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Gord: A Dark Strategy Game with Slavic Mythology

It feels like the initial announcement of Gord had happened nearly half a decade ago. Maybe it’s just my post-pandemic brain blurring the concept of time as we know it, but I’ve been keeping an eye on this game for a while. Why wouldn’t I? I love me a good strategy game, so having the opportunity to play one that also mixed in some darker themes and Slavic mythology, all while being supervised by former Witcher devs was something to be excited about.

Upon starting a new run, you’ll meet a handful of locals. Their first task is straightforward: set up a gord. A gord is a term that roughly translates to “stronghold”. In essence, set up a walled perimeter for you to develop your town. From then on, try to look for more people and give them specific jobs, such as thatchers, cooks, lumberjacks, and so on. Each worker has a very specific role, and each role is vital for the survival of your gord.

Lumberjacks can collect wood, for instance. You’ll need people to pick mushrooms and stock them in a silo as food, for hunger can lead your populace to starvation and insanity. Scouts can build and be set on top of a tower to increase your field of vision. Spas and meaderies can help out heal your citizens’ health and sanity, respectively, and so on.

You read that right, by the way: sanity. This isn’t a horror game, despite its gruesome imagery and dour tone, but the sanity of your citizens can and will be affected by the hardships of simply living in constant fear of being killed by a monster, not knowing when you’ll eat your next meal, or even seeing others die, especially their kin. To make matters worse, if, say, one of your units falls in battle, but manages to be revived by another one (there is a mechanic that allows you to do that), said unit will come back with incurable diseases or other issues, effectively rendering them useless in battle, but maybe useful in some menial task, such as food picking. That being said, if you are running low on resources, having a handicap citizen might be hindrance, forcing you to sacrifice them somehow. Decisions and consequences.

Gord is quite unforgiving with its mechanics and randomly generated miniquests. If the act of being attacked by giant monsters wasn’t punitive enough, there will be occasional quests given to you by your own subjects, which are harsh and can lead to some additional items… or your demise. Then again, I did enjoy earning spells on occasion, which would grant me the buy Dark And Darker Gold ever so rare sensation of not being so underpowered when having to fight against, say, a giant tentacled swamp monster.