➤ Gord, the strategic review of the authors of The Witcher and Frostpunk 🕹

Gord's Overhaul, a new and original strategy created by some former members of the development teams that followed The Witcher and Frostpunk.

Differentiating yourself in the strategic world is difficult. We see it with each new title that appears on the market, more or less flaunting its uniqueness, but, most of the time, it turns out to be just a decoy that makes it even more forgettable compared to the video games among which it would be found. . I really like to stand out. Gord is the first child of Covenant, a Polish development house founded by Stan Just (previously of CD Projekt Red and 11 Bit Studios), and was at risk of being one of those projects. He tries to attract attention with a certainly particular setting, which he wants to highlight by mixing Slavic mythology and dark fantasy. In it Gord review We tell you our impressions about this interesting first work.

an endless night

Gord, the strategic review of the authors of The Witcher and Frostpunk — Gord: Create a settlement in the dark.

Gord It is set in a savage world, where day has fallen at the foot of night and horrors of all kinds crawl through the dark lands of the north. We are called to lead the Dawn Tribe, a small community that has been commissioned by the ruler of the land of Calanthia to enter these dangerous lands, but rich in gold, essential for the coming war. Through construction of various gords (name of the barbarian settlements from which the game takes its name), we will have to go deeper and deeper into this desolate land abandoned to the beasts to please the king and save our skin.

Broadly speaking, this is the story behind Gord's main campaign, a not very long adventure, lasting around ten hours and essentially functioning as a big tutorial for the "real" game; Its about custom mode, where you can create your own game as you prefer, having control over practically all the variables of the game, from the objectives to complete to the rarity of the resources.

The narrative sector, during the campaign, remains much more than in the background. But, in the purest style of the fantasy genre, what is left out or barely mentioned during the game is made up for with pages and pages of an ancient tome that explains all the subtleties of the world in which we are immersed. A way like any other to tell the universe of your game that, however, underlines a certain laziness when it comes to framing a cohesive and convincing narrative thread during the game, leaving this unfortunate task to a special section of the menu where all the information is collected. history.

question of survival

Gord is a strategic video game, which however encompasses elements of both management and survival. The main objective of the game is to complete the pre-established tasks, but this will require a certain adaptation to the circumstances on the part of the player.

Before entering the heart of the game, you will be asked to select members of your settler community. This handful of individuals will be the only inhabitants of the settlement (at least initially). Once the outer palisade that delimits our gord has been raised and the first buildings for collecting materials have been built, it is possible to assign any settler to one of these and change it freely during the course of the game. For example, if I have assigned someone to the woodcutter's shed but I need labor to extract iron, simply direct the character to the designated building and that's it: now instead of chopping wood he will collect metal. It may seem too convenient, but when you find yourself playing with only half a dozen settlers who increase at a very slow rate during the game, it is necessary to adapt your strategy to the eventualities that the game has in store for us, also because materials are running. very quickly and, therefore, it is essential to reorient the work of the community itself towards more external and dangerous lands.

Here the centrality ofexploration. Staying safe behind the walls of your gord is not a strategy that will get you far. You must take a small handful of villagers and venture out into the wild, searching for new resources, lost treasures, and friendly faces. However, despite your good intentions, you are much more likely to encounter fearsome and ferocious enemies who will attack you without restraint.

Combat is nothing overly complicated, to the point that settlers strike out on their own if they are close to belligerent opponents, although it is possible to take a more active role by casting more or less devastating spells, which can be unlocked as the game progresses. adventure. progresses, which could mean the difference between life and death. But the strength and efficiency of individual combatants are also crucial. Therefore, it is a good idea to prepare for combat by training some settlers as soldiers (pikemen, swordsmen or archers). But be careful with gold, because having them active means constantly resorting to your reserve to pay them so they don't go crazy.

Everyone is crazy about gords.

And here appears another feature much loved by developers: the Cordura. This variable is fundamental, because it will be the one that will make the difference between victory and defeat. You must always be aware of the mental conditions of your settlers because, if they reach the breaking point, a psychic trauma will be created that will afflict that character in an essentially irreversible way, which could even lead them to flee and abandon you. with two less arms. To prevent this from happening, it is advisable to always keep workplaces outside the settlement well lit and avoid tragedies, such as the loss of loved ones. The more secure people feel, the more willing they will be to work and might even decide to start a family, only to find themselves with children who are mostly useless until they reach adulthood, but who can nevertheless prove to be excellent wild cards when the forces are scarce. . Work. But that doesn't mean they can't be useful in other circumstances as well.

We are referring, in this case, to meetings with Horrors, monstrosities inspired by Slavic folklore that populate the unhealthy territories of the game and that will ask you to carry out a nefarious activity to gain their favor. The choice can be to please them or fight them, but be careful, because they are the most fearsome opponents in the game. In addition to these sporadic encounters, Gord also features an entire system of side quests that ask the player to complete a certain task before time runs out (for example, having a certain settler kill a particular type of creature or not collect a resource for a certain period) or look for characters that will give you a whole series of very useful improvements during your game.

The technical sector that is not surprising, but that works

From a purely technical point of view, Gord is not surprising. From the models to the overall quality of the game elements and lighting, the game never stands out. What it loses in graphical quality, however, it regains in performance, since it is quite solid in this aspect, with only some sporadic uncertainties that do not seem to have a real reason for occurring and that, in all likelihood, will disappear. resolved with future patches, perhaps even on release day.

Certainly the desire to create dynamic scenes, which try to tone down the static nature of the isometric point of view a bit, but the direction of the latter, combined with the limping animations and the decision to use the game engine to create these sequences makes everything boring, also breaking the rhythm . of the game. Which clashes with what we are presented with at the beginning, a nice introductory video with illustrations that recall the style of The Witcher films, especially those of Thronebreaker. The soundtrack is on a completely different level, dark, haunting, mysterious, setting the perfect tone for the adventure in these cruel and merciless lands.

Conclusions

Tested version PC with Windows digital delivery Steam, GoG, playstation store, Xbox Store Price 34,99 € Holygamerz.com 7.5 Readers (15) 7.8 your vote

Covenant's mission was to give a new voice to the strategy genre through a hybridization process that was unprecedented, but particular; a strategic one that combines the management of a very small community and the survival of the latter in the fearsome territories of a ruthless world. The result is not the worst, but it certainly will not leave a mark within the genre to which it belongs.