The woods are filled with suffering and Slavic horrors in this survival city builder’s new gameplay trailer

The game they call Gord continues to look interesting, weird, and potentially very good.

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To me,Gordwill never not be a very weird name for a videogame. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad videogame, and in fact based on the new gameplay trailer released today, Gord looks like it might be very cool—if not entirely pleasant.

We predicted that unpleasantness when we got our first look at Gord in 2021. “Horrible thingsare going to happen to your villagers,” we warned, adding that being eaten by a giant spider might not even be the worst of them. We got a closer look in September 2022, describing it as “aDiablo town manager,” and if you know anything about the towns in Diablo you’ll know that’s bad news too.

Today’s trailer doesn’t paint that picture any prettier. Gord is a singleplayer strategy game about the Tribe of the Dawn, who find themselves struggling to survive in forbidden lands inspired by Slavic folklore. On the surface, it looks like a fairly straightforward city management sim—build, upgrade, expand, and keep your people happy all the while—but it will also feature a quest system that will force you to venture beyond the relative safety of your city walls.

The main quest will carry your people along their journey through evil-infested lands, while side quests like monster hunting and questing for treasures and secrets, will give them something to do in their downtime. Speaking of your people, It’s not just their physical health and happiness you’ll need to worry about: Mental health is an issue too. The world of Gord is a stressful place, after all, and everyone has limits.

As for why the title lands so oddly, agordis a medieval fortified settlement found in central and eastern Europe in the 6th to 12th centuries, butGordis a given name, noted by Wikipedia as “uniquely and idiosyncratically Canadian.” And it’s true, we got a lot of ‘em:

Maybe it doesn’t seem so strange if you don’t live here. Either way, at least now you know what a gord is.

Gord doesn’t have a solid release date yet, but it’s set to arrive this summer onSteam. In the meantime, enjoy some screens below.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill.Lotsof Henry Cavill.

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