Gord is a fascinating knot of complex survival systems and Slavic lore

Trois warriors have returned from an expedition with more than twice the number. After taking care of their wounds, they take time to relax and then return home to the comfort of their families until they rise again in the morning. The group is physically and mentally rejuvenated and they gather at the temple, which lies in the heart of the gord. There, two additional archers are added and another scout joins them. They look toward the perpetual darkness that plagues the land around them, and together they venture into the unknown — once more unto the breach.

GordCovenant’s systemically dense, highly intelligent debut project is titled. The group includes many veterans of high-profile local outfits such as CD Projekt Red, 11 bit Studios, Flying Wild Hog and others. The evidence is clear; I was able to see at Gamescom 2022 that there is plenty of elbow room. Gord To not only make an entry in the scene but also to crush competitors and establish itself as something truly special.

These events took place in Gord In a world of eternal darkness, you must make it happen. You are to guide the Tribe of Dawn south and unite the lands that you find for the benefit of an evil monarch. In doing so, you will learn about your companions’ strengths, weaknesses, and personalities as you construct your own gord and build a society within it, which will grow as you improve its amenities, fortify its battlements, and support its inhabitants as they begin to have families of their own.

What’s interesting about all of the above is that every narrative element of Gord is informed and supported by the corresponding system. The world’s constant darkness is an example of this. Gord’s The visibility mechanic works in a similar way to the one described above. Darkwood. Although the map provides some information, it will not provide enough detail to allow you to travel further from camp. This makes exploring farther away both tempting and risky. On one hand, you need resources — on the other, you need people to actually make use of them.

Ultimately, Gord’s Systems combine to create a web of intricate and interconnected mechanisms. It’s far too intricate to discuss in a preview, but to give you an idea of how they function in accordance with one another, it’s worth looking at how the game addresses death and fail states.

Image: Covenant/Team17

As explained above, you need to enlist warriors before exploring the area around your gord — and given that this is an adventure game with heavy survival and horror elements, these lands are naturally home to various kinds of enemies. Slavic legends tell of monsters and beasts that can rip you apart, as well as fellow human beings who have been transformed by the dark. It is highly unlikely that expeditions will go as smoothly as you’d probably like, meaning that you will inevitably lose some people from time to time.

Let’s say that an archer gets bitten by a gigantic spider. This archer will not be able to be replaced like in other games. The first time the archer is downed, you can revive him, although he’ll be suffering from some kind of physical ailment — maybe his movement speed has been reduced, or he’s now prone to heart attacks. If he is defeated again, he will be killed, but it doesn’t end there.

Any companion who sees the archer’s corpse will instantly be affected via their sanity meter, which will deplete after encountering a dead body. This occurs to varying degrees: If they loot a corpse for resources in the field, they’ll take a minor, almost negligible hit. If it’s one of their companions, however, the decrease will be more pronounced. And if they’re related to the person in question — every character can have parents, siblings, and so on — the damage to their sanity meter will be immense. You can bury bodies to prevent this from happening, but it’s time-consuming.

Once a unit’s sanity drops to zero, they’ll develop a mental affliction that stunts their ability to perform in battle. Maybe they’ll forget their orders, or decide to desert the company. Either way, the fascinating aspect of sanity integration is that one person’s actions can then have a domino effect on the entire party, leading to a situation where multiple people die, the company’s sanity starts to collectively plummet, and all of a sudden you’re in grave danger.

Image: Covenant/Team17

You can also go further. Sanity can be replenished back at the Gord by visiting the mead hall, although it can also affect the people who aren’t out gallivanting through the darkness. Imagine a God-fearing Axman who has begun to regret his actions outside of the Gord. He might request that he be assigned to the church, to allow him to confess his mistakes. He may begin to regain his sense of sanity if you are willing to allow it. If you ask him to go looting the bodies of fallen comrades, fear or rage will set in and he may become a danger to the party. There’s a lot of micromanagement in Gord that justifies its status as a strategy game, in that you must always be paying attention to not just what’s on screen at any given time, but also what isn’t.

The same applies to your gord. You can’t just take everyone out to fight; people need to stay at the settlement to maintain the economy, gather resources, and upgrade amenities like your temple, meadery, and bathhouse. There’s a bunch of minutiae to consider here as well, but I imagine you get the gist — and all we’ve done is briefly summarize some of the mechanics that are influenced by the death of a single unit.

There’s combat, which transpires across different ranges and considers various environmental conditions while acknowledging unique synergies between units. There’s an entire spell system that provides you with access to incantations, all of which are preceded by a pre-Slavic language implemented into the game with the help of a Polish professor. There are enemies that can infiltrate your palisade while you’re gone, enemies with unique properties such as neurotoxins that instigate a slowing effect when absorbed, and enemies of a more deific nature that can send COVID-inspired plagues to your settlement if you don’t worship them enough (the only way to combat this plague is to make your townspeople isolate). Think about the complexity and importance of this. Gord’s other systems — of which there are many — all working in tandem, all the time. It’s bizarre.

Image: Covenant/Team17

This is a majority of what you need to help. Gord’s Main story mode features handcrafted levels inspired by Slavic mythology. It also includes a holiday mechanic which incorporates actual-life Slavic celebrations in the game during appropriate times. It was a pleasure working on series such as The Witcher. inspired this in more ways than one — as well as adding monsters from Polish folk tales, the team looked at how The Witcher 3 It has slightly deviated from the hardercore roots of the two Witcher. You can make games that are more appealing to an even wider audience. This is why Gord pivoted from horror-strategy to adventure-strategy, and part of why the game has now added an alternative survival mode called “custom scenarios” that features over 1,000 semi-randomized character profiles, dozens of customization toggles, and more.

It was interesting to me that the main reason why the devs were embracing their cultural heritage was to share it with others. According to Gord game director Stan Just, it’s often neglected in schools — even beyond mythology, it might not be obvious to some people that gords were real architectural structures from Polish and German history. He attributes this to Poland’s status as an orthodox Christian country, explaining that some of its older traditions might be considered paganism, before pointing to how his friend’s book was banned for addressing the fact snails are hermaphrodites.

“Because [according to them] it doesn’t teach us the right ways of having a family and genders,” Just told me during a hands-off demo of Gord. “Our teaching system is not great. We’re making a game showing a middle finger to everybody. It’s our world, and we can create it from scratch.”

So it is. Gord It already appears very impressive. The system is almost complete, and work will be done over the next few years to fine tune all the interdependencies. He explained that these systems can be as simple as a squirrel biting for just 1 hit point. RimWorld — due to economies of scale, you don’t always have to engage with these minor concepts, but if you do, you’ll be rewarded for it.

As Covenant’s debut title, there’s a lot riding on Gord. It’s extremely ambitious and more than a little niche, but after spending an hour watching a demo and discussing the game at length, I’m convinced it has an enormous amount of potential and promise. Maybe Just and his group will be able to bring their mythology, culture, and values into the mainstream.