Gord Review (elfypooh)
I like many, many parts of Gord, but the parts that infuriated me stopped me from finishing it. The dark and gloomy atmosphere was immersive, and I enjoyed numerous parts of the RTS. I didn't mind the simplistic RTS design nor the fear mechanics. I experienced a few bugs here and there but that wasn't a downer for me, except trying to pickup items (I don't know why picking up items was so frustrating so I'll assume it's a bug). The worst thing about Gord was not having a clear and refined user interface (UI), especially for the units selected, including making and assigning groups. And, oh my gosh, trying to sort out the items accumulated should not be this difficult. In RTS titles, UI mechanics need to be clear and easy to comprehend, especially if inventory management or traits exist. Hell, just trying to individually select units or see what units are selected becomes overly tedious and frustrating. I want to know which units I need, which I need to categorise for various professions, which need healing/relaxation, what their vices/virtues are, what items they hold, their skill levels, and which I have bloody selected. The UI needs to be clear, efficient and organised. This was the worst UI in an RTS I have ever seen.
Also, in the main campaign, why can I only select 6 people(out of 12) to progress into the next mission? That means any sort of planning went down the toilet, including any items they have on them. If I am managing a group or village then I'd expect to keep that group. This effectively halts any interest or favouritism I have for these units, since half will disappear anyway. Even in old RTS titles like Myth 1-2, one could keep many units throughout just about the entire campaign (if they survived). Gord, on the other hand, makes it unnecessarily frustrating and trivial. This is just awful game design, especially if the UI is abysmal. So it is a double whammy. Every mission I need to arduously examine all new units with terrible UI. Ugh... The devs probably did this to increase the difficulty. Honestly, choosing 6 to stay and 6 to go is just arbitrary and unimmersive. Alternatively, just increase the difficulty by enacting more tough choices (yes, Gord has this game mechanic too - like Frostpunk and Ixion) where your units die and/or are strickened with diseases.
I'll give it another go if they fix these issues, but I cannot recommend Gord for these reasons.