord necessitates smart planning and some tough choices when all of the fancy buildings you want simply won’t fit… Thankfully, you are able to build expansions and outposts to increase the livable area. I found this system to be entertaining as the use of space is a constant puzzle that kept my mind working and made choosing the correct structures to build very important.

All of the buildings you can construct have a function: by assigning a subject to it, they can take on the relevant job. A Lumberjack from a lumber mill, a Miner from the Clayworks, and so on. Additionally, some structures can be used to train warriors, defend your gord, or help your citizens recover from both physical and mental issues. The job system is intuitive and it was fun balancing between defending the gord, gathering resources, and exploring!

The core of your gord is its citizens, as they perform their tasks and risk their lives on your command. While the number of loyal subjects you command are low, usually below 20, they make up for it in character! Each person under your control has their own skills, preferences, strengths, weaknesses, and even an inventory! The skills and preferences of your loyal workers represent their proficiency in the multitude of jobs you can assign them, ranging from cutting to trading.

Workers improve skills through use, becoming more efficient or dealing more damage (for warriors).

Character preferences affect skill growth—liked tasks give XP boosts, disliked ones give penalties.

Each character has unique traits, making them feel alive and distinct.

Characters also have strengths and weaknesses, adding personality (e.g. brave in dark, afraid of spiders).

Each character has a 3-slot inventory for items that grant buffs or new skills; items are found through quests and exploration.

Rare items are rewarding and enhance gameplay variety.

Your gord needs essential resources like lumber and food, which require venturing beyond the safe, well-lit camp.

The surrounding world is covered in darkness and must be carefully explored to find resources, treasures, and points of interest.

The wilderness hides dangerous creatures, both natural and supernatural.

Cautious exploration is key—rushing in can lead to deadly encounters with beasts like wolves or giant gargoyles.

Not all in the swamp are mean, however, as you may find wandering merchants and vagabonds looking for a deal, or you may even be able to rescue captured people from the clutches of the wild folk! By searching through rubble, chests, and the odd cadaver, you may also find small bundles of resources and even unique items! But beware, for within the land, a true Horror awaits.

The Horrors in Gord are powerful mythical creatures that appear on the map and eventually interact with the player.

They issue requests (e.g. sacrifices, resources), and players must choose to obey or defy them.

Obeying keeps them peaceful or even helpful; disobeying triggers devastating consequences.

Horrors are unpredictable and create tense, strategic gameplay.

Surprisingly, they are not immortal—players can fight and defeat them, adding a high-risk, high-reward element to the game.

Gord has two main game modes at the time of writing: the Campaign and Custom Scenarios. The Campaign contains the main story of the game, following the Tribe of the Dawn on their mission to find a gold deposit deep in forbidden lands. The Campaign is separated into multiple scenarios, each with its own goals, hazards, and Horrors. In addition to telling a story, it also acts as a tutorial, slowly introducing new mechanics and buildings as you progress. I enjoyed the story and the characters it introduces, in addition to the multiple different challenges presented in the different scenarios!

If you feel like the story is not your thing, or you want to fine-tune your experience, the Custom Scenarios have you covered! Using the many options available, you can alter the map size, resource amounts, enemy aggression, and the starting goal, to name a few! With the Custom Scenarios, you can set up a relaxed city-building experience or challenge yourself with the hardest possible encounters! I think this system is a wonderful addition, as it offers great replayability and a way to play the game outside of the story-heavy campaign.

As a final point, I’d like to note The Chronicle, an in-game encyclopaedia of lore. When you begin the game, it’s just about empty. But by completing challenges, defeating foes, meeting creatures, and finding scattered pages, you can slowly fill it out! Each entry is voiced and contains information about the history of the world, its gods, factions, and other interesting tidbits. Additionally, it is accessible from the main menu of the game, acting as a measure of progression in addition to being an easy way to touch up on subjects you’re unsure of. I loved the Chronicle, as it added some incentive to exploring and added more depth into the world without forcing long lore dumps in-game. The art is pretty nifty too!